**Trigger warning**

Albums and EPs rated 8.6+ from 100+ votes which I've given an 8 or lower to.

I've listened to and rated every album on MS that meets this criteria (at time of most recent update) - some of them multiple times - so I feel I can give my honest opinion.

The purpose of this is to list and order the albums that I simply don't "get" and to try re-listening to them in the hope of understanding why they've received so many 9 and 10 votes.

Ordered by my rating then MS rating then number of votes.

Updated: 03-Jan-24

My other lists:
Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

1.Anathema - Judgement

2.Paradise Lost - Draconian Times

3.Anathema - Alternative 4

4.Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

5.Motörhead - Overkill

      View entire list ››

1.Krallice - Diotima

2.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

3.Dirge - Elysian Magnetic Fields

4.Woods Of Desolation - Torn Beyond Reason

5.Falls Of Rauros - The Light That Dwells In Rotten Wood

      View entire list ››

1.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

2.Leprous - Bilateral

3.Bak - Sculpture

4.Saille - Irreversible Decay

5.Hell - Human Remains

      View entire list ››

I don't believe in illegal downloading of easily available albums, so this list is only albums I have actually purchased and own a hard copy or official download of. The order is VERY fluid, and in all likelihood, wrong. But oh well....

Coming soon: Comments for each album & finalised order for the year...

1.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

2.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

3.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

4.Symphony X - Iconoclast

5.Cormorant - Dwellings

      View entire list ››

Welcome, no matter if you're a long-term MS member or an Avenged Sevenfold listener. Don't know what to vote for? Here's ANOTHER yearly best-of list for you to go through, or, more likely, for the usual tl;dr. But, wait - what makes this one different: 1) unqualified and totally subjective two-line reviews, 2) conscious restriction to the litte-more-than-20 most impressive albums, 3) an aversion against the much too generic thrash & power metal genres and anything without recall value.

1.Amaranthe - Amaranthe

2.Alestorm - Back Through Time

3.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

4.Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

5.The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

1.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

2.Anthrax - Worship Music

3.Morbid Angel - Illud Divinum Insanus

4.Vektor - Outer Isolation

5.Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

It's always changing.

1.Moonsorrow - V: Hävitetty

2.Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet

3.Equilibrium - Sagas

4.Týr - Ragnarok

5.Finsterforst - Rastlos

      View entire list ››

Main criterias:
How much I love it(obviously)
Songwritting
Importance and originality
Consistency and diversity (consistency is more importance, but diversity can make a difference)

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

3.Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness

4.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

5.Slayer - Haunting The Chapel

      View entire list ››

1.Obscura - Omnivium

2.Pagan's Mind - Heavenly Ecstasy

3.Born Of Osiris - The Discovery

4.Magic Pie - The Suffering Joy

5.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

3.Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

4.Vreid - V

5.Havok - Time Is Up

      View entire list ››

1.Opeth - Heritage

2.Mastodon - The Hunter

3.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

4.Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt Two

5.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

      View entire list ››