45. Boris & Sunn O))) - Altar: Sunn O))) has always been a strange band for me. While I'm certainly a fan of drone metal, they were a band that I never truly got into. Sure, I enjoyed them from time to time but for the most part my focus was always on other artists in the genre. Their collaboration with Boris, however, is an absolutely brilliant album. Atmospheric, heavy, and haunting, it's an immense trip from start to finish. Between the frantic percussion in 'Etna' , the stark melancholy of 'The Sinking Belle', and the flat out terror of 'Blood Swamp', there's something in the album for most fans of dark and atmospheric music, even those who don't normally delve into drone metal.
44. Dream Theater - Images and Words: Dream Theater's 'classic' album, and there's a damned good reason for it. An album of tightly composed progressive metal where the technicality doesn't get in the way of good songwriting; what more could someone ask for? There is one dud in the form of 'Surrounded', but the rest of the album is so good that it carries the dead weight just fine. I should have to say much more though, you all know it well enough.