Your top 10 METAL albums of all time(including Dream Theater)!

[WildRanger]

Please one album per band!

My list would look like this:
1. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
2. Powerslave - Iron Maiden
3. Rust in Peace - Megadeth
4. Stained Class - Judas Priest
5. Images & Words - Dream Theater
6. Blackwater Park - Opeth
7. Overkill - Motorhead
8. Blues for the Red Sun - Kyuss
9. Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II - Helloween 
10. Dopethrone - Electric Wizard

Your 10 picks?

[Train of Naught]

Pff, that's impossible. I have 10 5 star albums on RYM but that's not complete at all and they're not all metal. I'll just rank the first 10 best metal albums that come up in my mind as being my favourites instead (and 1 album per artist to make it more interesting):

1. Slice the Cake - Odyssey to the West
2. Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
3. Hypno5e - Acid Mist Tomorrow
4. Leprous - Bilateral
5. Machine Head - The Blackening
6. Opeth - Ghost Reveries
7. TesseracT - Sonder/One (can't decide man)
8. Cult of Luna - Vertikal
9. Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
10. The Hirsch Effekt - Eskapist

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Hmm, my list depends partially on what you would and would not consider metal. I'll give it a shot though.

1. Moonsorrow - Verisakeet
2. Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
3. Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
4. Opeth - Ghost Reveries
5. Riverside - Out of Myself
6. Shadow Gallery - Room V
7. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
8. Negura Bunget - Om
9. Enslaved - Isa
10. Vektor - Black Future

If Tool and Sieges Even are considered metal, then Lateralus would slot in at number 2 and The Art of Navigating by the Stars would slot in at number 5, knocking Enslaved and Vektor off the list.

[Evermind]

My Top 50 is still somewhere in there: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=39282.0

So just go there, remove non-metal albums, remove the repeats and you'll have my Top 10 metal albums. Although it's probably a bit different at this point, but who cares.

[The Walrus]

No order except #1. Reppin' the power metal.

1. Stratovarius - Episode
Dragonforce - Sonic Firestorm
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Fairyland - Fall of an Empire
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands II (Ask me in an hour and I'll pick a different one though)
Edguy - The Savage Poetry
Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side
Sonata Arctica - Winterheart's Guild
Aquaria - Luxaeterna

[Crow]

1. East of the Wall - The Apologist
2-10. Some crap nobody cares about

I need to do another proper top 50 sometime

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

2-10. Some crap nobody cares about

I need to do another proper top 50 sometime

I might...

and yes you do 

[Crow]

i'm not spoiling the list i plan on doing, puppies, sorry 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

2. Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect

6. Opeth - Ghost Reveries

I just realized you had these on your list too!

[jingle.boy]

1. Images and Words
2. The Human Equation
3. Elinoire
4. Obsessions
5. The Scarecrow trilogy (yes, I'm cheating)
6. Old Man and the Spirit
7. Space Metal
8. Circus of the Tattered and Torn
9. Her Halo
10. Chronicles of the Immortals

Threw a couple of newer ones in there at the end that I can't get enough of.

Honorable mention - Century Child, The Odyssey and Operation:Mindcrime

[twosuitsluke]

Dragonforce - Sonic Firestorm

Nice!

Mine would be something like:

1. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
2. Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
3. Megadeth - Rust in Peace
4. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
5. Machine Head - The Blackening
6. Opeth - Ghost Reveries
7. Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil
8. Children of Bodom - Follow the Reaper
9. Slayer - Reign in Blood
10. Trivium - Ascendancy


Honourable mentions that just missed the cut:

Mastodon - Crack the Skye
The Ocean - Pelagial
Slipknot - Vol. 3 The Subliminal Verses
System of a Down - Toxicity

[WildRanger]

1. Images and Words
2. The Human Equation
3. Elinoire
4. Obsessions
5. The Scarecrow trilogy (yes, I'm cheating)
6. Old Man and the Spirit
7. Space Metal
8. Circus of the Tattered and Torn
9. Her Halo
10. Chronicles of the Immortals

Threw a couple of newer ones in there at the end that I can't get enough of.

Honorable mention - Century Child, The Odyssey and Operation:Mindcrime

It seems that each one of your top 10 albums is PROG METAL?

[jingle.boy]

You have a keen perception of the blatantly obvious.   

I excluded my glam-metal, since many here wouldn't exactly consider that "metal"

[Dave_Manchester]

The 'one per band' rule makes it tough for me because I'm not a huge 'metal' fan and only like a small handful of bands who are unquestionably in that genre (are Guns n Roses metal? To me no, but to whoever stacks the shelves at HMV they are). But I gave it some thought and I was able to make it to 10. 

1. Scenes From A Memory - Dream Theater
2. Lateralus - Tool
3. Hatebreeder - Children of Bodom
4. Dusk And Her Embrace - Cradle of Filth
5. Master of Puppets - Metallica
6. Wishmaster - Nightwish
7. Colors - Between The Buried And Me
8. Still Life - Opeth
9. Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
10. Diary Of A Madman - Ozzy Osbourne

[Adami]

I don't like orders, so ignore the numbering system

1. The Perfect Element - Pain of Salvation (this actually is number 1)
2. King of Everything - Jinjer
3. Master of Puppets - Metallica
4. Oceanborn - Nightwish
5. The Black Halo - Kamelot
6. 01011001 - Ayreon
7. Wages of Sin - Arch Enemy
8. Awake - Dream Theater
9. Tribute - Ozzy (Yea, I picked a live album, deal with it)
10. V - Symphony X

That's just off the top of my head, probably not really my top 10, but whatevs.

[nattmorker]

I think this is a hard list to make... Mine would be something like this (in no particular order):

Dream Theater - SDOIT
BTBAM - Colors
Metallica - AJFA
Haggard - Awaking the centuries
Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin
Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
Beyond Creation - Earthborn Evolution
Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
Soilwork - The Ride Majestic
Mastodon - Crack the Skye

[The Walrus]

Dragonforce - Sonic Firestorm

Nice!

If I was allowed, I'd have cheated and thrown Valley of the Damned and maybe even Inhuman Rampage in there. That three album run is like the holy trinity of power metal to me.

3. Elinoire
4. Obsessions
8. Circus of the Tattered and Torn
9. Her Halo
10. Chronicles of the Immortals

WHO TF did those albums? List the artists damn it! 

[Crow]

3 is flaming row, 8 is daydream xi, 10 is vanden plas

i dunno the others. i think 9 is teramaze? 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Obsessions is by Epysode. Good album. Jingle sent a song from it in my roulette.

[Indiscipline]

Without the one album per band rule this would be a 2, max 3 bands list.

1. Images and Words - Dream Theater
2. Piece of Mind - Iron Maiden
3. Ride the Lightning - Metallica
4. Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt2 - Helloween
5. The Years of Decay - Overkill
6. Sign of the Hammer - Manowar
7. Master of Reality - Black Sabbath
8. Conspiracy - King Diamond
9. Blizzard of Ozz - Ozzy Osbourne
10. Operation: Mindcrime - Queensryche

I left out albums I rate higher than some on the list but may be considered more hard rock or alternative in nature.

[Elite]

Oh boy, another list thread. Let me have a look tomorrow.

[jingle.boy]

3. Elinoire
4. Obsessions
8. Circus of the Tattered and Torn
9. Her Halo
10. Chronicles of the Immortals

WHO TF did those albums? List the artists damn it! 

First, you should feel shame for not knowing them.  Second, ever heard of Google?    Third, you should feel even MORE shame that Parama knew some of them!  Fourth, no listening until you know if you got that job or not... because if you do run a roulette soon, you'll invariably be getting one or more of those.

[Crow]

i actually got the first chronicles of the immortals a few years back (it's fine) & also the second flaming row album (which i thought was pretty good) so 
also pretty sure i listened to daydream xi once or twice last year, i remember it being on my list at some point
never heard a second of teramaze or epysode though

[The Walrus]

3. Elinoire
4. Obsessions
8. Circus of the Tattered and Torn
9. Her Halo
10. Chronicles of the Immortals

WHO TF did those albums? List the artists damn it! 

First, you should feel shame for not knowing them.  Second, ever heard of Google?    Third, you should feel even MORE shame that Parama knew some of them!  Fourth, no listening until you know if you got that job or not... because if you do run a roulette soon, you'll invariably be getting one or more of those.

Yeah yeah yeah! And the Google line, really? I feel atTACked 

[mike099]

In no particular order - Some of these would be considered prog metal:

1 Dead Heart in a Dead World - Nevermore
2 Master of Puppets - Metallica
3 Bilateral - Leprous
4 Blackwater Park - Opeth
5 Christo - Vanden Plas
6 Crack The Skye - Mastadon
7 Elegy - Amorphis
8 The Scarecrow - Anvantasia
9  Voice of the Void - Anciients
10 Snowfall on Judgement Day - Redemption

[TAC]

Yeah yeah yeah! And the Google line, really? I feel atTACked 

Yup. Join the club. Fighting DTF elitism since 2004.

[Ninjabait]

01. Dream Theater - The Astonishing
02. Haken - The Mountain
03. Ayreon - The Human Equation
04. Beyond the Bridge - The Old Man and the Spirit
05. Ne Obliviscaris - Urn
06. Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Pinata
07. Dir en Grey - Dum Spiro Spero
08. Opeth - Blackwater Park
09. TesseracT - Altered State
10. Tool - Lateralus

Top 3 skirt the line between rock and metal a lot, but whatevs.

[TheCountOfNYC]

01) Metallica-Master of Puppets
02) Pantera-Cowboys From Hell
03) Dream Theater-Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
04) Megadeth-Rust in Peace
05) Avenged Sevenfold-City of Evil
06) Judas Priest-Painkiller
07) System of a Down-Toxicity
08) Slayer-Reign in Blood
09) Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast
10) Dragonforce-Sonic Firestorm

[jammindude]

I want to make it clear that I'm approaching this list objectively.   

I'm not trying to open debate or discussion, I just want a brief disclaimer that for personal deeply held personal beliefs, I strongly object to Slayer's message and music (I don't care what Tom Araya says about his personal life) and I refuse to listen to them or own anything they put out.   Having said that, I *used* to be one of their biggest fans....and if I'm being completely objective, I still think Reign in Blood is the greatest metal album of all time...and I don't think anything will ever come close to its concise ferocity.   It's 30 minutes of metal perfection.   Lightning in a bottle. 

1. Slayer - Reign in Blood
2. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
3. Metallica - Master of Puppets
4. Forbidden - Green
5. Anthrax - The Sound of White Noise
6. Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care
7. Testament - The Legacy
8. Megadeth - So Far, So Good, So What
9. Sacred Reich - Ignorance
10. Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

[Elite]

eh, something like this I guess?

1. Dream Theater – Images & Words
2. Leprous – Bilateral
3. Opeth – Blackwater Park
4. maudlin of the Well – Bath
5. Obsidian Kingdom – Mantiis (An Agony in Fourteen Bites)
6. Wilderun - Sleep at the Edge of the Earth
7. Haken – Aquarius
8. Between the Buried and Me – Colors (or The Great Misdirect - I can't really choose)
9. Pain of Salvation – Remedy Lane (swap this one with TPE or OHBTCL and I'd be fine as well)
10. Devin Townsend - Terria

[Elite]

I'm not trying to open debate or discussion, I just want a brief disclaimer that for personal deeply held personal beliefs, I strongly object to Slayer's message and music (I don't care what Tom Araya says about his personal life) and I refuse to listen to them or own anything they put out.   Having said that, I *used* to be one of their biggest fans....and if I'm being completely objective, I still think Reign in Blood is the greatest metal album of all time...and I don't think anything will ever come close to its concise ferocity.

The part where you say you refuse to listen to them, yet still consider Reign in Blood to be the best metal album ever really intrigues me. I'm not exactly a Slayer fan and know next to nothing about them, but I take it it's the anti-religious message that prevalent in Slayer's music that puts you off? If I'm not mistaking Tom Araya has repeatedly stated that he doesn't consider Slayer's music to be anti-religiious per se, as he is a Christian himself. I hope I'm not opening a can of worms here, but you 'objective' approach to this list is curious.

2. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
4. Forbidden - Green

Also these two... I find Beneath the Remains to be barely listenable and Green is an album I haven't heard in ages. I rarely see it mentioned if at all, interesting pick!

[TAC]

So, looking back at The TAC Top 50 Thread from 6 years ago, I don't think anything has changed. Since we're talking Metal, I'm going to remove bands like Dream Theater, Rush, MSG, Thin Lizzy, and Alice Cooper.

1. Iron Maiden-The Number Of The Beast
2. Helloween-Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pts 1&2
3. Metallica-Kill' Em All
4. Dio-Holy Diver
5. Black Sabbath-Heaven And Hell
6. Riot- Narita
7. Accept-Metal Heart
8. AC/DC-Let there Be Rock
9. Ozzy-Blizzard/Diary
10. Def Leppard-High n Dry

[Zantera]

My personal top 10 would look something like this: (alphabetical order)

Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Between the Buried and Me - Colors
Boris - Flood (or Feedbacker)
Converge - Jane Doe
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Isis - Panopticon
Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye
Neurosis - Times of Grace
Opeth - Deliverance (or My Arms, Your Hearse)

Honorable mentions:

Cult of Luna - Somewhere Along the Highway
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Dir En Grey - Dum Spiro Spero
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Tool - Lateralus

Probably more I forgot, this is just top of my head

[The Walrus]

I am really digging the love for Agalloch's Ashes here.

[Train of Naught]

Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Yeah, this is also a strong contender for me. I've been very obsessed with Deftones again lately (it usually comes in waves for me with this band) and Diamond Eyes probably just edges out White Pony for me, and Koi No Yokan as #3.