Metal

METALLICA!!!

Judas Priest!!

Yeah, Halford might be the best vocalist in metal and their arrangements and or instrumentation is amazing too .

Yes, Halford is one of the best voices in metal, without a doubt.

Their guitar arrangements are great as well!

I've been listening a lot to this band lately

Mastodon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6WGNd8QR-U

Nice one .

Love the odd rhythms Dream Theater use

Really gettin' into the prog thing lately

All kinds of. Started listening to Heavy Metal in early 80s, Accept, W.A.S.P. and Ozzy.

Then came the Thrash & Power Metal era with Agent Steel, Flotsam & Jetsam, Helloween and some German Thrash Masters like Sodom, Destruction & Kreator.

Sodom´s and Destruction´s early stuff are in fact Black Metal. Venom "invented" Black Metal with their early stuff, though their music was pretty much like Motörhead, jusr rawer and with satanic over-the-top lyrics and imagery.

One name You really need to mention is Quorthon and his one-man band Bathory. Along taking Black Metal even to rawer, he invented so-called Viking Metal.

From early Death Metal inventors Possessed is my favourite with their absolute debut classic ´Seven Churches´.

But 2nd wave Scandinavian Black Metal was the real thing for me.

Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Beherit, Satyricon, Emperor...the list is long, and Evil. Mostly Norse, some Finnish some Swedish.

The genre's definitely had quite a run. I find it interesting that at one point grunge was thought by some to be the death (no pun intended ) of metal but metal managed to stay around after it pretty much died out. Of course it may not be mainstream as most mainstream bands are pop now, but underground ect. anyway.

I'm a big fan of prog too .

I think Metal is definitely in good health right now.

I find curious the thing about grunge. Because before Nirvana exploded in 1991 with Nevermind (and that's when people began to use the term Grunge), some important Grunge bands were labelled as Metal, or Alternative Metal: such bands as Soundgarden and Alice In Chains.

Even Nirvana had a pretty heavy sound on their first album (Bleach). A much sludgier sound, closer to Melvins and Soundgarden.

I guess since there are so many styles that fall under the collective 'hard rock' umbrella, the easier it is for the lines of some of the sub genres to get crossed a bit. Also, unlike some much declined genres that will remain nameless , it is in good health right now .

Ronnie James Dio didn't always sing Metal:

Currently loving this song. From Mastodon's last album, The Hunter

I found this some time ago, and I just remembered about it now:

Bruce Dickinson auditioning for Iron Maiden in 1981

I like folk metal..

To bring this back to life

MASTODON

This masterpiece is 24 years old today:

PAINKILLER

I've been listening quite a lot Testament since last year. Awesome band! Incredible how they get even more powerful with each album.

This is from their latest: Dark Roots of Earth

Native Blood

New by Iron Maiden

Honestly I didn't find it that great. Kind of more of the same 

But the video sure it's awesome!

This Thrash masterpiece is 30 years old today

 Master of Puppets  

I'd be willing to bet that Stormy likes Tom Araya