The Utopian

This seems to me that many metal fans can't tell the difference of what is good vs. what is what they like. Good is inherently good. what you like , I don't care. By fact and not opinion the most important metal bands are

1)Black sabbath. They created the whole thing, lyrically and musically.
2)Metallica. In times when metal was mocked and ridiculed by bands like Motley Crue Poison, etc. Metallica offered something new.A new serious attitude to metal, which is the base of all modern metal.
3)Iron Maiden. Very similar approach as Metallica but never got the focus that Metallica had in their earlier career, keeping a foot in the 70's metal scene.
4)Def Leappard. Simply Metal for the Masses.In the thin line between Hard rock and Metal they jump over many genres in popularity, placing the name of Metal where it never has reached before.
5) Slayer. Responsible for death, black and extreme metal and even metalcore and modern branches of metal.
6)Judas Priest. responsible for the black leather, chains, nails, spikes that metal has. the creator of the face of metal. Musically they gave the speed that black sabbath didn't delivered.
7) Meshuggah. The beginning of modern metal.No metalcore , no heaviness, no odd time signatures, no machine aggression and precision without them,they pushed metal to the edge of rational complexity.
8)Pantera. From Glam metal to groove metal. Symbols of a dying 80 and the father of the 90 metal.
9)Dream Theater. Explode the Progressive metal genre. Set the progressive bar so high that everybody who jumps in the progressive wagon seems to be imitating Dream theater inevitably.
10)Korn. Simply the last big metal act. The father of a new generation of music in terms of imagery, music and subculture.
Today metal seems to be in the ebb of disappearance ,like tin pan alley, 50 rock and roll, blues,jazz, classic etc. condemned to be heard just like occasional music.