One of my favourite bands has to be Slayer. They play thrash metal and I think they are awesome.
Slayer formed in 1981 in Huntington Beach, California. The members are as follows:
Tom Araya - Bass, Vocals
Kerry King - Guitarist, Songwriter
Jeff Hanneman - Guitarist, Songwriter
Dave Lombardo - Drums
Slayer is known for its musical traits, involving fast tremolo picking, guitar solos, double bass drumming, and shouting vocals. The band's lyrics and album art cover topics such as gore, serial killers, Satanism, religion, genocide and warfare.
They released their first album called Show No Mercy in 1983 and have gone on to release 9 albums, 2 ep's, 6 live DVD/CD's and a career spanning boxset.
Many people class slayer as the best thrash metal band ever. They released 3 classic albums in a row starting with 1986's Reign In Blood which is frequently voted as the best metal album ever.
Reign In Blood ahs 10 tracks, all of them classic slayer and it is an excellent starting point.
The other 2 'classic' albums are Seasons In The Abyss and South Of Heaven. Both are also classic and are highly recommended listens too.
Here is a video of Slayer performing "Raining Blood" at download 2005