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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This is the top 50 of my favourite 100 albums of 2000-2009.

1.Warning - Watching From A Distance

2.Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.Process Of Guilt - Erosion

5.Negură Bunget - OM

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My top 100 metal albums of all time (featured on MS).

- one album per band.
- in alphabetical order.

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

2.Ævangelist - De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agruss - Morok

5.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

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Within the past decade, black metal has seen bands from all over the world incorporating new sounds to the genre and changing its delivery like never before. As great as the classic bands are, BM bands today seem to be branching out in every possible direction. From the beautiful chaos of the French bands, to the developing psychedelic black metal style, and even the Avantgarde craziness of the Meads or work from Mories... all the experimentation is helping to create a bold new identity for the genre's sound. Black metal today could very well be the one area of metal where we see the most experimentation taking place, and I hope the albums in this list will illustrate this growing trend.

1.Necromantia - Crossing The Fiery Path

2.Ved Buens Ende - Written In Waters

3.Woods Of Belial - Deimos XIII

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

5.Blut Aus Nord - MoRT

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My choices of albums with strong forms of atmospheric sound in metal. Recommendations are welcome, though I won't add all as this will be towards personal taste.

1.A Forest Of Stars - A Shadowplay For Yesterdays

2.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

3.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

4.Akelei - De Zwaarte Van Het Doorstane

5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

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This is a favorites list, not a guide or anything of that sort. It just highlights the albums that I've enjoyed listening to and spinned extensively since last November (When I got into this monolithic genre.) One entry for each band. The descriptions aren't necessarily descriptions of the music. I just wrote what came to my mind. I will update with new albums frequently.
EDIT: Got to 50 entries, so I guess I'll stop for now. I want more time to revisit these 50, get into the other albums of the bands listed below and delve into other genres of metal. I guess that taking a break from black metal (at least new stuff) will ensure that I won't get bored of it. It is likely that I'll continue this list by the half of July.

1.A Forest Of Stars - Opportunistic Thieves Of Spring

2.Addaura - Burning For The Ancient

3.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

4.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

5.Alda - : Tahoma :

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The "better half" of my top 100 of the Zeroes. In list format, now with album covers!

1.Warning - Watching From A Distance

2.Negură Bunget - OM

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.Neurosis - Given To The Rising

5.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

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Actually I wanted to write a blog as several of my colleagues, but now that we have this nifty new feature there's no reason to bother with formatting all the pics and stuff

So this was it. The decade which saw me turning into a metalhead. Actually I've been listening to metal since 17 years now, but not on a regular basis. This changed (to the better) when I joined this site in the good old days of MSR. Agalloch, Anathema and Tristania got me used to growls, Immortal and Agathodaimon to extreme metal as a whole and soon enough I was hooked to the vast plethora of styles which are to be found in heavy metal. The following list presents my personal top 50 of this decade. The order isn't really set in stone, neither is my musical taste, but at least the top 10 are somewhat fixed. Especially the 2009 releases, of which none made it into my top 25, might not stand the test of time. And please don't message me because you disagree with some of the genres, they are neither there to be discussed nor to educate, but to give an impression what the bands sound like. If you have about the same (broad) taste as I have, but aren't familiar with some of these releases, try to get your hands on them. You won't regret it

1.Negură Bunget - OM

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Redemption - The Origins Of Ruin

4.Dark Tranquillity - Character

5.Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro

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1.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

2.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

3.Master's Hammer - Ritual

4.Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky

5.Immortal - Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism

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- My TOP 75 from 90s (and 80s), 00s and 10s.
- Each TOP 75 ordered from my most favourite down.
- One album for every band in one TOP 75.
- Only full-lengths or EPs/demos with more than half an hour.

Description includes: Genre (traditional/true BM bands are labeled with their countries, e.g. Norwegian Black), year and my personal favourite song of the particular album with link.

Hall of Fame (bands in each time period): Agalloch, Blut Aus Nord, Enslaved, Immortal, Nokturnal Mortum, Summoning

1.

2.Windir - Arntor

3.Paysage d'Hiver - Paysage D'Hiver

4.Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

5.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

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Best Folkish albums I've heard so far...!! Please feel free to post your Suggestions!!

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Ensiferum - Iron

3.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

4.Blackmore's Night - Under A Violet Moon

5.Blackmore's Night - Shadow Of The Moon

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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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The following is a list of favorites that will steal your mind from this mortal realm; albums that will take you on an indelible journey.

1.Abyssal - Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

4.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

5.Arkona - Гой, Роде, Гой!

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Take a look at the Top Album lists of recent years and you'll notice an obvious trend. In 2005 the average rating of the top 25 albums is 8.76. Jump to 2014 and the average among the top 25 has dropped to 8.26. An almost linear decrease is observable for the 10 years in between.

I was curious to see what a Top 100 for 2000-2014 would look like if I factored the votes to account for the 'rating decline'. I hope you find it interesting.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Aquilus - Griseus

5.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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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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