1.Evergrey - Glorious Collision

2.Heavenwood - Abyss Masterpiece

3.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

4.Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

5.Mercenary - Metamorphosis

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1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Heretoir - Heretoir

3.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

4.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

5.Heavenwood - Abyss Masterpiece

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Pending listen: Vektor, Blut Aus Nord, Iron Savior, Aenaon

By the end of the year, this will be my top 50.

1.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

3.Woods Of Desolation - Torn Beyond Reason

4.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

5.Draconian - A Rose For The Apocalypse

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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.Haar - The Wayward Ceremony

2.Hacride - Lazarus

3.Hades - The Dawn Of The Dying Sun

4.Hænesy - Garabontzia

5.Hæthen - Shaped By Aeolian Winds

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Simple ranking of all my favorite albums. Favorite song from the album in the notes. Sure to change/expand as I learn and explore more within metal.
2023: This was starting to get too long so I split it into separate lists for albums at each ranking 10 to 7. This list will no longer be updated.
10: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6891
9: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7213
8: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7512
7: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=8058

1.Madder Mortem - Eight Ways

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Ayreon - 01011001

4.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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1.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

2.Fallujah - The Harvest Wombs

3.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

4.Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

5.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

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These are the bands that have spent the most time coming through my speakers (or will have by the end of the year). In other words: TOP PICKS for 2011, listed in no particular order and updated but not finished...

1.Scar Symmetry - The Unseen Empire

2.Pagan's Mind - Heavenly Ecstasy

3.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

4.Heavenwood - Abyss Masterpiece

5.Havok - Time Is Up

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1.Draconian - A Rose For The Apocalypse

2.Heavenwood - Abyss Masterpiece

3.Novembers Doom - Aphotic

4.To Cast A Shadow - In Memory Of

5.Midnattsol - The Metamorphosis Melody

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So far I stand by my position on this decade, it's awful and so is anyone who lived through it.

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Draconian - A Rose For The Apocalypse (Gothic/Doom)
Anaal Nathrakh - Passion (Black/Grindcore)
Taake - Noregs Vaapen (Black)

1.Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

2.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

3.Ava Inferi - Onyx

4.Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder

5.Belphegor - Blood Magick Necromance

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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.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Heavenwood - Abyss Masterpiece

3.Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

4.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

5.Fallujah - The Harvest Wombs

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1.Turisas - Stand Up And Fight

2.Draconian - A Rose For The Apocalypse

3.Symphony X - Iconoclast

4.Heavenwood - Abyss Masterpiece

5.Hands Of Despair - Hereafter

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Heavy metal + power + thrash + death metal top 50 / 2011

1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

3.Samael - Lux Mundi

4.Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction

5.Fleshgod Apocalypse - Aagony

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Purely subjective list based on personal preferences for the year, unrelated to mass opinion of an album or a band's abilities (e.g. Trivium, Oranssi Pazuzu) - many albums lined up to listen to so will increase in size. Also, not entirely in order, middle order mainly just an approximation.

1.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

2.Protest The Hero - Scurrilous

3.Infestus - E x I s t

4.Amorphis - The Beginning Of Times

5.Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

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Ordered best to worst. This is entirely my opinion.

1.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2.Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

3.Havok - Time Is Up

4.Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command

5.Deafheaven - Roads To Judah

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