I don’t usually listen to whole albums, but let’s see what looking though my spotify yields:

1. d’Artagnan - Felsenfest
2. Scooter - God save the rave (ik, not metal)
3. Nightwish - Imaginaerum
4. Saltatio Mortis- Brot und Spiele (anything by them)
5. Disforia - The Age of Aether
6. Mandowar - Hellboys from cow
7. Electroc Callboy - Tekkno
8. Powerwolf - Blood of the saints
9. Beast in Black - Dark connection (any of their 3 albums is great)
10. Dream Evil - Dragonslayer
11. Gloryhammer- Return to the kingdom of Fife
12. Lord of the lost - Judas
13. Demons & Wizards - Touched by the Crimson King
14. Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
15. Leaves’ Eyes - Symphonies of the Night
16. Edguy - Hellfire Club
17. Alestorm - Curse of the crystal coconut
18. Visions of Atlantis - Pirates
19. Ye Banished Privateers - Legend of Libertalia
20. Van Canto - Voices of Fire
21. In Extremo - Quid pro quo
22. Feuerschwanz - Das Elfte Gebot
23. Avantasia - Moonglow
24. Nanowar of Steel - Stairway to Valhalla
25. Brothers of Metal - Emblas Saga

Yeah, I think that’s enough :)

Recent favourites, in no particular order:

Prog or adjacent : The ocean - Pelagial

Kglw - petrodragonic apocalypse (was my album of the year last year and one of the most fun albums I’ve heard in a long time. Felt like listening to painkiller or master of puppets for the first time. Legit top 10 all time album for me, I think)

Katatonia - the fall of hearts

Haken - affinity

Pain of salvation - in the passing light of day (or remedy lane or perfect element)

Soen - Lotus

Opeth - Ghost reveries (or any of the preceding albums, really)

Leprous - the congregation

Mastodon - crack the skye (or leviathan or emperor of sand)

Doom and adjacent: Warning - watching from a distance

Yob - our raw heart

My dying bride - feel the misery

Anathema - judgement

High on fire - death is this communion

Bongripper - Satan worshipping doom

Black and adjacent: Agalloch - the mountain

Negură bunget - virstele pamintilui (or OM)

Blackbraid - Blackbraid I or II

Bucovina - Sub stele (folk metal, really)

Power metal and such:

Dragony - viribus unitis

Blind Guardian - nightfall in middle earth (altho most of their stuff is awesome)

Adamantis - Far flung realm

Sellsword - unto the breach

Ominous Glory - the elven dream

And maaaaany more that would take me ages to list. If anyone vibes with any of the lists and wants more, hit me up, would be happy to talk more.

• Paysage d’Hiver - Winterkälte
• Immortal - Battles in the North
• Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
• The Ruins of Beverast - Rain Upon the Impure

Did a quick scroll and didn’t see:

Smash - The Offspring

I’m not going to claim that it was ground breaking music or anything, but it just dropped at a time when it was able to hit maximum nostalgia for me.

Some faves off the dome:

Unearth - The Oncoming Storm

Unleash The Archers - Apex

Strapping Young Lad - City

Misery Signals - Mirrors

Entheos - Time Will Take Us All

Striker - Ultrapower

Astronoid - Air

Meshuggah - Chaosphere

Shai Hulud - Misanthropy Pure

I can’t really or an order to them as they’re all favorites of mine, but there’s a top 10:

Iron Maiden - Somewhere in time

Life of Agony - River runs red

At the gates - Slaughter of the soul

In Flames - Colony

Sentenced - Down

Black Sabbath - Master of reality

Iced Earth - Alive in Athens (I know this is cheating as it’s basically a best of album, but so what)

Kyuss - Welcome to sky valley

Queensryche - Operation mindcrime

Death - The sound of perseverance

Honestly though, I could put together a top “whatever” and still have too little space to place all the entries.

Not in order: -Heavy metal soundtrack-various -it’s a kind of Magic-Queen -Time-ELO -Ten Summoner’s Tales -Sting -Greatest Hits-Howard Jones -Asia-Asia -Jagged Little Pill-Alanis Morrisette -No Angel-Dido

I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but these are all definitely coming with me to the island.

Alright, Top 13 for me, because 13 and this is what I could figure well enough and be satisfied with right now. Ordering subject to roughly change somewhere around fifth slot depending on what mood I’m in on any given day, but these are solid mainstays in my rotation (most of them for decades at this point). Doesn’t reflect how broad my interests go, but you can see that I gravitate a lot toward black metal, and I favor stuff that isn’t afraid to be its own thing. Weird is good. Non-metal albums removed though there are a couple in my top 10 if I weren’t being genre specific.

1. Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega
2. Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters
3. Murmuüre - Murmuüre
4. Emptiness - Not For Music
5. The Skaden - You Will Hope I Had Died
6. Solefald - The Linear Scaffold
7. Samael - Eternal
8. At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours
9. Ulver - Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler
10. Cryptopsy - None So Vile
11. Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn
12. Rotting Christ - Khronos
13. Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone

Hmmmm that’s tough.

And I don’t think I can properly rank them because I’m weird about ranking things. But:

Master of Puppets
Somewhere in Time
…And Justice for All
Appetite for Destruction
Fate of Norns

That would do for top 5, yeah.

After that,

Dimmu Borgir, In Sorte Diaboli
Kataklysm, Goliath
Dio, Holy Diver Pantera, Vulgar Display Metallica, 72 seasons

Yeah, I think that’s a solid list based on a combination of just liking the albums and the fact that I prefer to listen to them in their entirety rather than limiting myself to a few songs off of them.

Which, I could probably do 20 by that standard, and more than that if I included metal adjacent albums/bands like ac/dc. You know, the ones that ride right on that edge between metal and hard rock.

And, truth is, when it comes to Metallica and Amon Amarth, all of their albums are like that at least sometimes. Like, the load/reload albums aren’t where I always want to hear the whole album, but I often do. Same with Maiden there.

I’m not saying I don’t have favorite songs off of those albums, I do. It’s just that I always want to hear the rest after I hear those lol. Justice and Master in specific, it’s hard to not want to enjoy them the way i first heard them, with the songs flowing into one another as the album plays.

1. Between The Buried and Me - Colors

2. Mr. Bungle - California

3. Opeth - Blackwater Park

4. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

5. The Dear Hunter - Act III

6. The Dear Hunter - Act II

7. Eyedea & Abilities - First Born

8. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet

9. The Ocean - Pelagial

10. Sleep Token - This Place Will Become Your Tomb

Edit: I didn’t realize this was a metal community post. I just responded for my all time top 10.

If I am focusing on metal, I remove dear hunter, porcupine tree, bungle, and sleep token.

I add both Necrophagist albums, Nobembre’s ‘Everasia’, Animals as leaders self-titled, Opeth’s Still Life, and At The Gates slaughter of the soul…

1. Between The Buried and Me - Colors (2007) [Progressive Metalcore]

2. Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001) [Progressive Death Metal]

3. Necrophagist - Epitaph (2004) [Technical Death Metal]

4. Novembre - Everasia (2002) [Progressive Death/Doom Metal]

5. Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction (1999) [Technical Death Metal]

6. The Ocean - Pelagial (2013) [Progressive Metal]

7. Animals as Leaders - Self-titled (2009) [Progressive Metal/Djent]

8. Opeth - Still Life (1999) [Progressive Death Metal]

9. At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995) [Melodic Death Metal]

10. Darkest Hour - Deliver Us (2007) [Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore]