I've only recognised Opeth so far...
I usually only listen to one main band per sub genre for some reason, with a few songs at best from others.
~ means one or a few songs follow.
NWoBHM - Iron Maiden ~ Hallowed be Thy Name (music literally perfected). (Judas Priest ~ the Hell Patrol, a few Motörhead and Saxon songs, should I put Bruce Dickinson's solo stuff here? Don't hate 90's Maiden like most, but Accident of Birth and Chemical wedding were there best albums of the decade. Anyway, ~ Ghostof cain, the Book of thel or Arc of space, can't decide.)
Power Metal - Blind Guardian ~ And then there was Silence (if Hallowed be thy Name didn't exist, I'd probably think this was music perfected). (Demons and Wizards ~ the fiddler on the Green (so sad, and sadder still for it's basis in real life), though it is Hansi from BG's side project, so kind of cheating, One or two Power Quest songs are okay, find some cheesy fun in Heavenly's Ode to Joy, Manowar is kinda right-ish to put here, can listen to most and not kill myself. Yes, even Dragonforce.)
Atmospheric Black Metal - Agalloch, though I've rarely seen people agree on their genre, this one seems to crop up most often. ~ You Were but a Ghost in My Arms (Gallowbraid are okay too.)
Gaijin rock - Area 11 are the second most plugged by me things ever, and being beaten only by Palletforce is quite the feat. ~ Heaven Piercing Giga Drill (loved it's TTGL references before I knew TTGL) or Movement Four of Bosozoku Symphonic, though only the album version can possibly beat out HPGD. Euphemia and Knighmare/Frame both have awesome lyrics for my Code Geass loving heart, and shi no Barado makes death Note into such an amazing romance. Especially in Japanese.
Melodic Death Metal - Amon Amarth. ~ Twilight of the Thunder God, Fate of Norns, Father of the Wolf.
Regular old Death Metal - Death.
Controversial Metal (for where bands that some people are adamant aren't metal and others that they are belong) - Avenged Sevenfold. Huge nostalgia points for being the band which made me like music at all. I'd gone the first twelve to thirteen-ish years of my life hating all music until I heard Nightmare. Other than that, A Little Piece of Heaven was depressingly influential on my development, Strength of the World I think has alwaqys been my favourite A7X song.
Never got how thrash became so popular, but liked some slayer and Rust in Peace, a few other Megadeth songs and not all of Metallica's disocgraphy is terrible, even if the tired old, 'the first three/four/five (depending on the person) albums were good!' is FAR from true. I'll probably try to dig deeper into the genre at some point though, hopefully will find some decent stuff.
Wherever Dio sang was great as well. ~ Only Sabbath I like outside of covers, Holy Diver, And All the Fools Sailed Away, Don't Talk to Strangers.
Only ever liked two anime OP's, Mnemosyne's and colours by FLOW. Liked CG's sound track in general though (outside of non-colours OP's and ED's (I have no idea if I used ED correctly, I'm tired and kind of typing on instinct by now.) of course.)
Speaking of soundtracks, I listen to LOTR's a lot. Loved it so much.
Listen to a bit of Baroque, Classic and Romantic as well, the big three Mozart, Beethoven and Bach senior. Purcell, Tchaikovsky and other fairly big names as well, though not as much as I would have liked.
The late, great Christopher Lee put out some great music as well, though I've not listened to all I intend to.
I'm sure I was thinking of more, but I can't for the life of me remember, though that's probably for the better of any who've read this.
