Hey Cameron, I've hear After Forever, good band. However, Nightwish stands out among other female-fronted bands. While the others are mostly "gothic" metal, as well as "beauty and the beast" type with male growling vocal mixed, Nightwish is mostly "power metal" with all instrumental arrangments, riffs, rythm and melodies. Nightwish had those male growling vocals earlier in their career. Pity Tarja was recently fired. I was hoping to see them live in concert in U.S last year, but unfortunately they canceled all North America shows. Only hope they can find another female singer, and continue where they left. By the way, Oceanborn is my second favorite album from Nightwish after "Wishmaster".
As for the ranking, Iron Maiden should be number one, not only for the tradition and history, but also for the consistent quality of their material. Up the Irons!!
I don't know if you still like CDs Cameron, but I can suggest a couple of mail order onlie stores with great prices and selection:
TheEndRecords.com (free shipping, huge selection, great customer service)
SentinelSteel.com (power metal specialist, based in NJ. Denis has his own label but only his online store with all power metal titles you may want. Great second hand CD collection as well)
CMDistro.com. Online store of Century Media.
