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.

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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

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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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A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

2015 was a great one, I honestly forgot how good that year was for metal, black metal had a strong showing and Symphonic was not that far behind, Progressive and gothic had great releases and the great return of Iron Maiden.

1.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

2.Ghost - Meliora

3.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

4.Draconian - Sovran

5.Swallow The Sun - Songs From The North I, II & III

      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
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828

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 grows 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 2015 to 2019, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2015-2019.
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 2015-2019 = 7.422
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2015 - 31
2016 - 24
2017 - 18
2018 - 12
2019 - 17

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

2.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Vektor - Terminal Redux

5.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

      View entire list ››

1.TesseracT - Polaris

2.Caligula's Horse - Bloom

3.Arcturus - Arcturian

4.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

5.Leprous - The Congregation

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I haven't listened to a lot of new music this year, but here are some of the highpoints for me. This year, my selections will be posted in no particular order aside from "The Best" and "The Rest". By "The Rest", I'm certainly not insinuating that these selections are bad- in fact, they are very good albums, in my opinion! I have decided not to include awful albums on this list. This list won't be as exhaustive as previous lists I've made. I'm very open for recommendations, so please send me some if you see anything that might appeal to me!

1.

2.Voices From The Fuselage - Odyssey: The Destroyer of Worlds

3.Earthside - A Dream In Static

4.Marriages - Salome

5.Third Ion - 13/8 Bit

      View entire list ››

Been a bit slow checking releases around the halfway point of the year, but should get back into it soon and hopefully flesh out this list.

1.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

2.Horrendous - Anareta

3.Slugdge - Dim & Slimeridden Kingdoms

4.Teramaze - Her Halo

5.Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Exile

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1.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

2.Arcturus - Arcturian

3.Symphony X - Underworld

4.Leprous - The Congregation

5.Soilwork - The Ride Majestic

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Self-explainatory list.

Used mostly for personal reminders of releases I should check.

Your recommandations & suggestions are welcome! :-)

Favorite 2015 album: "Leprous - The Congregation"

1.Riverside - Love, Fear And The Time Machine

2.Kamelot - Haven

3.Cain's Offering - Stormcrow

4.Xandria - Fire & Ashes

5.Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

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1.Zierler - ESC

2.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

3.Periphery - Juggernaut: Alpha & Omega

4.TesseracT - Polaris

5.Angra - Secret Garden

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...And since that day, he was never the same.

"He who speaks without an attentive ear is mute."

1.Across The Sun - Before The Night Takes Us

2.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

3.Agent Fresco - Destrier

4.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

5.Angel Vivaldi - Universal Language

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Good stuff from 2015. Lots of prog.

Rating:

5 - Perfect
4,5 - Excellent
4 - Great
3,5 - Very good
3 - Good
2,5 - OK, but nothing special

1.Zierler - ESC

2.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

3.Symphony X - Underworld

4.Arcane - Known / Learned

5.Leprous - The Congregation

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My favorite albums of 2015

1.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

2.Beardfish - +4626-COMFORTZONE

3.Turnover - Peripheral Vision

4.Riverside - Love, Fear And The Time Machine

5.Caligula's Horse - Bloom

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So here we are again . After many years of dedication and love to this music that we call progressive metal, here are some of the best albums that ever existed and made the earth a better place . Give to these albums the attention and the respect they deserve and you will be fully awarded. I think i will try and limit this list to 3 cd's maximum per band to make this thing more challenging .

1.Dan Swanö - Moontower

2.Cynic - Traced In Air

3.Cynic - Focus

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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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

      View entire list ››