Limited to only those albums featured on Metal Storm.

1.Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

2.Rush - Moving Pictures

3.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

4.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

5.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

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Just Boobies!

1.Abaddon Incarnate - The Last Supper

2.Abrasive - Awakening Of Lust

3.Abrasive - The Birth... Born In Sodom

4.Abrasive - Book Of Sin

5.Abysmal Gates - Divine Deception

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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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I havnt been into metal all that long...so this is a good chuck of the metal albums i own...though ive heard many, many more....these are all albums ive spent a lot of time with (or soon will). I tried to stay away from multiple albums by an artist, but a few exceptions were made hehe.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.3 Inches Of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom

3.Absu - Tara

4.ADX - Division Blindée

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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Just a list of 20 of the best Power Metal albums of the US style, in order of preference. The order and number of albums in the list may change as I find new albums.

1.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

2.Iced Earth - Night Of The Stormrider

3.Jag Panzer - Casting The Stones

4.Helstar - Nosferatu

5.Sanctuary - Refuge Denied

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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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Alphabetical order.
Limited to 2 albums per band

Top 5 of non-metal:
Pink Floyd-The Wall
King Crimson-In The Court Of The Crimson King
Godspeed You! Black Emperor-Yanqui U.X.O
Comus-First Utterance
Explosions In The Sky-The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

5.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

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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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Overhauled as of May 10th, 2012! Top 5 favorite non-metal albums featured at the bottom.

This is a much improved (and more recently accurate) reworking of my previous favorite albums list, with a few albums added and a couple dropped entirely. They are in order of preference, though changes and the possibility of total equals are still in play. I've axed my undescriptive commentary but kept my genre and favorite song catgories.

1.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

2.Anubis Gate - The Detached

3.Artillery - By Inheritance

4.Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory

5.Metal Church - Hanging In The Balance

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So here we are again . After many years of dedication and love to this music that we call progressive metal, here are some of the best albums that ever existed and made the earth a better place . Give to these albums the attention and the respect they deserve and you will be fully awarded. I think i will try and limit this list to 3 cd's maximum per band to make this thing more challenging .

1.Dan Swanö - Moontower

2.Cynic - Traced In Air

3.Cynic - Focus

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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*Now remixed with some of my favorite non-metal tracks! In order by preference, although it's tough with songs... and who knows what I'm forgetting? I'm not claiming these are the downright best, just my personal favorites based on my own enjoyment of them. Song titles in parentheses. Will probably change a lot, except for the top ten, which is harder to break into.

1.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

2.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

3.Artillery - By Inheritance

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Theatre Of Tragedy - Aégis

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Ordered. One album per band. Assessed by quality of the track itself, impact as a conclusion and relevance to the rest of the album.

1.Deep Purple - Deep Purple

2.Windir - 1184

3.Slayer - Reign In Blood

4.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

5.Helloween - Walls Of Jericho

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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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