They are actually quite famous, playing as headliners on some festivals. FFDP I mean, not Tripple nipple xD Don't dig them though.

since I flourished in the 80s as a teen I lisetened to all sorts of rock and metal but favorite heavy metal bands?
Slayer
Anthrax
SOD
testament
exodeus
mercyful fate
Flotsam and Jertsam
savatage
voivod
nuclear assault
::danger::
Lets jump ahead 25 years
Avenged sevenfold
Five finger death punch
seether
Slayer
3 days grace
all that remains
breaking benjamin(the old band)
bullet for my valentine

Hellva list there. Bravo. I like all types of metal black, thrash and death metal mostly. Favs would be Slayer #1 for me, Death, Mayhem, Emperor, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and Sepultura to name a few. Obviously love the classics Metallica, Maiden, Priest etc.

I guess my top list would be...

Arkona
Forever Slave
Rhapsody of Fire
Manowar
Skyforest

Elsewhere no other group really produces more than a good album.

And my guilty pleasure Blind Guardian and Dragonforce but I wouldn't admit that if this wasn't anonymous!

I am currently very into Butcher Babies...I also love Cradle of Filth, I play them often and Dawn of Ashes is also a favorite of mine....That is all for now..::sad::

Voivod

Avenged sevenfold (favorite)
Iron maiden
Death
Behemoth
Darkthrone
Xasthur
Metallica, mostly pre-black album stuff
Gojira
Slipknot
Tool

This is also in no particular order

I was more into progressive and classic rock than metal. And don't listen to much of it these days, haven't kept up. But listening to the beginning of this local metal show, I know there's a lot of really good new metal. Old 'metal' I used to like was Def Leppard (Pyro), Rush, Priest, White Snake and really just a lot of metal songs, not really into the albums/bands.

Yeet!

Darkthrone
Burzum
Immortal
Amon Amarth
And other shit

Slayer
Iron Maiden
Bathory
Celtic Frost
Kreator
Emperor
Morbid Angel
Venom
Motley Crue (Shout at the Devil era)
Mercyful Fate

Way too many too mention, but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.