Favorite Album From Each Year

Yeah, sorry. A "weaker year" would have been a better choice.

So, in order to not just have lists but also discussion, allow me to disagree with this.

1985 saw the release of Bonded by Blood (Exodus), Hell Awaits (Slayer), Spreading the Disease (Anthrax), Metal Church (Metal Church), Bestial Devastation (Sepultura) and Killing is My Business (Megadeth), six albums that in my opinion did more to define classic thrash metal than anything released in 1986 (save for Pleasure to Kill). It had Bathory's second album, Delirious Nomad by Armored Saint, Skeptic's Apocalypse by Agent Steel and Vicious Attack by Abbatoir, not to mention classics such as Sacred Heart (Dio), Thunder in the East (Loudness), Love You to Pieces (Lizzy Borden), Marching Out (Yngwie Malmsteen), Branded and Exiled (Running Wild) and The Last Command (W.A.S.P.). Not to mention that it had the first death metal album ever - Seven Churches by Possessed. And that's not even going into bands like Exumer, Razor, Whiplash and others. Absolutely not a weak year. Maybe not the ultimate apex of 80s metal, but very damn near it.

1987: Dream Evil (Dio), Under Jolly Roger (Running Wild), Appetite for Destruction (that LA band), Triumph and Agony (Warlock), The Legacy (Testament), Hall of the Mountain King (Savatage), Ignorance (Sacred Reich), Scum (Napalm Death), Abigail (King Diamond), Finished With the Dogs (Holy Moses), Breaking the Silence (Heathen), The Ultra-Violence (Death Angel), Scream Bloody Gore (Death), Nightfall (Candlemass), Eternal Idol (Black Sabbath), Under the Sign of the Black Mark (Bathory) - nope, can't see a bad year. And that's not even counting classics I'm personally not too fond of such as Fighting the World (Manowar), Keeper of the Seven Keys I (Helloween), or Panaemonium (Celtic Frost).

1995: The X-Factor (Iron Maiden), Burnt Offerings (Iced Earth), Imaginations from the Other Side (Blind Guardian), De Profundis (Vader), Battles in the North (Immortal), Storm of the Light's Bane (Dissection), Imrama (Primordial), Symbolic (Death), Slaughter of the Soul (At the Gates), I'm sorry, you were saying?
 
This is a good reason of why I can’t really make these lists. I simply haven’t heard enough music to best decide the top album of each year.
 
So, in order to not just have lists but also discussion, allow me to disagree with this.

1985 saw the release of Bonded by Blood (Exodus), Hell Awaits (Slayer), Spreading the Disease (Anthrax), Metal Church (Metal Church), Bestial Devastation (Sepultura) and Killing is My Business (Megadeth), six albums that in my opinion did more to define classic thrash metal than anything released in 1986 (save for Pleasure to Kill). It had Bathory's second album, Delirious Nomad by Armored Saint, Skeptic's Apocalypse by Agent Steel and Vicious Attack by Abbatoir, not to mention classics such as Sacred Heart (Dio), Thunder in the East (Loudness), Love You to Pieces (Lizzy Borden), Marching Out (Yngwie Malmsteen), Branded and Exiled (Running Wild) and The Last Command (W.A.S.P.). Not to mention that it had the first death metal album ever - Seven Churches by Possessed. And that's not even going into bands like Exumer, Razor, Whiplash and others. Absolutely not a weak year. Maybe not the ultimate apex of 80s metal, but very damn near it.

1987: Dream Evil (Dio), Under Jolly Roger (Running Wild), Appetite for Destruction (that LA band), Triumph and Agony (Warlock), The Legacy (Testament), Hall of the Mountain King (Savatage), Ignorance (Sacred Reich), Scum (Napalm Death), Abigail (King Diamond), Finished With the Dogs (Holy Moses), Breaking the Silence (Heathen), The Ultra-Violence (Death Angel), Scream Bloody Gore (Death), Nightfall (Candlemass), Eternal Idol (Black Sabbath), Under the Sign of the Black Mark (Bathory) - nope, can't see a bad year. And that's not even counting classics I'm personally not too fond of such as Fighting the World (Manowar), Keeper of the Seven Keys I (Helloween), or Panaemonium (Celtic Frost).

1995: The X-Factor (Iron Maiden), Burnt Offerings (Iced Earth), Imaginations from the Other Side (Blind Guardian), De Profundis (Vader), Battles in the North (Immortal), Storm of the Light's Bane (Dissection), Imrama (Primordial), Symbolic (Death), Slaughter of the Soul (At the Gates), I'm sorry, you were saying?
Seems like I've got a lot to learn. Of course I'm not an expert like you when it comes to those not as famous bands.
 
That's why you are here, to learn from those who stood their ground in the muddy fields of Wacken and spent many a night banging their heads in run-down clubs hoping that what's sticking on their shoes is only wasted beer, waking up with sore necks and the world spinning around them and with the only desire for it to be the next gig, beer and metal, chicks and metal, all night long and every day. And perhaps, one day, when you lose your shit over somebody calling the solo on Gods of Wrath dull or Machine Head a good band, you will make us proud.
 
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