Best Folkish albums I've heard so far...!! Please feel free to post your Suggestions!!

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Ensiferum - Iron

3.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

4.Blackmore's Night - Under A Violet Moon

5.Blackmore's Night - Shadow Of The Moon

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I havnt been into metal all that long...so this is a good chuck of the metal albums i own...though ive heard many, many more....these are all albums ive spent a lot of time with (or soon will). I tried to stay away from multiple albums by an artist, but a few exceptions were made hehe.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.3 Inches Of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom

3.Absu - Tara

4.ADX - Division Blindée

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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Some albums are really good. Many of these are good all the way around. And, in many cases, there is a single song that stands out, sometimes it's the last song on the album. This is a list of those songs.

For a more in depth look at this, I've codified each into a given category:
Type 1 - 'The long song at the end.' Often the title track. These have a tendency to be most well written and dynamic pieces on the album.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.Abigail Williams - Becoming

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

5.Anekdoten - Vemod

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All my favourite songs ranked in order best down.

1.Rush - 2112

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Jethro Tull - Aqualung

4.Rainbow - Rising

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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This is the list for my favorite albums. It will with no doubt change from time to time and some may disappear or move from a spot to another.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

3.Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell

4.For My Pain - Fallen

5.Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

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Weird name for the list, couldn't think of a better to describe the list. So I've selected the best album of every year since I was born. Will edit when needed.

1.Motörhead - 1916

2.Dream Theater - Images And Words

3.Motörhead - Bastards

4.Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

5.Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery

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1.Insomnium - Across The Dark

2.The 11th Hour - Burden Of Grief

3.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

4.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

5.The Moon And The Nightspirit - Ősforrás

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1.Megadeth - Endgame

2.Kreator - Hordes Of Chaos

3.Cain's Offering - Gather The Faithful

4.Viikate - Kuu Kaakon Yllä

5.Warbringer - Waking Into Nightmares

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This is how I saw the past year. Of course I haven't heard everything, but out of albums I encountered, these are the winners. Created at 4 January 2010, no further changes adjusted.

1.Kalisia - Cybion

2.Ensiferum - From Afar

3.Nokturnal Mortum - The Voice Of Steel

4.Umbrtka - Úplná Demontá? Lidstva

5.Wardruna - Runaljod-Gap Var Ginnunga

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Ratings go from:

WORSHIP ❤️❤️❤️: Absolute greatness, a mindblowing album.
LOVE ❤️❤️🖤: Amazing release with very few flaws.
LIKE ❤️🖤🖤: Enjoyable but far from perfect.
DISLIKE 💔: Not very good or maybe not fitting my tastes.

I've decided to stop rating albums with a numerical value as I tend to feel uncomfortable with that. This list has a minimalistic, subjective and visceral approach, based purely on sensations and personal tastes. Mainly for personal use and doesn't pretend to be a serious ranking, but emerges from the need to remember which bands and albums I enjoyed and the ones I disliked. I constantly revisit new releases so first impressions may change over time. It usually takes 8-10 spins for me to get completely sure of a rating.

1.Æther Realm - Tarot

2.Abhoria - Abhoria

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agrypnie - Metamorphosis

5.Allegaeon - Fragments Of Form And Function

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This is a list of all the folk metal albums I have listened to that I found to be of at least marginal quality. It is purely for my own organizational purposes and is not meant to be a definitive statement about the genre; for that reason, there are some entries that don't entirely fit the description, including some neofolk albums and bands that don't exactly play "folk metal" but are close enough.

There used to be a good amount of crossover with my black metal list, but I have since cleaned house and removed anything labeled "pagan" or "Viking" to this list. Personally, I'm very skeptical of the idea that "pagan" anything is its own genre, and unless you're Bathory, the Viking shtick doesn't really work with me. I file it under blackened folk or folk black metal or something like that; if it has any ties to traditional music, I've decided simply to add it to this list and not bother with splitting hairs.

The first section of albums represents my favorite albums - sometimes just within the genre, sometimes overall. Beyond that, they are divided into sections by rating going down to 6/10, and within those sections in alphabetical order.

This list was last updated August 8, 2021.

1.Elvenking - Secrets Of The Magick Grimoire

2.Forefather - Ours Is The Kingdom

3.Forefather - Steadfast

4.Forefather - Last Of The Line

5.Dalriada - Áldás

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These are the best albums I have. I'll never give them up and I always enjoy them.

1.Turisas - Stand Up And Fight

2.Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time

3.Ensiferum - Iron

4.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

5.Opeth - Blackwater Park

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It's possible that you've glossed over some of these because they're too "popular".
Maybe you've never heard of a few.
Regardless, these are albums that I think everyone should hear at least once if you're a novice metal fan or have been head banging for years.

1.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

2.Summoning - Stronghold

3.Death - Human

4.Rush - A Farewell To Kings

5.The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand

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1.Ensiferum - Iron

2.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

3.Turisas - The Varangian Way

4.Eluveitie - Slania

5.Equilibrium - Sagas

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