Best VALD albums

3 ELO points separate Xeu from Agartha at the top of the VALD ranking, after 778 duels.

The podium is tight: Xeu leads with 1350 ELO points, but Agartha trails by just 3 points at 1347, and Ce monde est cruel sits third with 1301 points. The real divide emerges lower down, where a 146-point gap splits NQNT 2 from NQNT, the sharpest drop in the ranking. Xeu's narrow advantage at the summit reflects a community evenly split between two fan favorites, while the bottom half tells a different story. Horizon Vertical and NQNT anchor the ranking with 1007 and 1024 ELO points respectively, suggesting these albums struggle to convince voters in head-to-head matchups. NQNT 2 fares better at 1170 points, but the gap to the top three remains substantial.

This ranking draws on 778 duels submitted by 82 players, comparing all 6 contenders in the VALD discography. Updated on 11 October 2026, it reflects the current state of fan opinion, but the tight margins at the top mean a few dozen votes could reshuffle the order. Cast your own duels to push your favorite album higher or cement the current hierarchy.

Updated on October 11, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →