Manowar

Manowar in Hamburg during their 2007 tour.

Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980 the group is known for its lyrics based on fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery) and mythological topics (particularly Norse mythology) along with their "loud and bombastic" sound. In an interview for MTV in February 2007, bassist Joey DeMaio lamented that "these days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras... so it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that." In 1984 the band was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on 2 occasions. They also hold the world record for the longest heavy metal concert after playing for 5 hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008.

Although the band has never been a mainstream commercial success in the United States, they maintain a strong cult following there. In contrast, they are extremely popular in the heavy metal scene in Europe, Japan, Australia and South America. Dedicated fans are known and referred to by the band as "Metal Warriors", "Manowarriors", "Immortals" or "Brothers of Metal", and collectively their fans are known as the "Army of Immortals"

Celtic Frost

Celtic Frost live at Tuska Open Air Metal Festival 2006.

Celtic Frost was a metal band from Zürich, Switzerland. They are known for their heavy influence on the extreme metal genres. The group was first active from 1984 to 1993, and re-formed in 2001. Following Tom Gabriel Fischer's departure in 2008, Celtic Frost decided to definitely break up. The band was inspired by heavy metal groups such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom, but also by gothic rock acts like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Christian Death, and by the hardcore punk group Discharge

Dream Theater

Dream Theater performing live in 2011.

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would ultimately become Dream Theater. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remained together along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess until September 8, 2010 when Portnoy left the band. In October 2010, the band held auditions for Portnoy's replacement drummer. Mike Mangini was announced as the new permanent drummer on April 29, 2011.

The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Guitarist John Petrucci has been named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any invited players. In 2009 he was named the No. 2 best metal guitarist by Joel McIver in his book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists. He was also named as one of the "Top 10 Fastest Shredders of All Time" by GuitarOne magazine. Former drummer Mike Portnoy has won 23 awards from Modern Drummer magazine and is also the second youngest person (at the age of 37) to be inducted into the Rock Drummer Hall of Fame. His replacement Mike Mangini has also previously set 5 WFD records. John Myung was voted the greatest bassist of all time in a poll conducted by MusicRadar in August through September 2010. The band was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

The band's highest-selling album is the gold-selling Images and Words (1992), which reached No. 61 on the Billboard 200 chart. Both the 1994 release Awake and their 2002 release Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also entered the charts at No. 32 and No. 46 respectively and received mostly positive reviews. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, which also became gold certified, was ranked number 95 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of The greatest 100 guitar albums of all time. It is ranked as the 15th Greatest Concept Album (as of March, 2003) by Classic Rock Magazine. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also led to Dream Theater becoming the initial band reviewed in the music section of Entertainment Weekly during its opening week of release, despite the magazine generally preferring more mainstream music. In 2007, Systematic Chaos entered U.S. Billboard 200 at No. 19. By 2008, Dream Theater had sold over 2.1 million albums in the U.S. and by 2011, over 12 million records worldwide.

The band's eleventh studio album, A Dramatic Turn of Events, was released on September 13, 2011. It entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at No. 8, two positions lower than their previous release Black Clouds & Silver Linings which entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 6. The album is the band's first with Mike Mangini, since Mike Portnoy's departure. On November 30, 2011 it was announced that On the Backs of Angels was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category, marking the band's first ever Grammy nomination.

Queensryche

Queensrÿche performing live at Norway Rock Festival 2010

Queensrÿche ( /ˈkwiːnzraɪk/) is an American progressive heavy metal band formed in 1981 in Bellevue, Washington. The band has released eleven studio albums and several EPs and DVDs and continues to tour and record.

Queensrÿche has been successful in the progressive scene, having sold over 20 million albums worldwide including over 6 million albums in the United States.

Ozzy Osbourne

Osbourne in 2010.

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English band Black Sabbath, whose dark and hard sound helped spawn the heavy metal genre. Due to Sabbath's dark style, Osbourne became known as the "Prince of Darkness". Osbourne is also known as the "Godfather of Heavy Metal".

In the early 2000s, Osbourne's career expanded when he became a star in his own reality show The Osbournes, alongside wife/manager Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack. A documentary about his life and career, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. Osbourne has achieved multi-platinum status as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath and has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.

Slipknot

Slipknot performing at Metaltown Festival in 2009.

Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. Formed in 1995, the group was founded by percussionist Shawn Crahan and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in their early days, the band consisted of nine members for the greater part of their tenure: Sid Wilson, Paul Gray, Joey Jordison, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor. However, the death of Paul Gray on May 24, 2010, left the band with only eight remaining members. Former guitarist Donnie Steele was the band's touring bassist in 2011.

Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive music style, and energetic and chaotic live shows.^{[citation needed]} The band had somewhat of a meteoric rise to success following the release of their self-titled debut album in 1999. The 2001 follow-up album Iowa further increased the band's popularity. After breaking for their first hiatus, Slipknot returned in 2004 with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and once again in 2008 with their fourth album All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200. The band has also released one live album and four DVDs.

Death

Death in Mexico City, June 1989. From left to right: bassist Terry Butler, guitarist Paul Masvidal, manager Eric Greif, drummer Bill Andrews and guitarist/vocalist Chuck Schuldiner

Death was an American metal band founded in 1983. The band's founder, Chuck Schuldiner, is considered "a pioneering force in death metal and grindcore". The band ceased to exist after Schuldiner died of brain cancer in 2001, though remains an enduring metal brand.

Death is considered one of the most influential bands in metal. The band's debut, Scream Bloody Gore, has been described as "death metal's first archetypal document" and "the first true death metal record". One music biographer has referred to Schuldiner as the "Father of Death Metal" while another has claimed that Schuldiner is "readily acknowledged as the true founder of the U.S. death metal scene".

As of 2008, Death had sold over 2 million albums worldwide, with over 500,000 copies sold by December 2009 in the U.S. alone (excluding the numerous sales before the SoundScan era) making them the top-selling death metal band worldwide, and only topped in the U.S. by Cannibal Corpse.