When I’m feeling eighties metal-ish, I’ll go looking for Scorpions Love at First Sting or Deep Purple’s Perfect Strangers.
Heh. From what I can tell, “traditional heavy metal” is what’s now classified as “power metal”. All these subgenres nowadays … I remember when there were just “blues-based” and “classical-based” varieties.
Yes, today we have things like symphonic metal…
(Within Temptation, Frozen)
(Within Temptation, Stand My Ground)
aaand really symphonic.
(Epica, Cry For The Moon)It’s not all women singing, by the way, though that tends to be a feature.
(Nightwish, Beauty and the Beast - older, and very good)Aaaand then there’s the kind of thing that’s… well. Indescribable and they actually can’t play it live. Or they couldn’t.
(Dragonforce, Through The Fire and Flames)
I do love Epica. I came across them a while back. Am I alone in thinking the singer is much more attractive in that series of “studio” videos, where she looks like she did her own makeup, than in the regular videos where she’s clearly made up by a professional makeup artist?
I like metal, but only that which I can understand and sing the lyrics. No cookie monster vocals.
My faves are Queensryche, Fates Warning, Testament (a little harder, but Chuck Billy can sing), Y&T, and if you have a thick skin, a slightly warped sense of humor, and can appreciate misogynistic parody, Steel Panther is great.
Now, there’s metal and there’s metal. I mean, who doesn’t like a little Def Leppard or Motley Crue now and again?
Some people are still carrying that torch too.
Bang Camaro - Pleasure (pleasure) [Official Video] - YouTube (Bang Camaro: Pleasure (Pleasure))
Push Push (Lady Lightning) - YouTube (Bang Camaro: Push Push Lady Lighting)
And while I’m on a Rock Band theme, if you’re curious what they mean by ‘cookie monster’, I give you this. Yes. It’s a female singer.
Visions by Abnormality LYRICS - YouTube (Abnormality: Visions. But most of you guessed that.)
Another over-the-top but fun (and talented) metal band; Dream Evil. I think just about every video I’ve ever seen of them has some sort of weaponry and explosions. Yay!
Fire! Battle! In Metal!
The Book of Heavy Metal
… I LOVE IT. Talented, entertaining, and that second song is hilarious 
That right there, that’s good shit man.
wow!
In the beginning there was…MC-5 and Motorhead.
Definitely check out Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. You may also enjoy Yngwie Malmsteen.
That…is fucking AWESOME! Where have I been that I missed those guys?
Looks to me like these guys are Terry Pratchett fans as well.
I remembered the band I was trying to think of.
Steel Panther. Not exactly SFW.
Some good suggestions in this thread.
Here are a few that I don’t think were mentioned:
It’s not just power metal he’s talking about. Power metal generally features the Maiden-style twin leads, but has a lot of swords-and-sorcery lyrical content. Dio’s Holy Diver is probably the archetypal album (though Manowar is definitively the archetypal band).
The documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey included a handy “metal family tree” for this sort of discussion. The only problem with it is that it tends to identify each subgroup more by time frame, audience and secondary characteristics rather than based on actual musical considerations. For example, most of the stuff Sepultura plays is a bunch of heavy chord progressions, while most Megadeth songs are characterized by a distinct lead composed of double stops and a quieter chord-based rhythm track - but both are nominally “thrash”.
Diamond Head’s Am I Evil is everything I like about metal in a neat package. It’s an especially good example of the multiple tempo changes that characterized the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Did you like The Trooper because of the riff? If so, there are a lot of Megadeth songs you’ll like- all kinds of Maiden-inspired meedlymeedlymeedly stuff. Hangar 18 is a good place to start. You’ll probably want to work forwards from Rust In Peace - Megadeth started out really heavy, and got less so as time went by. Washington is Next, from the last album, is another song in the same vein.
It was already mentioned, but early Queensryche sounded a lot like a more melodic and less bass-heavy Maiden. Walk In the Shadows is a great intro to Chris DeGarmo’s unique guitar tone and Geoff Tate’s even more unique voice. Another Rainy Night is one of the rare power ballads that kicks ass (which may explain why it bombed as a single).
Oh, nearly forgot: if you ever wondered what happened to the kids you grew up who listened to Maiden and Dio and spent every other waking second playing video games: Dragonforce. This song was in Guitar Hero 3, so you might have heard it before. Don’t bother listening to the rest of their songs because they all sound exactly like this one.
When I saw this thread had popped back up, I dug thru my stuff and came up with a few more bands to list here.
Wolf - Voodoo
Cauldron - All or Nothing
Crowning Glory - Dead Man’s Paradise
I actually like this next band, as they come of like a perfect cross of AC/DC and Judas Priest:
Bullet - Bite The Bullet
Bullet - Dusk Til Dawn
This band sounds like a perfect cross of AC/DC with AC/DC:
Airbourne - Blonde, Bad & Beautiful
Airbourne - Stand Up For Rock And Roll
More random miscellaneous bands like the OP asked for (maybe):
Enforcer - Into The Night
Destroy Destroy Destroy - Born Of Thunder (might be too growly but its not CMVs)
Icarus Witch - Capture The Magic
Widow - The Pleasure Of Exorcism
Twisted Tower Dire - The Stone
For people who want to go a little further back and hear some doom (these guys are usually total Black Sabbath worshippers, for those of you not familiar with the genre):
Orchid - No One Makes A Sound
The Gates Of Slumber - Ice Worm
Jex Thoth - Nothing Left To Die
Enjoy!
I forgot one:
For those who want to go even further back to a classic rock sound, check out Sweden’s Graveyard - Hisingen Blues, the title track from their latest album.
If you don’t mind lyrics in Spanish, there’s Tierra Santa, who it turns out is a christian rock band from Spain. They very much remind me of Iron Maiden.
KISS is kind of hit and miss, but Alive! is a fun album. Creatures Of The Night is probably their most “metal” album.