Your Favorite Metal Album(s) Ever

You know that this is my favorite music genre and I could list a whole lot of albums that I consider masterful, but I'm going to limit myself to 5, which are the ones I've listened the most to and love them dearly. All of them fall into the atmospheric side of things and most of them would probably be too niche for most, but it is what it is. If I had to name the best metal albums for me, these five would be on top:

Summoning - "Stronghold" (1999) - An album full of melancholy and a bittersweet longing for the past, a great work of romanticism. This is one of the most unique black metal albums, as it has a very baroque feel to it, and it manages to take the listener on a journey to a time long forgotten. Simply astonishing.



Rotting Christ - "Aealo" (2010) - An album that's agressive and warlike, even barbaric, which makes great use of traditional Greek rythmic patterns, choirs and instruments and blends them together with the heavy guitars to make something that sound both modern and ancient, that came out of Classical Greece.



Orphaned Land - "Mabool" (2004) - Probably the greatest progressive metal album ever, that mixes a lot of different styles (prog, death metal, symphonic and oriental music), with absolutely fantastic results.



Tristania - "Widow's Weeds" (1998) - I've said it before that this is one of the few gothic albums that truly feel gothic to me. It has a wonderful medievel, romantic atmosphere, that no other gothic rock/metal album (before or after this one) has ever even come close to replicating.



Moonsorrow - "Kivenkantaja" (2003) - Perhaps the best combination of metal and folk I've ever listened to. Wonderful stuff.

Possibly my favorite genre, a lot of albums that I rate 10/10 at least.

Still Life - Opeth - I love Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries as well, but this is their most consistent album. All the songs are fantastic, and I love how they mix genres and I also love the varied singing. Best songs for me are Godhead's Lament and Face of Melinda.

Ashes Against The Grain - Agalloch - Absolutely brilliant atmosphere and buildups on this album, and just endelessly listenable. Bloodbirds is one of my favorite songs ever, brilliant build up with some simple yet smashing melodies and haunting vocals. The Mantle is essentially as good, although I think this is a bit more consistently great.

V: Hävitetty - Moonsorrow - Probably my favorite album in terms of atmoshpere. With two songs over the hour playtime, it takes some patient to listen to, but a very rewarding experience. The drums in particular stands out I think.

Panopticon - ISIS - The peak of post metal pretty much. Every track stands out in some way, but my favorite is In Fiction.

Crack the Skye - Mastodon - Mastodon's finest hour, much thanks to the more progressive song structres on this. The Czar is the obvious standout, wuth some kick ass riffs and fills it shoots right to the top of metal songs of the past 20 years.

Then we have other albums like Master of Reality, Brave New World, Scenes From a Memory and Somewhere Along the Highway that I rate very highly as well.

Love your choices mate, especially the mentions of Agalloch and Moonsorrow, and I agree that Panopticon is one of the peaks of Post Metal, although I'd personally rank a couple of Neurosis albums over it, but you can't go wrong with either band.