Your favorite bands/artists.

7. apocalyptica (folk?)

First, it's already "folk." Second, there's no folk influence there. It's metal, played on, um, cellos... it's hard to categorize, but it's probably closest to symphonic metal.

8. nightwish (symphonic metal)

Their latest album is more like power metal.

Personally, my top choices are:

Dream Theater (well, this is my absolute favorite. progressive metal)
Nightwish (power, symphonic)
Metallica (thrash metal)
Hammerfall (power)
Manowar (heavy)
Iron Maiden (also heavy)
Aria (and more heavy)
Rammstein (industrial)
Deathstars (black metal, death metal, industrial metal)
Apocalyptica (I don't know :D)
Melnica (folk rock)