Can't believe I forgot Sabbath - Sabotage on this. These lists are always a pain in the ass. But oh well.

So after a bit of thinking, I expanded my top 10 to top 100 as I have so many albums I love. Here's a rough top 100, definitely missing some great picks but I feel this is a pretty accurate top 100 off the top of my head. (Note: not in any particular order)

Top 100
100 albums:
1) Carcass-symphonies
2) Carcass-Necroticism
3) BT-For Victory
4) BT-IVth crusade
5) Death-Individual thought patterns
6) Death-SBG
7) Darkthrone-Under a Funeral Moon
8) Darkthrone-Panzerfaust
9) Metallica-Kill 'em All
10) Megadeth-KIMB
11) Sepultura-Arise
12) Sepultura-Beneath the Remains
13) Gorguts-Considered Dead
14) Gorguts-Obscura
15) Cryptopsy-None So Vile
16) Power Trip-Nightmare Logic
17) Demolition Hammer-Epidemic of Violence
18) Demolition Hammer-Tortured Existence
19) Obituary-Cause of Death
20) Morbid Angel-Altars
21) Morbid Angel-Covenant
22) Morbid Angel-Domination
23) Deicide-ST
24) Mercyful Fate-Melissa
25) Mercyful Fate-Don't Break the Oath
26) King Diamond-Abigail
27) Iron Maiden-Killers
28) Iron Maiden-Somewhere in Time
29) Iron Maiden-Seventh son
30) Judas Priest-Sad Wings
31) Judas Priest-Stained Class
32) Judas Priest-Screaming for Vengeance
33) Judas Priest-Painkiller
34) Helloween-Keeper pt. 1
35) Behemoth-The Satanist
36) Bathory-ST
37) Bathory-Blood Fire Death
38) Entombed-LHP
39) Entombed-Wolverine Blues
40) Dismember-Like an Everflowing Stream
41) Grave-Into the Grave
42) Autopsy-Severed Survival
43) Autopsy-Mental funeral
44) Motorhead-Ace of Spades
45) Motorhead-1916
46) Emperor-Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
47) Amorphis-Tales from the Thousand Lakes
48) Amorphis-Elegy
49) Black Sabbbath-Master of Reality
50) Black Sabbath-Heaven and Hell
51) Black Sabbath-Dehumanizer
52) Black Sabbath-SBS
53) Immortal-ATHOW
54) In Flames-Jester Race
55) In Flames-whoracle
56) Tribulation-Children of the Night
57) Tribulation-When the Gloom Becomes Sound
58) Candlemass-Tales of Creation
59) Candlemass-Epicus Doomicus
60) Celtic Frost-Morbid Tales
61) Celtic Frost-to Mega Therion
62) Celtic Frost-ITP
63) Acid Bath-When the Kite String Pops
64) Acid Bath-Paegan Terrorism Tactics
65) Pentagram-Day of Reckoning
66) Trouble-Psalm 9
67) Trouble-ST
68) Danzig II
69) Danzig III
70) Danzig 4
71) Slayer-show no mercy
72) Demilich-Nespithe
73) Electric Wizard-Dopethrone
74) Electric Wizard-Witchcult Today
75) Pig Destroyer-Prowler
76) Pig Destroyer-Phantom Limb
77) Wormrot-Voices
78) Napalm Death-apex predator
79) Faith No More-Angel Dust
80) Venom-Welcome to Hell
81) Angel Witch-ST
82) Venom-Black Metal
83) Godflesh-Streetcleaner
84) Hypocrisy-The Final Chapter
85) Hypocrisy-The Fourth Dimension
86) Mayhem-Deathcrush
87) Morbid Saint-Spectrum of Death
88) Sodom-Agent Orange
89) Sodom-Tapping the Vein
90) Necrophobic-Nocturnal Silence
91) Sleep-Holy Mountain
92) Suffocation-Effigy
93) Voivod-Dimension Hatross
94) Vital Remains-Let Us Pray
95) Razor-Shotgun Justice
96) Infester-To the Depths
97) Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime
98) Pestilence-Consuming Impulse
99) Overkill-Feel the Fire
100) Riot-Thundersteel

1. Insomnium - Winter's Gate
Whenever I play my guitar and accidentally come up with cool riff or melody, chances are this album has already featured it. It's hard to explain how just much this album has molded my musical tastes. It's perfect.

2. Iapetus - The Body Cosmic
Pretty much everything I aspire to create as a songwriter. Super long songs mixing brutality with beauty, with short little palette cleansers between the proper songs to kind of reset your expectations. It's great. Just great.

3. Disillusion - Back To Times of Splendor
Just slaps you across the face straight away with it's energy, only to enchant you with it's beauty later down the line. Perfectly balances heavy sections with more acoustic mellow bits. It certainly tingles my senses in the best way.

4. Agalloch - The Mantle
Definitely my favorite Agalloch album. I just never tire of it! Perfect to listen to during long road trips or train rides while staring out the window.

5. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
One of my absolute favorite bands so naturally their longest album would be their best haha. Took me quite some time to fully digest this album since I wasn't quite used to 10+ minute songs when this album first came out (I was still in High School). Partially that's the reason it stuck with me, since every song almost feels like an emotional journey usually only experienced through an entire albums worth of material.

6. Opeth - Blackwater Park
A "safe" pick sure, but this is the album that finally caused me to check out the rest of their discography with glee, despite having being introduced to the band 15 years prior.

7. Hibria - Defying the Rules
My favorite power metal album, no contest. Power metal was definitely my favorite subgenre when first discovering metal. However, these days I mostly listen to the genre for nostalgic reasons. This album is one of the exceptions and feels just as as good as it did when I first discovered it.

8. Edge of Sanity - Crimson II
Probably my newest entry into the list as I only discovered this album about a year ago. While I love Crimson I as well, this one just feels more coherent and thought out. Love the little instrumental callbacks to the original which you might only discover if you're paying attention.

9. Mastodon - Crack The Skye
Wouldn't consider myself a Mastodon fan but this album just does things to me. It just sets the perfect mood with it's almost "jam session" style production. Love the variety in song lengths and vocalists. Just great vibes all around.

10. Aeternam - Al Qassam
Straight up banger from start to finish. Discovered this band during the pandemic and it just never seems to lose it's energy.

A hard list to come up with for sure. But in the end, the primary motivator for my picks came down to which albums I have a tendency to come back to, regardless of what I'm currently into. This is particularly noteworthy since my musical tastes seem to change all the time, so having an album that feels just as fresh after the 34895734th time as it did when I first discovered it is pretty rare for me.

1. Acid Bath's When the Kite String Pops (1994)
2. Deathspell Omega's Paracletus (2010)
3. Watain's Lawless Darkness (2010)
4. Immortal's At the Heart of Winter (1999)
5. Type O Negative's World Coming Down (1999)
6. Shining's V: Halmstad (2007)
7. Pantera's The Great Southern Trendkill (1996)
8. God Forbid's IV: Constitution of Treason (2005)
9. Destroyer 666's Phoenix Rising (2000)
10. Leviathan's Tentacles of Whorror (2004)

Lynx is Imo one level above Universe at least due to the better vocals, hotter keyboards and overall better songwriting. The german Lynx is one of the few bands that play true heavy rock in 2024!! If you like Flight, Convent Guilt, Tanith and Cherokee and from the old ones Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy and Wishbone Ash, you will love them!

I’ll give this a tough go. No order. Tried to limit to one album per band. Metal only.

Type O - Bloody Kisses
Sabbath - Volume 4
Maiden - NOTB
Metallica - RTL
Slayer - Hell Awaits
Ghost - Opus
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Bathory - Under the Sign
Cradle - Dusk
Paradise Lost - Draconian Times

List subject to change dependant on mood etc etc.

At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours
Scald - Will of the Gods is a Great Power
Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead
Manilla Road - Crystal Logic
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
Burzum - Filosofem
Agalloch - The Mantle
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Metallica - Ride the Lightning

If we are (and I'm guessing we are, because look where we are) talking just metal albums (OR albums listed on the archive)

1. Opeth - Blackwater Park
2. Metallica - ...And Justice For All
3. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
4. Anathema - Weather Systems (not metal - but it's on this site, so...)
5. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
6. Dream Theater - Metropolis PT. II: Scenes From A Memory
7. Mgła - Exercises In Futility
8. Cradle Of Filth - Midian
9. Anathema - A Natural Disaster (again, barley metal, but...)
10. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours

Nostalgia is a crazy thing, and if I took the 2 Anathema albums off, I'd probably include Clayman by In Flames and the self-titled Falconer album. But maybe Show No Mercy or Seasons In The Abyss. Gahh, it's too hard.

Gah, I forgot Into Glory Ride!

1. Entombed - Left Hand Path
2. Dawn - Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy)
3. King Diamond - Abigail
4. Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
5. Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger
6. Dissection - Storm of the Lights Bane
7. Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
8. Enslaved - Eld
9. Bathory - The Return
10. Grotesque - In the Embrace of Evil

Thus spake the nightspirit:

1. Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
2. Moonspell - Wolfheart
3. Tiamat - Wildhoney
4. Samael - Passage
5. Sentenced - Down
6. Lake Of Tears - Headstones
7. Dark Tranquility - The Gallery
8. Hypocrisy - Abducted
9. Type O Negative - October Rust
10. The Gathering - Mandylion

One album per band else this would be 50/50 Manilla Road and Testament:

Top 3 have been fixed for a while (nostalgic reasons). Rest are all interchangeable and replaceable:

1/ Megadeth - Rust in Peace
2/ W.A.S.P. - The Headless Children
3/ Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime

Testament - The Gathering
Manilla Road - Voyager
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Metallica - S/T
Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth

1. Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
2. Running Wild - Black Hand Inn
3. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
4. Fates Warning - The Spectre Within
5. Manowar - The Triumph of Steel
6. Holy Terror - Mind Wars
7. Exodus - Fabulous Disaster
8. Metallica - …And Justice For All
9. Iced Earth - The Dark Saga
10. Validor - Hail to Fire

1. Manowar - Fighting the World
Great mix of their early riffy heavy metal style and the more anthemic and percussive heavy metal that they became known for later. I cannot count how many times I've listened to this record.

2. Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
Such an invocative album, atmosphere wise. Filled with epic and memorable compositions, I really think this is the penultimate culmination of BG's songwriting capabilities.

3. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
I have so many memories attached to this album. I don't particularly like progressive metal, but this album is phenomenal.

4. Entombed - Wolverine Blues
Unceremonious death metal played like a rock n roll record. Absolutely fantastic.

5. Disrupt - Unrest
More of a punk album, maybe grind if you're being favourable. But this is just completely unrelenting crust riffage start to end.

6. Marduk - Panzer Division Marduk
My virgin ears bled when I heard this the first time, it's almost literally just noise.

7. Legion of the Damned - Malevolent Rapture
Such a hard hitting album, I couldn't believe it when I first heard it. Every song is insane.

8. Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Iconic mini-album, and to this day it has a huge influence on my own songwriting. Really innovative riffage.

9. Judas Priest - Painkiller
The ultimate heavy metal album, no comparisons.

10. Artillery - By Inheritance
Soooo many stellar riffs on this record, it's insane that they never got bigger than they did.

1 - Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond
2 - Moonsorrow - Voimasta ja kunniasta
3 - Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
4 - Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II
5 - Black Sabbath - Paranoid
6 - Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked
7 - Angra - Angels Cry
8 - Lovebites - Judgement Day
9 - Nemophila - Revive
10 - Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race

Difficult question, I made a pre-selection and I got 26 picks of albums that are absolute 10/10. I set out to listen to them all one after the other and this is the top that came out, if I do it again some selections might change for the ones in the honourable mentions. Maybe I edit it later to add a small comentary in all of them:

1º Nagelfar - Srontgorrth
2º Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I and Part II (They go together as one album)
3º Judas Priest - Stained Class
4º Bathory - Hammerheart
5º Nokturnal Mortum - Nechrist
6º Zephyrous - Towards...
7º Аспид [Aspid] - Кровоизлияние[Extravasation]
8º Overkill - The Years of Decay
9º Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
10º Desaster - The Oath of an Iron Ritual


Honorable mentions in no order:

An impossible task, made slightly easier by restricting to Metal and one album per band and no particular order:

Slayer - Hell Awaits
Primordial - To The Nameless Dead
Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi
Carnage - Dark Recollections
The Chasm - Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm
Type O Negative - Slow, Deep and Hard
Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
Bathory - Blood Fire Death

OK you got me that's 11 albums but I couldn't decide what to cut.

Hmm. Restricting to Metal, here's mine:


1. Cathedral "Forest of Equilibrium"
2. Revelation "Salvation's Answer"
3. Burzum "Filosofem"
4. Cadaver "Hallucinating Anxiety"
5. Napalm Death "Death By Manipulation"
6. Death "Human"
7. Carcass "Necroticism..."
8. Drudkh "Autumn Aurora"
9. Celtic Frost "Into The Pandemonium" (or "Morbid Tales"?)
10. Skyclad "Jonah's Ark"


6 to 10 could be in any order really.

This was not easy and I've probably forgotten something. In no particular order aside from top spot, with no band repeats, MA-listed only.

Nightwish - Once
Epica - The Quantum Enigma
Sonata Arctica - Winterheart's Guild (or maybe Ecliptica, it's tight)
Sentenced - The Cold White Light
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Amorphis - Halo
Type O Negative - World Coming Down
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Veleno
Rotting Christ - Theogonia
Draconian - Sovran

I’m ashamed — I’m ashamed to admit that in my haste to reply I neglected to include my #4 album, Fates Warning’s “Awaken the Guardian”.