Interesting metal bands

I don't think it's an oxymoron at all - metal bands have always fascinated me.

Judas Priest and Blue Oyster Cult are probably the most interesting of the earliest wave, Raven and Diamond Head from the NWOBHM, Skid Row from the "hair bands", Napalm Death and Kreator from the early wave of thrash/speed metal and more recently System of a Down.

Specific albums that any progger/prog metaller should check out (if they don't already own them!) are;

Sad Wings of Destiny - Judas Priest

Cultosaurus Erectus - Blue Oyster Cult

Living on Borrowed Time - Diamond Head

Wiped Out and Rock 'Til You Drop - Raven

Slave to the Grind - Skid Row

Scum - Napalm Death (don't buy anything else by them - they only had the one idea!)

Extreme Aggression - Kreator

Toxicity - System of a Down

Also HIGHLY recommended:

Narita - Riot

Strikes / Marauder - Blackfoot

Head On - Samson

Winter Kill - Slauter Xstroyes

Spooky Two - Spooky Tooth (from 1968, this will knock you sideways if you don't know it - with elements of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and early Yes, but before those bands were even formed!).

Split - Groundhogs (more grunge than metal, but superb!)

Kings of Oblivion - Pink Fairies

On Parole - Motorhead (This is one album NOT to be overlooked in metal's history - as UA did...).

...I'll think of some more later

For some this may be an oxymoron, but I'd like to share some metal bands which do interesting things but wouldn't fit under a "progressive" tag , or even a "metal" tag in some cases, but still allied to the metal scene. I'm focusing more on obscure  (and mid 80s - present) bands here:

Empyrium  - these German chaps started off as a slow, folky melodic doom group before developing into straight up neo folk, albeit punctuated with the odd growl - over folky violins and acoustic guitars it sounds a bit disconcerting. They've done one of my absolute favourite songs - "Lover's Grief" (from their more metallish days) which starts off with a mournful flute "riff" repeated before crashing into what seems like almost unparalled beauty

Cause for Effect - http://www.kolumbus.fi/ari.tenhola/ are a "fusion grindcore" duo (I think from Sweden) who mix up their grindcore drumming and growls with weird techy bass parts. Not just a novelty!

Devil Doll - on the archives, although nothing like normal progressive metal. Modern opera with a gothic touch, absolutely fabulous. Twisted genius was never a more appropriate cliché.

Angizia - An Australian scaled down equivalent of Devil Doll. Probably their equal in terms of tortured singing, although I can't understand the libretto (yup, they're pretentious enough to call it a libretto, and so am I ) although with only a six piece band the sense of atmosphere and "epicness" is obviously nothing on Devil Doll, and their style isn't really similar enough to bear a close comparison. Still good, though.

Peccatum/Arcturus - both "offshoots" from the real guy out of Emperor - Peccatum more noisy and avant-garde, Arturus more operatic. Either one well worthy checking out.

Stijn Van Cauter - man of a thousand projects, ranging from minimalist drone to symphonic doom to funeral, but all slooooooooooooooww. A few projects: Dreams of Dying Stars, Organium (black metal on just an organ... whatever ), Until Death Overtakes Me.

That's not an exhaustive list, I'd just like to see if anyone's interested before posting anything more.