Growing up it was Elvis and The Beatles but it was Led Zeppelin & Quiet Riot in 1983 that sealed the deal. From there, I got into Maiden via TNOB/POM, Priest (SWOD, SAS, SFV), Sabbath (Born Again, H&H, Paranoid), Robert Palnt, Deep Purple (PS, Fireball, In Rock, Machine Head, Burn), Triumph (Allied Forces & Never Surrender), Van Halen, Y&T, Motely Crue, Ratt etc. Saw Metal spilt into deeper and deeper categories in 1986 when Bon Jovi and Metallica just exploded. I remember the second half the 80's listening to a lot of Helloween, Uriah Heep, Fates Warning, Queensryche and pre-84 Whitesnake.
I never left metal in the 90's. Maiden, Dio, Priest and Sab (until 1995) were putting out pretty good records. Thought Pantera were pretty good and hair/glam/pseudo blues bands had their moments. Was sad when Badlands didn't break out and their first 2 were mindblowingly classic. Dream Theater also put out 3 classic albums during that decade. As for Grunge. Yep it happened but everyone wants something to call their own. I was listening to Soundgarden in 1989 and bought Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam releases in the first week. It was a changing of the guard I guess. Sepultura and their ilk were also popular but prefer modern Sepultura.
Never got into the NU stuff but do listen in very minor amounts Death, Melodeath & Black. Stuff like Dark Tranquillity, Nile, Opeth (I'm not sure what genre they are in now) etc.
The second half of the 00's have been pretty good to me. Meeting Judas Priest twice (Japan & Vancouver), seeing H&H 3 times, seeing Voivod live, seeing Priest 3 times in 1 year, being onstage with Iron Maiden for HCW in front of 10000 people, gushing to Ian Gillan about how brilliant the Born Again album was, seeing Y&T twice at the Fillmore in SF, meeting Jon Oliva, Zak Stevens, Kai Hansen and Wade Black.
I could write a short novella on my love of metal but the abbreviation above will have to suffice.