My favorite metal albums sorted alphabetically by band name and chronological by release date.

1.Æther Realm - Tarot

2.Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

3.Allegaeon - Proponent For Sentience

4.Amon Amarth - Once Sent From The Golden Hall

5.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

      View entire list ››

1.Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas

2.Devin Townsend - Empath

3.Mgła - Age Of Excuse

4.Borknagar - True North

5.Insomnium - Heart Like A Grave

      View entire list ››

1.Accept - Blind Rage

2.Wolf - Devil Seed

3.Enforcer - From Beyond

4.Metal Church - XI

5.Rage - The Devil Strikes Again

      View entire list ››

To add fuel to the fire of the "they'll never top their first album" rhetoric, here are all my favorite full length debuts in alphabetical order. Full lengths, not EPs.

1.Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

2.Aeternus - Beyond The Wandering Moon

3.Agruss - Morok

4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

      View entire list ››

1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

5.Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

      View entire list ››

1.HammerFall - Dominion

2.Children Of Bodom - Hexed

3.Idle Hands - Mana

4.Magic Kingdom - Metalmighty

5.Frozen Crown - Crowned In Frost

      View entire list ››

1.Volbeat - Rewind, Replay, Rebound

2.Babymetal - Metal Galaxy

3.Dream Theater - Distance Over Time

4.Rammstein - Rammstein

5.Soen - Lotus

      View entire list ››

Do you know this feeling when you stumble across a random word, and then suddenly that name pops up just about everywhere? That specific term haunting yours truly has long been "Portland, Oregon". It seems to me that every new discovery was founded in Portland, apparently every other album was mastered at Brad Boatright's Audiosiege Studio in Portland, and every single of my favorite bands had, at some point, performed on a stage somewhere in Portland.

In the 1980s, LA was undeniably the world's glam metal capital, alongside with San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal as a counter development. Then we witnessed the death metal boom of the early 90s, with Tampa, Florida as its global hotspot. Not to forget the New York punk and hardcore scene (NYHC), the rise of sludge metal from the swamps of New Orleans during the late 80s, grunge from Seattle gaining mainstream prominence in the early 90s...
Apparently, there has always been a tendency in the US towards rapidly developing, locally restricted music scenes, in whose environment a completely new style or genre could develop in order to have a lasting impact on the global musical landscape within a few years.

So I just had to find out if my mind was playing tricks on me or if Portland really is the current capital of the US for heavy music and extreme metal - hence this list.

Inclusion criteria:
featured on Metal Strom and
established in Portland or
a long-term creative phase in Portland or
still active and currently based in Portland
(that's why Leviathan is here but Lurker Of Chalice isn't)

Only one album (preferably the most recent full-length album) per band.

By the way, according to this article, Portland harbors the highest amount of active metal bands per capita in the US. Quite a surprise, isn't it?

While we are at it, what's your favorite Portland band?

1.Abhorrent Affliction - Forever Will He Reign

2.Acathexis - Acathexis

3.Ænigmatum - Deconsecrate

4.Ævangelist - Dream An Evil Dream III

5.Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

      View entire list ››

This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

All bands will be limited to one album unless they had a significant change in style (e.g. Amorphis and Katatonia). It goes without saying that as this is my personal list the genres that are included more than others expresses my bias and I am open to listening to any suggestions on additional albums to add. This list will be separated by letters as including them all in one list would make it overly long. Just to give you an idea: my personal collection is over 10,000 songs, most of them in the metal genre.

Most of the bands featured here have other great albums so if you like the album featured here be sure to peruse their other works. Artists whose names start with 'The' or A/An' will be included in whatever letter follows, e.g. ' A Forest of Stars' will be included in F. This list(s) contains the most well-known bands e.g. Opeth, to the most obscure e.g. Vanguard x Mortem.

The list(s) will be updated periodically. If you have trouble locating an album on this list or think I missed a particular album feel free to contact me, and share this list far and wide so that more people can benefit from the incredible array of musical experience metal has to offer.

You can find me on all of these other websites: https://my.bio/friedrich-ux

(Broke 10k songs!, onward to 20k...): https://imgur.com/a/PvgLCy3

1.I - Between Two Worlds

2.I Built The Sky - The Sky Is Not The Limit

3.I Shalt Become - Poison

4.Iapetus - The Body Cosmic

5.IATT - Nomenclature

      View entire list ››

Yes, I decided to do another gothic metal list because it been rapidly changing since my last two lists. I love revisiting this kind of list because of how different my tastes have changed withing this genre of music I'm passionate about.

1.Anathema - Eternity

2.Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell

3.The Foreshadowing - Days Of Nothing

4.Monumentum - In Absentia Christi

5.Tiamat - Wildhoney

      View entire list ››

Here is a list of all the bands who received at least one write-in vote during MSA 2019.

Following the annoucement of the results, this information is lost, I post it here so you can continue to explore your favorite genres !

I'm still working on fixing links, if you find errors, feel free to notify in the comments !

1.Babymetal - Metal Galaxy

2.Cave In - Final Transmission

3.Mother Of Millions - Artifacts

4.Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind

5.Soen - Lotus

      View entire list ››

1.Babymetal - Metal Galaxy

2.Cave In - Final Transmission

3.Mother Of Millions - Artifacts

4.Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind

5.Soen - Lotus

      View entire list ››

One band, one album in alphabetical order. No EPs, demos, etc.
Favourite album: Mgła - With Hearts Toward None
Favourite song: Schammasch - "Above The Stars Of God"

1.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

2.Abbath - Abbath

3.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

4.Aenaon - Hypnosophy

5.Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

      View entire list ››

Another year, year of the pipe?
New record from new albums, many were old bands I knew before, some I found by my self, some thanks to Radu and Old Nick.
1 to 17 is in some how in order as I think was best ! Rest is alphabetically because those are albums I like are equally good and I have listen all more as 3 times.
223 to 232 are disapoinmets and last one is biggest in whole poser and TrOO metal history.
In middle like I told are decent and heavy , good albums.
What next year will bring? I hope more good music not new album number to brake.
This is trOO metal baby!

1.Grand Magus - Wolf God

2.Idle Hands - Mana

3.Amon Amarth - Berserker

4.Sun Of The Sleepless - Sun Of The Sleepless & Cavernous Gate

5.Running Wild - Crossing The Blades

      View entire list ››

This is the list of albums I had on heavy rotation during 2019. If an album was very good but way too long or demanding to listen to it more than twice, you won't see it here (e.g. Esoteric). I have limited attention span and favourite albums are called "favourite" because we keep listening to them non-stop. The order below is more or less accurate.

1.Atlantean Kodex - The Course Of Empire

2.Idle Hands - Mana

3.Diamond Head - The Coffin Train

4.Flotsam And Jetsam - The End Of Chaos

5.Numenorean - Adore

      View entire list ››