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.Warning - Watching From A Distance

2.Aquilus - Griseus

3.King Diamond - Abigail

4.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

5.Candlemass - Nightfall

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No Real Order, just Great Albums!

1.Dio - Holy Diver

2.Metallica - Kill 'Em All

3.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

4.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

5.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

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This is a top 30 of my favorite albums of all time. You'll probably notice that I'm quite a big fan of thrash metal, as it's pretty dominated by that genre. A lot of the albums though, are albums that made me a headbanger for life, Pretty Maids and the Malmsteen record for instance.
Hope you like my taste and all that crap. If not, fuck it.

1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Artillery - By Inheritance

3.Michael Jackson - Bad

4.Judas Priest - Painkiller

5.Metallica - Kill 'Em All

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This is an alphabetical list of metal songs and albums that inspired the names of other artists.

While comparable lists often focus on the band name and explain its origin, this list turns the point of view and presents the influential albums and songs that were the basis for the inspiration of other artists and therefore highlights their general impact.

Please feel free to suggest more (MS listed) metal/hard rock examples.

SUMMARY
BANDS THAT INFLUENCED SEVERAL OTHER ARTIST NAMES WITH THEIR WORK

1st Place (14):
Black Sabbath

2nd Place (7):
Judas Priest

3rd Place (4):
Morbid Angel, Venom

4th Place (3):
Celtic Frost, Metallica

5th Place (2):
Cynic, Darkthrone, Deftones, Dio, Iron Maiden, Kreator, Motörhead



SUMMARY
ALBUMS THAT INFLUENCED THE NAMES OF SEVERAL OTHER ARTISTS

1st Place (3):
Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath),
Ride The Lightning (Metallica), Altars Of Madness (Morbid Angel), Welcome To Hell (Venom)

2nd Place (2):
Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Master Of Reality (Black Sabbath), Mob Rules (Black Sabbath), To Mega Therion (Celtic Frost), Focus (Cynic), Sin After Sin (Judas Priest), Stained Class (Judas Priest), Pleasure To Kill (Kreator)

1.Amebix - No Sanctuary: The Spiderleg Recordings

2.Anathema - Alternative 4

3.Arch Enemy - Black Earth

4.Architects - Ruin

5.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

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What seems the most important albums for me in chronological order.
I wish I could carry the list year after year to see how my tastes changed and new findings.
I can help but notice that old albums immediately strike me, while in recent times most albums are good but nothing is groundbreaking. We have a tide of releases in the last decades, and standing above the other requires an impossible lot of talent.
Or is it my listen habbits that changed ? I felts I listened to the old albums albums for a lifetime while I'm only surface checking the new ones. Too little time, too little time to truly live...
Also the mixing technology, the sound is too flat nowadays and lack impact and personnality

1.Frank Zappa - Freak Out

2.The Who - Tommy

3.Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat

4.Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

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

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Doom Metal is one of those genres that I'd never really taken much notice of until I started working my way through the MS top 200 albums. I'd listened to Black Sabbath when a teacher at my school gave me his copy of Paranoid to borrow around 2007/08, which I highly enjoyed! Since then, Over the last few years, I've discovered so many great doom metal bands such as Slumber, Doom:VS, October Tide and Swallow the Sun.

So here are my favourites of the genre with my rating, its sub-genre and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of doom 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 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also 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)

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

3.Slumber - Fallout

4.Doom:VS - Dead Words Speak

5.October Tide - Rain Without End

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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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Merry Christmas, my fellow metalheads!

Inspired by Qualeen's list, I meticulously kept track of how often I listened to every album this year. I present to you my top 50 most frequently listened-to albums of the year 2022, ordered by number of full listens.

In other words, here are the albums that I've been most obsessively addicted to over the past year!

1.Slayer - Show No Mercy

2.Mercyful Fate - Melissa

3.Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked

4.Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh

5.Autopsy - Severed Survival

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Only studio albums ordered by release year.

1.The Doors - The Doors

2.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

3.Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum

4.Deep Purple - Shades Of Deep Purple

5.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

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Here's my AotY for each year from 1970, with a runner up (or two) following.
Pink Floyd and Yes aren't here, King Crimson is, so I'll include King Crimson

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

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I love instrumentals (songs without vocals)!
One doesn't need words to convey a message and evoke emotions. Instrumentals also show how metal is very closely related to classical music!
These are my favorite instrumental songs. (There are some songs that contain a few spoken words. These I denote with *)
Suggestions are appreciated! Enjoy!

1.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Summoning - Minas Morgul

4.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

5.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

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An ongoing list for personal use as well as for reference for beginners (& veterans alike). This is solely my personal opinion and taste (Death & Prog mostly but do give every genre a try). Basically will include albums I've rated 8 & above. Sorted by year since I'll need a Venn diagram to sort by genre (seriously MS please make it happen if possible). Will feature multiple releases per year (obviously) and per band (since if a band is putting out better albums it deserves more recognition). Keeping the metal faith alive from India

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

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

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

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1.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

4.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

5.Judas Priest - Painkiller

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Note: Tool intentionally ommitted because they don't consider themselves metal. Otherwise you'd see their first 4 albums in top 25.

Last updated: 27 March 2024.

1.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Opeth - Blackwater Park

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

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