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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1.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

2.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

3.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

4.Blut Aus Nord - 777 - The Desanctification

5.Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

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I wanted to create my personal Top List for a long time and to be honest, I always considered it as some kind of cool Prog Metal, Avantgarde Metal mix. As you can see, it has become a bit more complicated. So finally, there are Unexpect and Pain Of Salvation next to Bands like Kamelot and Savatage. Also, some Non-Metal Bands got involved like Jeff Buckley and Oingo Boingo. But could you imagine how PoS would sound without Jeffs influence? Or what would have become of Mr. Bungle if it weren't for Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo?!

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

2.Kalisia - Cybion

3.Savatage - Streets: A Rock Opera

4.Dog Fashion Disco - Adultery

5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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If you're like me and can't sit still with just one or two genres, perhaps you'll find some ideas in this list. I kept the variety with genres, but also by including all worthy bands from unknown newcomers all the way up to big names. Basically, everything I liked this year.

Since there are so many genres here, don't get too worked up about specific rating and placement. They're generally in order, but more importantly they're all amazing.

1.Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy - Návaz

2.Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

3.Autumn - Cold Comfort

4.Shadowside - Inner Monster Out

5.40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room

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1.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

2.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Mercenary - Metamorphosis

5.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

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Last Updated: 20th November 2012

1.Forefather - Last Of The Line

2.Bloodiest - Descent

3.Ava Inferi - Onyx

4.Cormorant - Dwellings

5.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

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My top albums of the year, roughly in order.

1.Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

2.Vektor - Outer Isolation

3.Xerath - II

4.Vildhjarta - Måsstaden

5.Havok - Time Is Up

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Here is my provisional favorite-metal-albums-of-all-time-list! Enjoy!
The first 10 albums are in pretty accurate order. However, after that, it becomes harder and harder to separate the albums clearly. Thus, you can say that I enjoy album x on the list as much as the others in the interval of (x-5) to (x+5). For example album 37 would be as much enjoyed as 32, 33, 34, ..., 42, or something like that.

1.Cult Of Luna - Somewhere Along The Highway

2.Disillusion - Back To Times Of Splendor

3.Grand Alchemist - Intervening Coma-Celebration

4.Opeth - Blackwater Park

5.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

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1.Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning

2.Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

3.Esoteric - Paragon Of Dissonance

4.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

5.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

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Right... Let's get this out of the way from the get-go. Alternative metal is hard to define. I guess that comes from it always wanting to experiment, explore and fuse heavy metal with non-metal music genres. It also makes it an ever changing and growing genre.

Also, before you guys flood me, yes my list contains a lot of Industrial & Nu Metal bands, as well as other genre.. As far as I'm concerned, my picks all fit quite well in the scope of an alternative metal list. Don't you agree? Wait... You disagree? Well, let's agree to disagree and move on.

As for the list itself, I'm going to try and list through time what I (me, myself & moi) consider as essential alternative albums. I will also limit myself to a maximum of 4 releases each year to prevent a messy list, which often makes it a difficult decision, especially in the early 2000's. So yes, it is possible your personal favourite won't be featured. You can tell me all about it in the comments below and we can discuss it, even argue it.

Now, have fun, enjoy my list and let me know what you think or would personally put in your favourite alt-metal list!

-Guib-

EDIT: I will now add my pick for best album of each year using the (best of xxxx) in the chosen album's description.

- - - - -

Guib's Best Alternative Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2022
Polyphia - Remember That You Will Die

Best Of 2023
Mutoid Man - Mutants

Best of 2024 So Far
...tbd

- - - - - - - - - -

Last Updated: March 27th, 2024

1.Living Colour - Vivid

2.Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

3.Faith No More - The Real Thing

4.Godflesh - Streetcleaner

5.L7 - Smell The Magic

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Quite a polarizing year, this one. On one hand, some releases redefined crap itself. On the other hand, we've got quite a few great and awesome albums. All in all, it was a bit disappointing for me, but I won't complain much indeed (unless I compare it with 2007 of course)...

1 to 5: Cream of the crop, by preference order.

1.Lazuli - (4603 Battements)

2.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

3.Devin Townsend - Deconstruction

4.Terra Tenebrosa - The Tunnels

5.Unexpect - Fables Of The Sleepless Empire

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2011 Looks to be a very promising year for Metal fans with some of the biggest names in the business preparing to release their new records, and so I decided to compile a list of my own most anticipated albums that is set to be released in the course of this new year.

1.Opeth - Heritage

2.Circus Maximus - TBA

3.Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

4.Symphony X - Iconoclast

5.Rush - Clockwork Angels

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This list will expand later and the positions here will probably change a bit as well. An interesting feature is an album in top 10 from a band that's not featured on Metal Storm yet.

1.Amorphis - The Beginning Of Times

2.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

3.MyGrain - MyGrain

4.Constantine - Divine Design

5.Chaos Divine - The Human Connection

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List of the albums that surprised me this year (2011). Some of the albums were even more unexpected because it was my first contact with the bands. Others were confirmations.
Oh, how I like good surprises... (ongoing list)

1.Grayceon - All We Destroy

2.Protest The Hero - Scurrilous

3.TesseracT - One

4.Appearance Of Nothing - All Gods Are Gone

5.Long Distance Calling - Long Distance Calling

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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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