Darkthrone
Ildjarn
Slayer
Celtic Frost/ Hellhammer
S.O.D.

Have never rotated out from a top 10 of mine. The rest can come and go.

Slayer
Meshuggah
Nevermore
Testament
Pantera
Dio
Cannibal Corpse
Amon Amarth
Suicide silence
Soilwork

Top Ten is always biased depending on the person...it seems to me that a "true" top ten of metal should be based on contributions to the genre as a whole---they should be pioneering or defining in some way...again, my humble opinion, and one that can be subject to change. I consider "hard rock" to be different than metal, and throw KISS and AC/DC into that grouping, along with Aerosmith (vintage), Deep Purple, Scorpions, Led Zep (true pioneers, just don't seem metal in the grand scheme of things), Primus and a number of other landmark groups...

Black Sabbath - the godfathers of metal
Motorhead - sheer metal "fuck you"-titude puts them at the top
Judas Priest - twin guitar metal awesomeness and Rob Halford
Iron Maiden - formerly twin guitar metal awesomeness (now triple) and a +1 for Steve Harris songwriting epicness (usually)
Slayer - unholy trainwreck of metal at warp speed (honorable mentions to Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus, and Anthrax (the clown princes of thrash), but Slayer still kicks all their asses
Death - progressive death metal pioneers
Mayhem - taking Venom's "black metal" invention to their dark hearts
Meshuggah - for perfecting the art of twisting up time signatures
Opeth - because I like them a lot and the listening journey from death metal to psychedelic progressive death metal has been an interesting musical ride
#10 - player to be named later...

That is one of my favorite KISS album covers

Folks mentioning Tool baffles my mind ... we're talking about metal.

1. Motley Crue
2. Poison
3. Def Leopard
4. Warrant
5. Skid Row
6. Scorpions
7. Stryper
8. White Snake
9. Quiet Riot
10. Queensryche

Battle On!

Maiden
Sabbath
Electric Wizard
Priest
Leviathan (Lurker of Chalice, etc)
Sleep
Sigh
Weakling
Dio
Mercyful Fate

Hymmm......what type of music are they then?

I'd say Industrial, but that's just me.

Throbbing Gristle is an example of Industrial.

Tool is metal. the end.

id probably say Experimental / Progressive

not metal. neither is tool. kiss are a bunch of ass clowns, but are 'hair/glam' metal.

my top 10 death metal/hc/grind/thrash bands at the moment:
napalm death
merauder
hatred surge
carcass
suffocation
bolt thrower
sod/mod
insect warfare
municipal waste
and the mighty obituary

[/quote]not metal. neither is tool. kiss are a bunch of ass clowns, but are 'hair/glam' metal.[/quote]

Experimental / Progressive, sure

but metal.

yes, I said metal.
you can put them into whatever sub-genre, you'd like.

now, everyone go back and listen to Opiate one more time.

havingmysay, I'll argue away...so tell me why Tool is not metal?

you make it sound like such an ugly word!

i'd consider them like you said, progressive and experimental with a touch of industrial... but rock, not metal. just like rush were a progressive rock band as well.

and chad, why is it arguing? we can debate without arguing. PMA my brother!

NIN is Experimental/Progressive/Industrial. Tool doesn't fit in this realm.

Tool are a 'proggy' rock band at the most ... i fail to see/hear a glimpse of metal in their sound. HMS has a tight list. I'd consider Merauder leaning towards hc though.

No mention of Burzum ?

OK....sounds good.

i don't really care for burzum

Burzum is hopelessly overrated in my book & Vikernes just a pathetic piece of shit. If you're looking for trve blackness & insanity, listen to Betlehem.

In no particular order
Carcass
Dismember
blood red throne
Cannibal Corpse (chris barnes era)
Pantera
Slayer
Sepultura
Napalm death
Mastodon
Six feet under

What no Mayhem love?!?

I would have add Burzum, Mayhem, Strid, Kvist and Black Sabbath but it's more for specific amazing albums than whole careers.

New albums from Orcustus and Den Saakaldte are my top 2 rigth now.

I like Tool but I consider 'em Alternative (if the term is still in use..) not metal, even less industrial.

In regards to the discussion of what's metal and what isn't, it seems to me that WHEN a group was formed, or an album recorded, has something to do with how they're classified. I was driving around running some errands this evening listening to The Witch - their first album has a very 70s Sabbath-metal sound, but I find it kinda hard to classify them as metal and I think that's because they're a recent band. If they were around in the 70s, then of course they'd be metal. And if Judas Priest were formed in the 90s (or today) they never would have been considered metal.
And strip away KISS's facade and there's no way we'd even be discussing whether they were metal - image goes a long ways, too. Iron Maiden seems to have benefited from this as well - if it weren't for their album covers I think they'd be more likened to Rush.

OUCH! I will grant you that they have a sound that is much less "riff" centered, but I don't know that I can hang with the idea, that Maiden is not metal.

Nah, I do consider them metal - but just barely. Maybe I just haven't listened to enough Maiden/Rush - but to me Maiden just falls to the metal side of prog. To my somewhat limited listening Maiden is similar enough to Rush - and Rush is definitely NOT metal - that it's just a little hard to consider them metal. Especially when their album covers made them look metal-as-fuck back when I was a kid.
Oh - and I'm not saying this in a derogatory manner. It's neither good nor bad to be classified as metal (or not-metal).