Self-explanatory beyond the impossible. Not necessarily in order.

1.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

2.Sahg - III

3.Mar De Grises - Streams Inwards

4.Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

5.Shining [NOR] - Blackjazz

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The purpose of this list is not to find and record which albums are the best but to define Dark Metal. We will try to specify which albums are the definitive examples of Dark Metal. "Dark Metal" is what we would call a "post-subgenre". An album that's not quite Black, not quite Death, sometimes a little Doom or Gothic, other times just Melodic or Symphonic or even "Atmospheric", anything that could fall somewhere in between some or all of these categories, that could probably be a "Dark Metal" album, as long as the tone is somewhat dark.

1.Rotting Christ - Sanctus Diavolos

2.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

3.Nightfall - At Night We Prey

4.Septicflesh - Sumerian Daemons

5.Behemoth - I Loved You At Your Darkest

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Smooth as a babe's bottom on a well oiled judas chair.

1.Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

2.Strapping Young Lad - Alien

3.Reverence - The Asthenic Ascension

4.Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse

5.Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill

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

2.T.R.A.M. - Lingua Franca

3.Taake - ...Doedskvad

4.Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster - Exegesis

5.Tad Morose - Modus Vivendi

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1.Deathspell Omega - Paracletus

2.Overkill - Ironbound

3.Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm

4.Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

5.Immolation - Majesty And Decay

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- From my collection & wishlist (last update)

- One album per band

- Bands & Albums I consider have a strong Doom flavour

- Ranked from best to worst imo

- Everything I know of is there

Let's the Doom begins

1.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

2.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

3.Empyrium - Songs Of Moors And Misty Fields

4.My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River

5.Shape Of Despair - Monotony Fields

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As we go into 2011, I decided to look back on the last decade, and try and put together a list of what I believe are the highest quality, and favorite releases of the previous decade.

I believe "best" is something of a misnomer, since people's opinions of quality are biased to their tastes. So a more proper title would be "Best Releases that I Enjoyed from 2001-2010".

1.Deströyer 666 - Cold Steel... For An Iron Age

2.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Cobalt - Gin

5.Behemoth - Demigod

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Only the 9s or 10s / 10 are here. Roughly ordered in time.

1.Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

2.Kingcrow - Phlegethon

3.Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante

4.Igorrr - Nostril

5.Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2005-2009 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5838
2015-2019 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6722

I sure do love this site and it's rating system, it makes finding great music so easy and, even more importantly, when an album is overlooked for a while but starts getting a buzz a few months later, boom, there it appears in the top 20.

All that being said, I still wish there was some way to get a weighted ranking that not only takes the rating of the album into account, but also the number of votes that were cast. For example, an album with a rating of 8.8 and 1000 votes would rank higher than an album with a rating of 8.9 and 20 votes. So, I scraped all the albums on the site with at least 1 vote into a database. Then, taking a leaf out of IMDb's book, I used Bayesian estimation (like the IMDb's Top 250) to calculate a weighted rating for each album based on its Metal Storm rating and the number of votes it had received.

The formula for calculating the Top 100 Albums gives a true Bayesian estimate:
Bayes rating (BR) = ( C × m + R × N ) ÷ ( m + N ) where:
C = average expected rating given...
m = minimum number of votes
R = average rating for the album = (Metal Storm rating)
N = number of votes for the album = (votes)

The way the Bayesian estimator works is that all albums in the database are given and additional m fake votes with an average rating of C, irrespective of how many true votes it already has. Then a new weighted rating is calculated...
If the album has no true votes ( N = 0 ), then BR = ( C × m + R × 0 ) ÷ ( m + 0) = C × m ÷ m = C (the average expected rating).
If the album has a number of true votes equal to the minimum ( N = m ), then BR = ( C × m + R × m ) ÷ ( m + m ) = ( C + R ) × m ÷ 2m = ( C + R ) ÷ 2 (halfway between the two ratings).
If the album has a very large number of true votes ( N >> m ), then BR = ( C × m + R × N ) ÷ ( m + N ) ≈ R × N ÷ N = R (the Metal Storm rating).
This means that the Bayes rating will never equal the Metal Storm rating but will approach it as the true votes grow arbitrarily large.

Now that the maths bit is out of the way, here was my methodology:
Only Studio and EP album types, from the years 2010 to 2014, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2010-2014.
The minimum number of votes (m) was determined by calculating the 75th percentile of the votes, rounded to the nearest 10.
I also decided that if an album's Bayes rating was within 0.005 of #100, it would be included too; hence the +2.

C for 2010-2014 = 7.478
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2010 - 24
2011 - 28
2012 - 16
2013 - 22
2014 - 12

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Behemoth - Evangelion

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Decapitated - Nihility

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1.Judas Priest - British Steel

2.Venom - Welcome To Hell

3.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

4.Slayer - Show No Mercy

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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There's some outstanding releases from this year. Overall not that special though.

1.Watain - Lawless Darkness

2.Dråpsnatt - Hymner Till Undergången

3.Equilibrium - Rekreatur

4.Ghost - Opus Eponymous

5.An Autumn For Crippled Children - Lost

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1.The Vision Bleak - Set Sail To Mystery

2.Sigh - Scenes From Hell

3.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

4.Ihsahn - After

5.Negură Bunget - Vîrstele Pămîntului

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Entirely subjective viewpoint. Nothing more, and nothing less.

1.Burzum - Belus

2.Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time

3.Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

4.Blood Of The Black Owl - A Banishing Ritual

5.Motörhead - The Wörld Is Yours

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List is alphabetical

1.Behemoth - Evangelion

2.Burzum - Filosofem

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Cradle Of Filth - Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder

5.Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon

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