By the way, the band Textures has somehow managed to PERFECTLY emulate Thorendal's lead tone, at least on Polars. I'm very curious to see what they do with their sophomore effert, that is, if it ever gets released. I've been waiting forever for The End to get a hold of it. Definitely for fans of both Meshuggah and DTB.

It's out, actually... I don't really like it. Their 'perfect' tone is gone, replaced with an overly dry, typical one. The new vocalist sounds like every other hardcore shouter out there, though I will admit he has an excellent clean voice-- when he uses it, that is. The whole thing, to me, just doesn't come anywhere near Polars.

Metallica - Black Album. Nobody has managed to achieve that sound since. Rythm guitar tone perfection.

Dev´s Safezone-DVD, Regulator sounds even better than in OM..
My opinion

Metallica - Black Album. Nobody has managed to achieve that sound since. Rythm guitar tone perfection.

I don't care too much for that tone, myself. A bit too sterile, and the guitars on that album are WAY too quiet. (or drums way too loud, take your pick) One thing I will say for the album though, is that I absolutely LOVE the production on the hihats/cymbals/etc. Perhaps a weird thing to notice, but they just have perfect production to me.

I love the sound of the guitars on This Godless Endeavor

Joe Haley from Psycroptic has an amazing tone. Particularly on 'Symbols of failure'... if I do say so myself. It's not overly gainy, but still sounds so incredibly heavy regardless of that. Awesome band.

Oh yeah, Fredrik's is mind-blowingly good too.

I love the sound of the guitars on This Godless Endeavor

I've always been partial to the tone of Dreaming Neon Black. I also think I may be the only Nevermore fan in the world who thinks that This Godless Endeavor was pretty damn boring and no more than a 6 out of 10. Born and Sell My Heart For Stones were the only memorable songs off the album. I don't understand how they followed up two genre-defining works of art like Dreaming Neon Black and Dead Heart In A Dead World with such a tepid, yawn-inducing album. All the hooks and memorable melodies are oddly absent and all that's left is a loud metal album that meanders into nowhere real fast. I'm sure I'll get flamed for such "blasphemy", but I don't care. A mediocre album is still a mediocre album by any other name.

Crowbar - sonic excess in it's purest form (Kirk Windstein)
Pantera - vulgar display of power (Dimebag)
SYL - city (Devy)
Alice In Chains - dirt (Jerry Cantrell)
Fear Factory - demanufacture

I actually own a Randall RG100ES and a RG100HT head. The same amp heads that Dimebag used back in the day. Crowbar use them too. They sound very brutal when boosted with an OD pedal. Dimebag used alot of equalization with his though, so i can't quite get his sound, but i can get close.

Dime also used not one, but TWO Rocktron Hush Super C noise reducers - one before the preamp and one after - to get a certain "vacuum"-like tone. This added a great deal to his unique sound.

Yup. His Pantera setup was basically:

Dean and Washburn guitars with a Bill Lawrence l-500XL in the bridge.
Randall RG100ES and Century 200 heads
Furman PQ3 or PQ4 parametric EQ
MXR 6 band EQ
MXR flanger doubler
Boss delay
Rocktron Hush Super C noise reducers
Crybaby or Vox wah?

Crybaby From Hell.

-Eric Johnson
-Allan Holdsworth
-Pat Metheny
-John Petrucci (Awake)
-Devin
-John Scofield

aside from the obvious picks already made, I really love Nostromo´s tone on their CD produced by the late, great Miezko Talarczyk.
Nasum´s tone was pretty damn good for a grind band.

as for solo guitars, Guthrie Govan is astounding

Petrucci on Octavarium - These Walls for example. Tuned down to A and the A power chord (three lowest strings) sounds fucking ripping as anything. Since Train of Thought he lets his sound breathe more, less compression, and of course, Mesa.

Vai on The Ultra Zone - he has got the tone down, he absolutely knows what to do to achieve what he wants. Zappa once told him: "The sound is in your head." Damn right.

As someone already said: SKEKSIS! Fuck! Those bendy growls and chugga-chugga, menacing. All hail the G-string!

And old school Clawfinger. Cranked up, guitars just rip through flesh.

Anders Nystrom - Bloodbath, ripping distortion
Adam Jones - Tool(cant beleive he hasnt been listed yet)
Vurtox from Disillusion has wicked guitar sound all through "Back to times of spendor"
Jari from Wintersun crisp clean and faultless
Sylvain Coudret form Scarve, gibson death metal tone

I'm really digging TV on the Radio's tones these days. Noise in yo face!

Korn- When they got rid of the fuzz sound and made "follow the leader"

Yes, I love that tone too. Amazing for a nu0metal band