For me, it's And Then There Was Silence by Blind Guardian hands down. I'll also give a shout out to runners up Miklagard Overture by Turisas and Mana by Equilibrium.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness, as with some other very long songs that maintain their awesomeness throughout (Flood anyone?), really don't meet the criteria for "epic" as I think of it. "Epic" to me is music that conjures to mind huge battles and heroic quests and legends and victory and all that nonsense without sounding hoaky. Or in the words of Luca Turilli, "WARRIORS BATTLES SWORDS OF STEEL AND MAGIC TRAGIC DESTINIES!!!!!"

That's no slight at the other guitarists on the list, at least not all of them. Reign in Blood is still the best thrash metal album out there,Shad4k

[QUOTE="Shad4k"]This question would take hours to answer properly. Here instead is a very informal list. Agalloch Alcest Anamanaguchi Boris Camera Obscura Converge The Decemberists Detektivbyran Dropkick Murphys were kicking ass by 98, but most of their significant works were this decade. Drudkh Ensiferum Equilibrium Explosions in the Sky Finntroll Flogging Molly High on Fire Isis La Quiete Mastodon The Mountain Goats. Go ahead, try and tell me All Hail West Texas wasn't his career high. Muse Pagan Reign Peste Noire The Shins Sigur Ros count because Agaetis Byrjun was 2001 and really marked their coming of age. Split Lip Rayfield The Tallest Man on Earth The Tossers Those Transatlantics Turisas Windir Аркона Калевала Стары Ольса Тролль Гнёт Ель It was hard limiting this to only 35 bands. Shut up.-Misanthropic-

Which of them do you listen to most frequently at the moment?

british steel is garbage, listen to sad wings of destiny , stained class ( my personal favorite ) , and painkiller.. and your opinion of priest will quickly change.. the 70's were their classic albums, the 80's were mainstream garbage, the downfall starting with british steel, and their 1990 album painkiller was a great thrash album.nimatoad2000