If you know other wonderful songs which are missing in this list, feel free to suggest them to me

1.Adagio - Underworld

2.Aerosmith - Aerosmith

3.After Forever - Prison Of Desire

4.After Forever - Decipher

5.After Forever - After Forever

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"If I were to die tomorrow, which 50 albums should I take with me?"

Through the endless ocean of music we always seem to find the albums which differ themselves more than others. These are the albums that are timeless to me, and have remained as a musical stain in my life over the years.

The list isn't 100% correct when it comes to the order of the albums, but these are the albums I know I will be happy with - if I only could bring 50 albums to heaven/hell.

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - A Virgin And A Whore

3.Evergrey - The Inner Circle

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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An entirely subjective list of my all-time favourite metal albums, well lets better say albums/genres featured on MS, since not all here is precisely metal.
Objective quality is not a criteria here, just how much I like the album. Ordered by preference, top down.

1.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

2.Opeth - Morningrise

3.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

4.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

5.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

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This list is the best album of every year that is represented in my current collection. Some years were really hard to choose as there were many deserving albums, others I had one or very few to choose from. The quality of albums drops off pretty severely after 1992 in my opinion. Its a shame the list isn't more diverse, but hey, I likes what I likes. I am however always buying music from many different years so expect this list to change. **Last Update 09/03/11**

1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Symphony X - Paradise Lost

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These albums are my favorite since I started listen to Metal.

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Epica - Consign To Oblivion

3.Within Temptation - The Heart Of Everything

4.After Forever - After Forever

5.Blackfield - Blackfield

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Some stories, themes or concepts are presented not just in one single song but are split in separate tracks that (often) share the same title but are distinguished by a number of the corresponding part of the song series.

However, sometimes these parts are not found together on one album, but are included on different releases of the artist.
They can be found on two (or more) conceptually linked albums (where they function as part of an ensemble together with the other songs), or they can be included on independent releases (where only they alone continue their story).

Therefore, the main purpose of this list is to give an overview that enables the reader to find the missing song pieces - or even to inform that these pieces exist at all.

Please feel free to find and suggest more examples of these "song jigsaw puzzles": one song(concept) in separate parts on different albums.

1.After Forever - Prison Of Desire

2.Agathodaimon - Higher Art Of Rebellion

3.Agathodaimon - Phoenix

4.Alestorm - Sunset On The Golden Age

5.Alestorm - Curse Of The Crystal Coconut

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I know this list has been done to death everywhere, but I might as well throw my own thoughts out on this as well. I'll provide my reasons for my opinion as well, as some of the positions may be controversial.

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

3.Metallica - Kill 'Em All

4.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

5.Metallica - Metallica

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Some of these albums are known just when you see their album cover. They are usually iconic albums (whether positively or negatively) and one can easily identify them even if they were zoomed out tons in any place.

Please contribute to this list by suggesting albums you think have iconic covers. Comments are appreciated.

1.Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

3.Metallica - Kill 'Em All

4.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

5.Metallica - Metallica

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1.All time & genre (including Non-Metal on MS)
2.Only studio albums & EPs
3.I DON'T modify this list. So, this list is THE FINAL edition and based on my selection on 1 April 2017. (Modified on 12 February 2022)
4.The genre is primary one.
Last modified on 1 April 2017

...NOTICE: I'm reselecting albums & EPs for "The Timeless Ver2". This will be a bit more stringently selected than "ver1".

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

3.Krallice - Diotima

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Deathspell Omega - Kénôse

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The choice of the albums was made according to aesthetic criteria, taking into account only the musical merits of the recordings. Neither the popularity among the fans nor the commercial success (or unsuccess) of the albums were taken into account in the selection.

1.Anacrusis - Screams And Whispers

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

3.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

4.Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

5.Death - Symbolic

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1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Metallica - Metallica

3.HammerFall - Legacy Of Kings

4.HammerFall - Crimson Thunder

5.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

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OK, let's get this straight right now: THIS IS NOT A LIST OF MY FAVOURITE ALBUMS. Neither is it a 'Best Of' list in any shape, manner or form. And it is also not a list of albums I consider to be important in Metal history in general (though many of them assuredly would be considered so).

What this list is:
I started thinking about why I listen to Metal, and why I listen to certain bands and not others. And how my tastes have changed enormously in the approx 15 years I've been, as one might say, a Metalhead. I thought it would be interesting to look over my collection and pick out those albums I consider to be landmarks in my listening career and write a little bit about why each is significant to me.

1.Anathema - Judgement

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

4.Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

5.Def Leppard - Hysteria

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Overall year rating:
3,5/5

1.Death - Human

2.Sepultura - Arise

3.Cathedral - Forest Of Equilibrium

4.Coroner - Mental Vortex

5.Bathory - Twilight Of The Gods

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