Move White Pony up a spot or two (Joe has convinced me), and then it'll be fine. Something like:

1. Dopethrone
2. Close to a World Below
3. Clayman
4. Follow the Reaper
5. White Pony
6. Dead Heart in a Dead World
7. Black Seeds of Vengeance
8. Wishmaster
9. Resurrection
10. The Art of Self Defense

Even though those bottom 3 are meh, there just isn't very many albums from this year worth considering.

I really think that the Morbid Angel or Vader albums would be better additions than The Art of Self Defense. Nobody cared about HoF back then.

Somehow, if people didn't care about Formulas Fatal To The Flesh (an awesome album), I don't think they cared about Gateways To Annihilation.

Even if that were true, it would still be more than the number of people who cared about the HoF album.

I still wonder if Within Temptation - Mother Earth would be out of place at the bottom. I think it sold better than Wishmaster (it's supposed to have sold 750,000 copies in Europe), it got good reviews, and while I can't speak to influence (I don't know how a symphonic metal album that successful at the time could have not had an influence), it's not like you guys are strongly extolling the virtues of the last few.

Within Temptation were pretty huge back then, but I know very little about the symphonic metal scene.

Sherick has said Wishmaster is the most important power/symphonic metal album from this year.

Mother Earth is actually symphonic gothic, and there's no rule about how many albums can come from a subgenre. This was a big year for symphonic metal because it's the year that its commercial potential came into focus. I don't know that it belongs above Wishmaster (my gut instinct says yes, but that's based on general impressions and possibly bias rather than concrete evidence). I don't even know if it belongs on the list, but I think it should be considered.

I meant in regards to the people here thinking Formulas Fatal To The Flesh shouldn't be on 1998's list.

I know what you meant. The difference is that 1998 had non-filler albums.

I'm leaning more toward the Vader album anyway. They were probably one of the biggest death metal bands at the time, and Litany is their biggest album.

1. Dopethrone
2. Close to a World Below
3. Clayman
4. Follow the Reaper
5. White Pony
6. Dead Heart in a Dead World
7. Black Seeds of Vengeance
8. Wishmaster
9. Resurrection
10. Litany

Right then...2001

1. Blackwater Park
2. Lateralus
3. Toxicity
4. A Sun That Never Sets
5. Jane Doe
6. Thorns
7. Prowler In The Yard
8. Codex Necro
9. 1184
10. No World Order

Jane Doe > Sun That Never Sets. Prowler in the Yard > Thorns. The Dreadful Hours should be here somewhere. No World Order doesn't need to be here. Iced Earth's Horror Show should probably make it.. pretty popular. Unfortunately I think Rammstein's Mutter should also make the list.

1. Opeth - Blackwater Park
2. Tool - Lateralus
3. System of a Down - Toxicity
4. Converge - Jane Doe
5. Neurosis - A Sun that Never Sets
6. Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard
7. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours
8. Iced Earth - The Horror Show
9. Thorns - Thorns
10. Rammstein - Mutter

Something like that.

Shit I completely forgot about Horror Show.

1. Opeth - Blackwater Park
2. Tool - Lateralus
3. System of a Down - Toxicity
4. Converge - Jane Doe
5. Neurosis - A Sun that Never Sets
6. Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard
7. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours
8. Iced Earth - The Horror Show
9. Windir- 1184
10. Thorns - Thorns

Mutter should still probably be on there in place of Thorns perhaps.