Favorite Rock/Metal bands?

Wishbone Ash
Neal Morse Band
Transatlantic
Dire Straits
Camel

Iron Maiden
Blind Guardian
Running Wild
Sonata Arctica
Savatage
Judas Priest
Riot
Helloween
Manowar
Boston
Crimson Glory
Y&T
Katatonia

Def Leppard
Bryan Adams
The Cars
Tom Petty

I actually started a similar thread over here: Top 10 Bands/ Singers?. But I'll answer the question in more depth here.

Here are my current top ten artists. The number in parentheses after each band is how many of their albums are in my CD collection.

Judas Priest (11)
Manowar (9)
Accept (5)
Dio (5)
Iron Maiden (5)
Slayer (5)
Grim Reaper (4)
Primal Fear (7)
Iron Savior (4)
Mystic Prophecy (3)


The Stories Behind the Answer

Judas Priest (11) - The first heavy metal band to earn the title of "my favorite band". Priest has been highly influential to heavy metal music in general and me personally. I used sing lead vocals in a band, and I learned how to do that by singing along to Priest in my car. I've seen Priest live twice, once with Rob Halford and once with Tim 'Ripper' Owens.

Manowar (9) - As they themselves will tell you, "Other bands play, Manowar kill". I got to see them kill an incredibly memorable New Year's Eve show. Not only did they blow the fuses in the club, they had fully nude dancing girls on stage with the band! Afterward, I got (and still have) a beat up drum stick with the late Scott Columbus' blood on it. Cloning scientists interested in recreating one of the greatest drummers of all time can send me a private message.

Accept (5) - Another influential band that I got to see live twice during the Udo years. The first time was in a very small club and I was really close to the band.

Dio (5) - One of the greatest singers of all time and sorely missed. I got to see Dio twice on the 2000 Magica tour.

Iron Maiden (5) - Like Priest, Maiden has been highly influential to heavy metal music. I've seen Maiden live twice, many years apart, and they didn't lose any of their magic in the interim.

Slayer (5) - The second heavy metal band to earn the title of "my favorite band" after I decided to go in a heavier/harder/faster direction. Never got to see them live unfortunately.

Grim Reaper (4) - In this case I do own every album in their discography. Their long awaited comeback album "Walking in the Shadows" was my album of the year for 2016.

Primal Fear (7) - February 6th, 2008, a date that will forever live in my personal history. It was the date that I discovered '80s Metal from the 21st Century (80sM2K) in general, and Primal Fear in particular. Here's a band that picked up the influences of Judas Priest and Accept and carried them into the new millennium, while adding their own contribution. I saw them live once. The show was not well attended and the fans formed a receiving line while the band exited the club. I got to shake singer Ralf Scheepers' hand!

Iron Savior (4) - I discovered this 80sM2K band about the same time as Primal Fear. And like that band, they combine Priest-like guitar riffs and melody with Slayer-like speed. Iron Savior also adds Queen-like multi-layered vocals into the mix. I recently bought their 2016 release "Titancraft".

Mystic Prophecy (3) - I discovered this 80sM2K band not long after the two above. As with Grim Reaper and Iron Savior, I bought Mystic Prophecy's 2016 release "War Brigade". The first song from that album had me saying, "That's good." The second had me saying "That's clever." The third song had me banging my head so hard I practically fell out of my chair.

KISS (All time Favorite)

Alice Cooper

AC/DC

Slade

Dokken

Cinderella

Foreigner

Def Leppard

Twisted Sister

Jimi Hendrix/Jimi Hendrix Experence

Europe

Dio

Rob Zombie

Judas Priest

Rush

My Little Funhouse

Motley Crue

Aerosmith

Whitesnake

Judas Priest

Bon Jovi

Ozzy Osbourne

Night Ranger

Europe

Iron Maiden

Metallica

Megadeth

Korn

Autograph

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Led Zeppelin

Nightwish

Scorpions
Judas Priest
Dokken

If you want some more awesome Rock/Metal, check out these two threads I created:

2015 Rock/Metal Album Releases
2016-ish Rock/Metal Album Releases

Thanks I'll have to check those out.  That's a lot of bands I haven't heard before

Holy Wulfhook! and Snakeyes is killer. Reverence I really like too. I like just about all the bands on this list that I gave a listen to. Some real good power metal. That's a genre that I do listen to but I only have a limited amount of. I did not get to listen to the 2016 list yet though