Your top three

1. Metallica. Not my favourite band my a long way, but the last setlist of theirs was perfect. 'Blackened', 'Seek and Destroy', 'Fade to Black', 'One', 'Battery', 'Creeping Death' and 15000 people shouting 'Master! Master!' = bloody brilliant.

2. Opeth. Flawless live show, and they've never written a bad song so I dig whatever they play.

3. Dark Tranquillity. Intense, dynamic performance, and a great setlist. Just needed more off The Gallery to make it even better.
 
1. Pantera: Speaking of tightness, they were AMAZINGLY tight each of the three times I saw them, considering that they were all drunk as fuck, Phil was doped up on herion, and the rest of the band was completely baked. The fact that Dimebag plays even better solos live than on record is amazing in of itself.
2. Morbid Angel: Extraordianlly powerful in their performance and flawless. It's also hilarious to see Pete Sandoval spend the entire set with the "I really, REALLY have to shit!" look on his face because he's blasting so fast. My only regret (and I'm just being bitchy) was it was Steve Tucker and not David Vincent fronting the group.
3. tie - Anal Blast/Between The Buried And Me: Don Decker's stage banter is gut busting, and they have some of the most moshable riffing of any grindcore band. BTBAM impressed the shit out of me because of the contolled chaos that is thier song structures. I've never seen such intense concentration and flawless delivery from a metal band.
 
1. Heaven & Hell

2. Opeth

3. Morbid Angel

I would see these bands again anytime.
 
80's slayer is pretty tight and the song structures are cohesive pop like, verse,chorus,verse,chorus structures and what not

I love 80's bathory which is ten times more sloppy than slayer and Quorthon can barley play guitar, but it still kicks ass regardless that he can't solo either.

Why just pick slayer out when you are into underground 80's metal and black metal.
 
80's slayer is pretty tight and the song structures are cohesive pop like, verse,chorus,verse,chorus structures and what not

I love 80's bathory which is ten times more sloppy than slayer and Quorthon can barley play guitar, but it still kicks ass regardless that he can't solo either.

Why just pick slayer out when you are into underground 80's metal and black metal.

Thank you! Though not all 80's Slayer follows the cohesive pop structures you named... think Altar of Sacrifice, etc.
 
80's slayer is pretty tight and the song structures are cohesive pop like, verse,chorus,verse,chorus structures and what not

I love 80's bathory which is ten times more sloppy than slayer and Quorthon can barley play guitar, but it still kicks ass regardless that he can't solo either.

Why just pick slayer out when you are into underground 80's metal and black metal.

raining blood doesn't follow any sort of a pop structure, many of their other songs don't either
 
Slayer has the sloppiest fucking solos and song structures of almost any other band.

I'm starting to wonder if you actually know what "tight" means in relation to bands playing live. It has nothing to do with song structures or solos, it has to do with the whole band playing rhythmically perfectly together in unison, nailing all changes and not hitting off notes within riffs.
 
I've only seen two metal gigs my entire life, so I guess that makes me non-eligible for participation in this thread. :p

Demonic Resurrection and Enslaved.