Heavy Metal/Awesome

Being a longtime genre with loads of aggressiveness, Rock Up to Eleven, and a helluvalot of subgenres, it's no surprise that Heavy Metal as a whole has its own page.

Individual bands with their own examples:
 * Black Sabbath
 * Helloween
 * Iron Maiden
 * Judas Priest
 * Kamelot
 * Metallica
 * Nightwish
 * Therion

Genres with their own page:
 * Power Metal
 * Technical Death Metal

"Juggernaut", "Persian Gulf"... hell, the whole damn thing. ""Do you mean to challenge me? Because your speech is threatening to the writer of your history [...] your whisper may sway the weak, but when I speak it roars the seas! Your challenge has been met, because with a breath I could snap your neck. This won't be like the first time you tried, because my patience and mercy for you has run dry [...] I will burn off your limbs, you will never shade again. You will bow at my feet, or I will rip out your knees and make of your face all the carnage you crave.""
 * MARINES! Sure, it's probably an anti-war anthem, but this is Sodom, after all.
 * AGENT ORANGE - BURN! AGENT ORANGE - BURN! AGENT ORANGE - BURN!
 * Their cover of "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen.
 * The idea of that makes it a really funny as well.
 * The German folk/melodic death metal band Equilibrium has a few of those but their epic battle hymn "Der Sturm" stands out in being even more awesome than the rest.
 * Ronnie James Dio. Say what you will about the pseudo-fantasy videos and Mind Screw lyrics, listen to "Holy Diver" and get a rush from the sheer power.
 * Ronnie's musical duel with Geoff Tate on Queensryche's "The Chase".
 * Ronnie James Dio also got some more CMoAs for "The Stargazer" and "A Light in the Black" during his days with Rainbow, "Atom and Evil" and "Eating the Cannibals" from Heaven & Hell, some other songs with Dio like "Stand Up And Shout", "Don't Talk To Strangers", "Evil Eyes", basically the whole of Holy Diver... hell, let's just say Ronnie James Dio is very, very good at these.
 * "King of Rock 'n' Roll". And by the end of the song, guess who is the titular king?.
 * Two Words: "We Rock".
 * If he doesn't have his own page, it'd be much, much easier to list his songs that AREN'T mind-shatteringly powerful. He didn't really do understated music...
 * Ozzy Osbourne. "I Don't Wanna Stop", "Mr. Crowley", "Perry Mason".
 * ALL ABOARD! Seriously, though, how can you forget "Crazy Train"? It's what everyone hears in their heads when they hear the name Ozzy Osbourne.
 * LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAM!
 * German band Accept has many of these, certainly. They were one of the precursors of the German Power Metal!
 * Just to start, "Balls To The Wall".
 * And then, "Fast As A Shark". The entirety of Restless and Wild is a MUST LISTEN.
 * For something new, try "Teutonic Terror".
 * "Russian Roulette". War games! *BOOM*
 * SWAY! So hypnotic...
 * "Feel So Numb", "Dragula", and "Superbeast" by Rob Zombie are all worth mentioning.
 * By his original band, White Zombie, "More Human Than Human", "Black Sunshine", and "Thunder Kiss '65" are also awesome.
 * "Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks, Cannibal Girls", a song so hardcore they put it in a movie about two metalheads who watch music videos as the one and only musical number.
 * Moonsorrow's epic album V: Hävitetty is a pair of 25+ minute folk/black metal pieces, whose interweaving, repetitive-but-ever-changing guitars, folkish interludes, and occasional hundred-man choirs (to offset the screaming) create a subtle but unmistakable awesome. It has a bit of the regular awesome, too.
 * "Pimeä" and "Jotunheim" from the previous album Verisäkeet.
 * "Sankarihauta". Epic does not begin to describe it.
 * Being one of the first bands in Finnish metal, Oz demonstrates how CMoA is done.
 * Doro Pesch, in both her "Warlock" career and her still-continuing solo career, is one of the undisputed queens of metal, as demonstrated by "All We Are", "Burning the Witches", "Für Immer", "I Rule the Ruins", "Thunderspell", and a host of others.
 * Candlemass, the band that named Epic Doom Metal in 1986. Especially the ultra-rare album Abstrakt Algebra II, containing, e.a. "Thirst", a jazz/doom-metal song. And the opening song can very accurately be described as exactly what would have happened if Pink Floyd had been a Doom Metal band, and the version of "Dustflow" on that one takes that idea even further. They're a legend for a lot of reasons.
 * "Solitude" and "Crystal Ball". That's all.
 * Black Stone Wielder... IS BOOOOOOOOOORN!
 * "Tourniquet" by Marilyn Manson is so brilliant. From the bass intro to how his vocals it all just works.
 * "Sweet Dreams", "The Beautiful People", or anything off of Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, or Holy Wood!
 * Korpiklaani.
 * Imagine a tent full of metalheads dancing and singing to this and having a lot of fun doing it. Only Korpiklaani can do that.
 * "Beer Beer" is one of the best drinking songs ever.
 * A very large amount of their songs are some of the best drinking songs ever.
 * "Cottages and Saunas". Playing this while doing almost ANYTHING will almost certainly make you feel badass.
 * "Wooden Pints".
 * "Juodaan Vinaa".
 * Cradle of Filth, especially the album Midian.
 * Eluveitie. "Uis Elveti". Awesome. Eluveitie just equals win.
 * Turisas. Two words: "Battle Metal".
 * Practically every Turisas song has an insanely epic sing-along chorus that you can't help but get stuck in your head. See "To Holmgard and Beyond" and "One More" if you want to be humming something for a week straight.
 * Saxon: "Street Fighting Gang". Perfect for when you need to dispense an old-school asskicking.
 * For that matter, "Princess of the Night".
 * Denim and Leather brought us all together...
 * The Transformers theme as done by a group called Lion.
 * The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Take the mind-crushing awesomeness of rock and roll and combine it with the time-defying glory that is classical music, and this is what you get.
 * "Beethoven's Requiem (The Fifth)".
 * "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, the Carol of the Bells".
 * This compilation is called A Last Illusion. The first song is "Flight of the Bumblebee". PURE WIN. Followed by an equally awesome rendition of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".
 * The band they were previously, Savatage, also has its fair share of epic awesome tracks. "This Isn't What We Meant", "Chance", and "Symmetry" are just a few of them.
 * "Wizards In Winter". Along with one person's epic Christmas lights.
 * Pretty much anything by Finnish monster rockers Lordi, but most especially "Devil Is A Loser", "Deadite Girls Gone Wild", "Hard Rock Hallelujah", "Children of the Night", "Bite It Like A Bulldog", "Girls Go Chopping", "Blood Red Sandman", "Good To Be Bad", and "Would You Love A Monsterman".
 * Second on "Hard Rock Hallelujah". Not only is it awesome, it got Finland its first win in the Eurovision Song Contest, AND it has the highest score ever received by a song to date. Twice.
 * Not to mention "Bringing Back the Balls to Rock", which got Lordi through the qualifying rounds. Bonus points for being a love letter to all things heavy. Even more bonus points for the use of cowbell in the middle of the guitar solo, a move that is both awesome and kinda hilarious.
 * "Beast Loose in Paradise", which played over the credits of their movie Dark Floors.
 * They also did a cover of Alice Cooper's "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)".
 * Symphony X. The Odyssey. That is all.
 * Anything Russell Allen touches is pure gold. See "Dawn of a Million Souls" from Ayreon, above.
 * "Live for the Kill" by Amon Amarth. Normally Melodic Death Metal songs don't have very moving parts to them, but add in the cellos of Apocalyptica, and it's a very powerful and very haunting effect.
 * "Call me by my astral name Breeding fear through wordless tongue" barks Mikael Stanne / Anders Friden aided by that sweeping cyclone of guitar riffs and subsequent pounding of the guitar in the track that become In Flames' first classic track and a icon of the Gothenburg metal scene.
 * "The One you Love to Hate". Rob Halford. Bruce Dickinson. Singing together in an awesome song.
 * Metsatöll. Take some traditional Estonian folk music, mix it with heavy drums and electric guitars and you get this, this and this.
 * "Burn In Hell" by Twisted Sister. Their performance of this song at Wacken Open Air Festival 2003 was epic beyond words.
 * Slipknot's "Dead Memories" and "Vermilion". Forget the loud, obnoxious Nu Metal band they were. They're gradually making a switch away from brutal noise to proper metal.
 * "Wait and Bleed", "Spit It Out" and "Left Behind" can be considered Crazy Awesome.
 * 3 words: Lamb of God. Almost every song they make is fucking incredible but the best ones are probably "Omerta", "Redneck", "Pariah", and "Choke Sermon".
 * "Grace", "For Your Malice", "One Gun", and "Walk With Me In Hell" are songs that are simply too raw for humanity.
 * Everything made by Devin Townsend manages to be surprisingly distinctive and deeply interesting, whether you like it or not. Be it hard rock, metal, heavy destructive face-stomping, mind-crushing metal or soft rock, he will nail it like nobody ever wished to.
 * Special mention goes to the album Ziltoid the Omniscient, the entirety of which is pretty awesome. Notably epic tracks include "By Your Command", "Ziltoidia Attaxx!!!" and "Planet Smasher".
 * Every song from the album Addicted. Start here. If you listen to it from start to finish by the end you'll feel as if you've been taken to the stars and back. Props go to "Trainfire", "Lady Helen" and "Ki" from his other album Ki as well.
 * ALL! HAIL! THE NEW FLESH!
 * STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND.
 * Korn certainly deserves a few mentions. "Twisted Transistor" and "Ever Be" are both great songs, but "Coming Undone" is fucking incredible.
 * Try listening to their first album, and in particular the first song on that album, and see if that doesn't alter your definition of awesome.
 * Or the entirety of the second album.
 * Come on! No love for "Freak On A Leash" and "Got The Life"?
 * "Another Brick in the Wall". Thought this was a cover that could never work? Prepare to be proven wrong.
 * "Battle Song" by Ensiferum. Best described as being mind-blowingly Hot Blooded Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann-Hot Blooded.
 * Lai Lai Hei illustrates what they are capable of. 7 minutes of folk metal greatness.
 * You mean X Japan hasn't made the list yet? All of their songs are pretty epic, but "Art of Life" is probably the best example. The song is about thirty minutes long and still manages to be awesome the whole time.
 * Protest the Hero.
 * The last minute of "She Who Mars the Skin of Gods", all of "Sequoia Throne".
 * All of "Scurrilous". Props to Arif for putting a slap bass solo in the middle of a metal song.
 * "Ohne Dich" is a beautiful song
 * "Feuer Frei" and "Ich Tu Dir Weh", too, though.
 * Off their new album, "Frühling in Paris" definitely qualifies, and "Pussy" is also a Moment Of Funny.
 * Personally, "Stein Um Stein", "Rosenrot", "Haifisch" and "Weißes Fleisch" are among my favorites.
 * Special mention for Isole, a Doom Metal band with exactly 'one' good song.
 * Leaves' Eyes. Most of their songs are about love, nature and other such stuff. Wouldn't expect much epicness out of that, would you? It's symphonic/gothic metal covered in the most epic epicsauce known to man. "Senses Capture", "Farewell Proud Men", "Solemn Sea" and "Misseri". Aw heck, the entirety of Vinland Saga is one great, big, whopping CMOA.
 * Raise you another one. Liv Kristine, the lead singer of Leaves' Eyes, did guest vocals on the song "Nymphetamine" by Cradle of Filth.
 * More importantly, she was the lead singer of Theatre of Tragedy until about 2005 or so. Theatre were major trailblazers in the gothic/doom metal genre, and pioneered the "beauty and the beast" vocal style characterized by a coupling of clean female vocals and male death growls. Of course this is not to say her work on "Nymphetamine" wasn't impressive - it certainly was - but she's done a lot more too.
 * The melodic death metal band Deadlock would be already awesome enough to get an entry in this page, but their album Wolves brought us "Praeludium II", a short epic classical piece that manages to be as interesting as the metal content on the rest of the album, if not even more interesting.
 * Seconded. Not to mention Sabine has some of the best clean vocals in all of metal.
 * Disturbed. EVERY. SINGLE. SONG. But especially: "Stupify", "Awaken", "Just Stop", "Stricken", "Pain Redefined", "Inside The Fire", "Deceiver", "Perfect Insanity", "Divide".
 * To clarify, any time you ask a large group of Disturbed fans their favorites, over half of them will list unknown or obscure songs from the back of the albums. This is a five album discography, people. The band is that worshiped by their fanbase.
 * "I'M AN INDESTRUCTIBLE MASTER OF WAAAAAAAAAR!"
 * Their new song, "Another Way To Die" features some of the vocal dynamics hinted at in "Deify" and "Land of Confusion", then turns them Up to Eleven. It starts with a grim vocal crooning opening, then the guitars start booming while Draiman shouts the things people've done to the Earth, building to an epic crescendo while the rest of the band sings back-up, after which Donegan gives us one of his most technical guitar solos is years. This is the kind of song that gets people into Disturbed.
 * From the same album, "Asylum". Now that's Badass, if you don't agree listen to it. It carries so many aspects of Disturbed's distilled style that it may compete with DWTS for Signature Song.
 * OOH WAH AH AH AH!!
 * The drum opening. Oh, God the drum opening. Way to define tribal percussion, Mike.
 * "The Night" is pretty widely-agreed to be solid gold. It has one of those riffs that's hard not to fall in love with and what could arguably be called Dan Donegan's best solo of his career. Mix that with David's dramatic bellowing vocals and the tight-as-always rhythm section for a great overall package.
 * The fills in "Ten Thousand Fists" have just the right level of speed, melody and complexity to become downright orgasmic. Not to mention those catchy strings and David's epic shouting.
 * "Living After Midnight" covered by Disturbed. Not only is it an excellent cover all-round, Mike Wengren pays tribute to Painkiller's drum opening for fun in the intro, Dan Donegan creates an original solo for the outro and David Draiman hits a massively high note near the end as well.
 * Anybody heard their latest album, The Lost Children? The collection of b-sides and rare tracks? Oh my god, EVERY SONG ON THAT ALBUM IS PURE GOLD. But especially "This Moment", "Parasite", and "3". It was said they called it The Lost Children because they couldn't pick a favorite unreleased song to put on it.
 * It's easier to say which song of theirs ISN'T awesome, but the best ones are "Indestructible", "Fire In My Eyes", "Down With The Sickness", "Hell", "The Night", "Haunted", "Criminal", "The Animal", and "Ten Thousand Fists"
 * Megadeth. Peace Sells... But Who's Buyng?, Rust in Peace, Youthanasia, and Endgame.
 * MEGADETH!!! MEGADETH!!! AGUANTE MEGADETH!!!
 * Speaking of Rust in Peace, "Take no Prisoners" will kick your ass all over the place.
 * THEIR ENTIRE FREAKING DISCOGRAPHY!! Yes, even Risk is awesome!
 * But to help first-time listeners along: "Hangar 18", "Holy Wars", "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!", "The Conjuring", "Addicted To Chaos", "Washington Is Next!" and a personal #1 favorite, "Poison Was The Cure."
 * "Holy Wars", the song is so awesome, it might as well be called "Holy Shit!"
 * Just about everything by the melodic death metal band Dark Tranquility, but in particular "Day To End" and "Insanity's Crescendo".
 * Ahem.
 * The Vital Remains album Dechristianize in general, the song "Devoured Elysium" in particular, especially since it has one of the most memorable lines of any song: "GOD YOU FUCKING WHORE".
 * Brocas Helm's album Defenders of the Crown. The whole damn thing, particularly if it comes with "Drink The Blood Of The Priest". The entire album is on this guy's channel, fifteen songs in all. "Cry of the Banshee",
 * Arch Enemy: Death Metal with epic guitar solos! Micheal Ammot is the king of the guitar solo. Listen to any song and try not to feel the awesomeness emanating from his guitar.
 * The rest of the band top-notch, too, in the vocals. There's a Broken Base over who's better— Johan Liiva on the '90s albums or Angela Gossow (yes, a woman who can growl) from 2000 on— but both sides are at least worth checking out. Start with the Stigmata album for material with Johan on vocals, or Wages Of Sin or Doomsday Machine for songs with Angela behind the mic.
 * August Burns Red has a few towards the end of their most recent albums. Listen to "Redemption" or "Meddler". "We'll feed our flame before wasting time on anyone else's/the gallows were not supposed to look like this"
 * Almost all of the songs from their album Leveler certainly qualify for this, but the lyrics of "Empire" are about humanity, and how our time now is a Moment of Awesome.
 * Christopher Lee's Charlemagne concept album, especially "The Bloody Verdict of Verden".
 * "I SHED THE BLOOD OF THE SAXON MEN! I SHED THE BLOOD OF THE SAXON MEN"
 * Almost anything Sigh have released, ever. To give you an idea of what these guys are like, their 2001 album Imaginary Sonicscape starts off with fuzzy synths and heavy guitar, works its way through dub breakdowns, disco sections, a classical interlude, an eleven minute song featuring a tuned percussion solo, and ends with a haunting whistling melody... That abruptly cuts into a chorus of laughing babies. Their 2008 album? Wagnerian in its bombast, even having a song or two that START with guitar solos. And the new album...? They replaced the trumpets with SAXOPHONE. Long story short, they are the black metal embodiment of Crazy Awesome.
 * System Of A Down's "Aerials", "Chop Suey!", "Spiders", "Hypnotize".
 * Don't forget "Streamline" and their cover of Black Sabbath's "Snowblind". Serj's vocals and the band's musical style give the song a new meaning.
 * "The Finisher" by Oh, Sleeper is written as a Badass Boast/World of Cardboard Speech from God's perspective to Satan. From its start to its finish, it gives the impression that Lucifer is probably sitting there saying "Oh Crap. Excerpts:


 * Likewise, the opening eponymous track on the same album, "Son of the Morning", is the reverse: a challenge against God by Satan, wherein God's response is contained in the chorus. It is manic and violent, giving the picture of a very disturbed, almost insane Satan. And it is AWESOME.
 * Machinae Supremacy's very first song, "Cryosleep", is the perfect fusion of heavy metal and electronic music.
 * I see it all laid to waste in a view from the end of the world...
 * Scar Symmetry's "Ghost Prototype II - Deus Ex Machina" is amazing. The combination of clean vocals and death growls, the semi-upbeat lyrics, and that fucking SOLO.
 * The title track to the band's Holographic Universe album. If ever there was a song to thoroughly define the band that plays it, this is it.
 * That entire fucking album is probably one of the best metal albums put out in the past 10 years. From the way the songs are written to the way one song flows into the next, it's essentially flawless, and without a doubt their best work to date.
 * Actually, their entire musical output might pretty well qualify for CMOA, even after Christian's departure.
 * "Hybrid Cult" probably shows off Christian's most diverse vocal performance with the band. He uses his death growl, his higher register scream, some weird almost speaking voice, and then his amazing singing voice we all love. All in the same song.
 * "Feeding Frenzy" by Walls of Jericho. The intro alone demands fist pumping.
 * Kyuss' entire career was made out of hugely distorted guitar riffs that sound completely awesome. "Whitewater" and "Demon Cleaner" stand out, but the entire Welcome to Sky Valley album is completely kickass, as is the rest of their material.
 * The Agonist. Most of their songs contain about three epic riffs each.
 * "Misanthropy Pure" by Shai Hulud. The lyrics are sick, never mind the guitar work.
 * POD's "Youth of the Nation". A ominous, powerful dedication to victims of school shootings and other isolated victims of the dark side high school life.
 * Thousand Foot Krutch's Welcome to the Masquerade is alternative metal at its very best.
 * Summoning's "Land of the Dead" has to be one of the most beautiful songs ever.
 * Sentenced had an epic and emotional farewell gig after they decided to disband permanently and the whole gig could be said to be a moment of awesome. The most emotional moments are when the former vocalist makes a surprise guest appearance to bid his own farewell to the fans and the vocalist holding back tears when introducing and singing their swan song "End of the Road" and the lengthy guitar solo that ends the song.
 * Trivium has a butt load of these on Shogun. With earth-shattering cuts such as "Kirisute Gomen" and "Down From The Sky", how could anyone even hope keep their head still?
 * Mayhem definitely has it going for its career, but their primary awesome song is "Freezing Moon". It doesn't matter if it's with Attila Csihar, Maniac, or Dead because it's still awesome to listen to.
 * Bal-Sagoth has many songs that fit this, most notably "Chronicles of Shadow".
 * That song deserves a CMoA all on its own with the line "And liberated virgins from the burden of their maidenhood"
 * Agalloch has many songs that fall under this category, the best examples are the three parts of "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline".
 * Many of their songs combine the right amount of melancholic atmosphere with awesome riffs.
 * Slayer. 'Nuff said.
 * Specifically, the entire Reign in Blood album. 30 minutes of pure metal carnage.
 * Not just Reign In Blood, but also Hell Awaits, South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss. Those three all have slower songs or passages in the mix, but plenty of their slower riffs are just as memorable, if not more.
 * The Lord Weird Slough Feg (now Slough Feg) is proof that metal is alive and well. With songs like "Warrior's Dawn", "Vargr Theme - Confrontation", and "Ape Uprising".
 * Additionally, the whole of Traveller. concept about a half-man, half-wolf consisting of twelve awesome songs.
 * No Demon Hunter yet? Did anybody else think that The Triptych was a nearly flawless album? Front to back. True Defiance ties with it for being the band's best albums.
 * Anything at all by Dir en grey. For example, "Vinushka". It makes you think it's a gentle, calm sort of song until you hear the ROAR OF KYO and the whole band is screaming and growling, the guitars are sounding like tormented souls of hell and it's so EPIC.
 * Then you have "Obscure", "Merciless Cult" and so many songs by Dir en grey that are moments of musical awesomeness.
 * All of their songs. ALL OF THEM. They go from pop, to rock, to metal, to so hard core the paint on the wall bleeds. I love them!
 * Post-metal, a relatively recent 'genre' has been created almost entirely in the service of the Musical Moment of Awesome. The slow crescendo and eventual climax is the whole point, leading to being some measure of epic.
 * Examples include the ending crescendo of "So Did We" by Isis, the sudden, beautiful lightning storm at the end of "Burn" by Neurosis, "O'le Nessie" by Mastodon, and "Finland" by Cult of Luna.
 * Not to mention the second part of "At the Base Of The Giant's Throat" by Battle of Mice.
 * No Sleep!? Really? For those who don't know, Sleep was an incredibly influential stoner doom metal band from the 90s. They easily claim the title as heaviest band to ever exist. Take Black Sabbath and get them EVEN MORE high on as much weed as you can possibly have. Their moment of awesome is easily their song "Dopesmoker". A single song that lasts OVER AN HOUR! If you have not been crushed into tiny pieces and had your spirit ascend to nirvana by the end of "Dopesmoker", the bonus live track on the album, "Sonic Titan", will finish the job
 * "And now I'm standing staring at the world..."
 * Seconded. But hell, the entire Crack The Skye album qualifies as Awesome Music, so anyone who's not familiar with the band should think about starting there.
 * No mention of "Breadfan"? For shame!
 * And now for something completely different, yet awesome: Apocalyptica. Some good pieces: "Inquisition Symphony", "Hyperventilation", "Hall of the Mountain King" and the best of all: their rendition of "Nothing Else Matters" takes the cake, HANDS DOWN.
 * "Ruska", meanwhile, is a Tear Jerker.
 * Czech band Root is undeservedly obscure.
 * In Russia, awesome Folk Metal makes Arkona. Just listen to their "Rus".
 * The Hungarian folk metal band Dalriada. Pretty much all of their songs have unbelievably catchy choruses. For example "Hajdútánc".
 * No Behemoth yet? They have many songs that could qualify for a CMOA but the best of the best is probably this.
 * Just for the page intro: you want aggressiveness? You want Rock Up to Eleven? Then Heaven Shall Burn will more than sate your needs. After detonating your eardrums a thousand times over, of course.
 * Anaal Nathrakh. Listen.
 * The entirety of Tristania's album Widow's Weeds is awesome. You've got the epically catchy "My Lost Lenore", the brutal and dark "Wasteland's Caress", and the heartbreaking Tear Jerker that is "December Elegy" (if you don't have tears in your eyes at that violin solo, you sold your soul). All topped off with one of the greatest uses of Sopranoand Gravel in gothic metal.
 * Within Temptation "Our Solemn Hour", with guest appearance by Winston Churchill.
 * Their "Sound of Freedom" is also awesome.
 * Especially the live version with an extended intro and an orchestra playing with them.
 * Pretty much their entire live show Black Symphony.
 * "The Truth Beneath The Rose".
 * Their newest album The Unforgiving is really awesome. Highlights include "Iron" and "A Demon's Fate".
 * There's also "Shot in the Dark" for those of you who prefer their slower stuff. Worthy of note from earlier albums: "The Howling", "Hand Of Sorrow", "Dark Wings", "The Promise" and "Enter".
 * Manowar. Everything. What, that's not enough? Oh fine:
 * "Manowar! Born to live forevermore! The right to conquer every shore!"
 * "Father! Father! FATHER I LOOK UP TO YOUUUUUUU...."
 * "Hymn of the Immortal Warriors".
 * Their recent song, "Father" is epic in its own right. But then they released in sixteen different languages.
 * "Warriors of the World (United)"
 * "Heart of Steel"
 * "Die For Metal", quite possibly the greatest metal anthem ever recorded.
 * Are we not forgetting the true metal anthem "Kings of Metal"?
 * "Army of the Dead" qualifies for the sheer levels of Manly Tears it inspires.
 * "Fight for Freedom" Here it is in a tribute to the U.S. Armed Forces.
 * "Carry On"
 * You Are A Pirate from Lazy Town is very catchy right, well check out the Alestorm version...
 * Also from Alestorm: "Keelhauled", "Chronicles of Vengeance", "Shipwrecked", and "Captain Morgan's Revenge".
 * Let's not forget "Back Through Time" and "Over The Seas". Utterly brilliant, swashbuckling and epic openings to their respective albums.
 * Gamma Ray, especially the Somewhere Out In Space album.
 * In This Moment are simply epic, especially "Forever"
 * "Violet Skies". Enough said.
 * Soilwork's first four albums are a bit noisy and sound a little immature. Their next four albums, however, are some of the most epic metal albums around. Once you start with the first song on their 2003 album Figure Number Five.
 * Motorhead: something something something THE ACE OF SPADES! THE ACE OF SPADES!
 * Then there's "Overkill" a stop-start section done 4 times that gets better everytime. Especially when the Big Four play it and their drummers continually one-up each other.
 * Diamond Head, especially "Helpless" and "Am I Evil?" When the four of the biggest metal bands ever come together to play your songs, you have done well.
 * Red's "Nothing and Everything".
 * "Feed the Machine" is also pretty awesome.
 * Ill Nino. You thought Nu Metal sucked? Listen to every single album these guys have put out.
 * I just wanna touch you, I just wanna FUCK YOU!!! Nobody can make singing about feelings for a girl sound that awesome.
 * 'I can, smell the way you taste...'. Who knew metal could be seductive?
 * THIS IS WAR! Listen to this while playing Borderlands, Call of Duty, or any shooter. YOU. WILL. OWN.
 * "Compulsion of Virus and Fever". Enough said.
 * NO MORE WAARRRS! NOOO MOORRREE RESOLUTIONS!!
 * The entire Confession album is simply killer. It sounds like Linkin Park, Korn, Meshuggah, Slipknot, Soilwork, Sepultura, Soulfly, Santana and Breaking Benjamin had sex.
 * "How Can I Live" in particular is a pretty epic song. Listen to the verses, and try not to get chills up your spine. Everything about that song is nearly perfect. There's a reason they re-recorded it in Spanish and put the song on their own album twice.
 * "Kellogg's, Bombs, & Cracker Jacks". Forget how ridiculous the title is; that song is awesome.
 * EAT YOUR RICE! EAT YOUR STEAK! EAT YOUR FRIES! THE ONLY FUCKING THING WE DO IS WATCH TV! Also really funny.
 * Pick nearly any song by Chimaira. Any. "Power Trip", "Resurrection", "Trigger Finger", "Let Go", "Army of Me", "The Venom Inside", and "Sp Lit" are barely even a small handful of awesome tracks these guys have put out.
 * No Demon Hunter yet? Did anybody else think that The Triptych was a nearly flawless album? Front to back. True Defiance ties with it for being the band's best albums.
 * Mnemic's song "Liquid". Enough said.
 * Wow. All these awesome bands and no Sevendust?? They are quite possibly one of the few good bands under nu metal, along with Ill Nino, mentioned above. Songs like "Disease", "Unraveling", and "Ugly" are good places to start.
 * Atmospheric black metal band Drudkh has several. "Glare of Autumn" seems to be the fan favorite.
 * Machine Head definitely deserves a mention. Listen to their entire Burn My Eyes album.
 * Anything at all by Fear Factory. "Slave Labor" is probably the best of the best. The electronics in the main riff are just amazing.
 * Heidevolk - "Vulgaris Magistralis"
 * Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce Nonpoint. Alternative metal doesn't get much better than these guys.
 * Breaking Benjamin managed to pull off a song about The Wizard of Oz and make it sound good. That alone is saying something about them.
 * Anthrax is usually thought of as the least musically important band of the "Big Four" and are therefore overlooked. But that's simply an injustice for the band that made classics like "A.I.R.", "Skeleton in the Closet", "Belly of the Beast", "Got the Time", "Indians", "Madhouse", and "Caught in a Mosh".
 * Pretty much anything by Black Label Society. If you're looking for some classic metal with a modern edge and a southern twist, you should not pass them up.
 * The entire Guitars That Ate Your Brains album qualifies. Pure metal, pure virtuosity and pure eargasm.