Part of it I think is how original sounding a lot of those albums were and still are. So much stuff now is being made to sound like something else, or just merging two already existing styles
I read that human awareness has gone down which could impact the creator but its probably the listening that isnt listening as good at this point. If all stare, contemplate, breath and do nothing the ratings probably will go up.
Ever wondered why those days albums are not being rated as high as 10, 20 or 30 years ago? Last year 8.32, 2014 8.63 2004 9, 2994 8.9 is it is getting more refined or our music is not getting better?
Here's my list of symphonic metal albums from the bands that I know of, this list is defined by the terms of "atmospheric/bombastic sounding". This is my first time of making list on this site, so some of this might not make any sense as I'm still a bit confused myself as well, and I don't really prefer to see these in particular orders.
This list can be changed over the time and I might add more albums later on.