RANKING CRITERIA :

- Originality
- Songwriting
- Performance

Neither the popularity among the fans nor the commercial success (or unsuccess) of the albums were taken into account in the selection.

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

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Since many of you felt annoyed by my previous list title I changed it and hopefully you will be ok with it.Power up everybody!!!

1.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

4.Riot - ThunderSteel

5.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free

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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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In my opinion, these albums are the best in heavy metal history and that includes best riffs, amazing solos and especially very unique vocals.

1.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

2.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

3.Def Leppard - Pyromania

4.Savatage - Gutter Ballet

5.Skid Row - Slave To The Grind

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My top ranked (in order from best down) favorite hard rock/heavy metal albums. I've also one included my top three favorite tracks from each album.

Enjoy!

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Rush - Hemispheres

4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

5.Judas Priest - Painkiller

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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1.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

2.Sanctuary - Into The Mirror Black

3.Fates Warning - Awaken The Guardian

4.Savatage - Gutter Ballet

5.Psyco Drama - The Illusion

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The concept of this list is not exceptionally well defined, but I'm circling a basic concept of lean, fast-paced metal with high-pitched vocals that tend to be on the harsher side. The album that inspired the compilation was Evil Invaders' Shattering Reflection, so that can serve as a template; not everything here necessarily sounds exactly like that, but it's all somewhere in the blackened speed/power-thrash/particularly aggressive heavy metal continuum. I'm going entirely by what feels right to me and not necessarily what makes sense on paper, so don't hold this to a rigid standard of consistency.

Here are a few individual tracks that I also thought fit the mood nicely:

Accept - "Fast As A Shark"
Accept - "Fight It Back"
3 Inches Of Blood - "Leather Lord"
Judas Priest - "Ram It Down"
Judas Priest - "Hard As Iron"
Satan - "Trial By Fire"
Crisix - "Ultra Thrash"
Fifth Angel - "In The Fallout"

1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Evil Invaders - Shattering Reflection

3.Bütcher - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot

4.Agent Steel - Skeptics Apocalypse

5.Riot - ThunderSteel

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The MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

1.

2.

3.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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This is a list of all the power metal albums I have listened to that are worth remembering. Like my other genre lists, this is not meant to be a definitive guide to power metal or a binding judgment on what power metal is or is not. The list exists purely for my own organizational purposes and may contain bands or albums that are not strictly True Knights of the Eternal Thundersword.

The first cluster includes my favorite albums in the genre (and a significant number of my all-time favorites); beyond that, they are listed by rating from 9/10 down to 6/10 and alphabetically within each bracket.

Last updated November 27, 2021.

1.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

4.Jag Panzer - Thane To The Throne

5.X Japan - Art Of Life

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Bands almost unknown for the most, Cds or Vinyls out of print or never print, Sometimes record production sucks, thats why I love US power metal. An original style Classic and Epic Heavy Metal Mixed With Thrash, Speed and High Doses of Virtuosity, different than Europe PM with more testosterone and heaviness

1.Manilla Road - Crystal Logic

2.Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction

3.Riot - ThunderSteel

4.Savatage - Hall Of The Mountain King

5.Cirith Ungol - Frost And Fire

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My Favorites songs on drums…
A tribute to those great drummers…A Huge investigation about the name of those drummers and their best moments and songs

1.Rush - 2112

2.Van Halen - 1984

3.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

4.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

5.Dio - The Last In Line

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1.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

2.Judas Priest - Painkiller

3.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

4.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

5.Accept - Restless And Wild

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A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

Man this list was a rough one, but in a good way 1988 is one of the best years in metal history and a lot of great release came out that year, cutting it down to just 20 was tough and ranking them was even harder.

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

4.Candlemass - Ancient Dreams

5.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

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**Trigger warning**

Albums and EPs rated 8.6+ from 100+ votes which I've given an 8 or lower to.

I've listened to and rated every album on MS that meets this criteria (at time of most recent update) - some of them multiple times - so I feel I can give my honest opinion.

The purpose of this is to list and order the albums that I simply don't "get" and to try re-listening to them in the hope of understanding why they've received so many 9 and 10 votes.

Ordered by my rating then MS rating then number of votes.

Updated: 03-Jan-24

My other lists:
Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

1.Anathema - Judgement

2.Paradise Lost - Draconian Times

3.Anathema - Alternative 4

4.Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

5.Motörhead - Overkill

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