A collection of the most original, insane and head spinning albums from the weirdest side of metal. Suggestions are welcome.

1.A Forest Of Stars - Beware The Sword You Cannot See

2.Angizia - Das Schachbrett Des Trommelbuben Zacharias

3.Akphaezya - Anthology II: Links From The Dead Trinity

4.Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale

5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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Here it is. In all it's glory, righteousness, and sexy-time (as in me air flute-ing the flute solo in Cross-Eyed Mary) delightful-ness. Mah kitteh and I's favorite things to jam to. As you may realize, this list is far better than any list you guys could make up, SO feel free to copy my EXACT list and post it on your profile. >:[

1.Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Part I

2.Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Beethoven's Last Night

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Faith No More - Angel Dust

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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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Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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This is my personal top 20 albums of all time. 1 to 10 in no order, and 11 to 20 in no order.

1.Alice In Chains - Dirt

2.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

3.Faith No More - Angel Dust

4.Sepultura - Arise

5.Mastodon - Blood Mountain

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An ever-growing list of albums/EPs that were just fun to listen to. They had something unique, were experimental/strange and/or had interestingly/efficiently lined up vocals and/or instruments that are too hard to forget easily. Naturally, quite a few of them will be avant-garde, but anything else goes that stand out in their subgenre more than others.

1....? - ...!

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

3.6:33 - Deadly Scenes

4.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

5.Age Of Silence - Acceleration

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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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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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Stuff that got me hooked in the course of the years, from my very first blurred memories as a toddler to the present day.
Lots of catchy tunes, some cheese, very few flowers.
Songs that had a big impact on me and influenced my taste in music.
Stuff to let it all hang out, songs for campfire sing-alongs and soundtracks to slit your wrists to.

1.Queen - Jazz

2.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

3.Dio - Holy Diver

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch

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1.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

2.Sentenced - Amok

3.Paradise Lost - Draconian Times

4.Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

5.Sepultura - Chaos A.D.

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This is very simple, I took the ratings for a bunch of alternative metal albums on MS and ranked them accordingly

To qualify:
The album must have been released when the band was labelled as "Alternative Metal" by MS. So for example the three most recent Gojira albums count, but early Gojira does not.

The band must have more than 10 fans on MS

Therefore this is not a reflection of my opinions, rather a reflection of numbers so if you wanna get mad, get mad at the numbers, not me. And remember that this really isn't that serious

1.Mass Hysteria - Contraddiction

2.Tool - Lateralus

3.The Butterfly Effect - IV

4.Tool - Ænima

5.Mass Hysteria - Le Bien-Être Et La Paix

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This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.Faal - The Clouds Are Burning

2.Façade - The Eternal Dance

3.Facínora - Hell Is Here

4.The Faceless - Autotheism

5.Faceless Burial - Speciation

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The man, the legend, the god.

1.Faith No More - The Real Thing

2.Tomahawk - Tomahawk

3.Faith No More - Angel Dust

4.The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony Is A Dead Scene

5.Faith No More - Angel Dust

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1.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

2.Psychotic Waltz - Bleeding

3.Dream Theater - Awake

4.Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction

5.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

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Jiri cruises to 1992. What strange choices will dominate this year? Find out below!

1.Alice In Chains - Dirt

2.Root - The Temple In The Underworld

3.Burzum - Burzum

4.Faith No More - Angel Dust

5.Deicide - Legion

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