One opener I'm quite fond of is "Away!" from Wuthering Heights' Salt album. Too bad YouTube doesn't have it, because it's an awesome little intro that sets the stage perfectly for the Holy Trifecta to follow.

So I'd always heard about this band, but never listened to them until now, and man, am I the only one who can't listen to those vocals without cringing? They completely ruin it for me, plus the guitar tone is a little too high for my taste too. But I will say that the last 2 minutes of that song are way better than the first 3. Maybe with more time I could get used to the guitar tone, but those vocal... I don't see it happening, unfortunately.

As for the topic on hand,

Opener: Bolt Thrower's In Battle There Is No Law - I love those shreds in the middle, very minimalistic approach but very effectively brutal.

Closer: Behemoth's The Reign of Shemsu-Hor - One of my favorite Behemoth songs. They should slow it down like this more often. I think Nergal's voice would benefit from the slower pace too.

Closer: maudlin of the Well's Blight of Water Systems - What can I say? I'm a sucker for proggy guitar jam out sessions to close albums, and this is a damn good one.

Closer: Gateway to the Birth of Lunacy off of Flame's March into firelands

I love !T.O.O.H.!'s vocals! Reminds me of a death metal Serj Tankian. Very eccentric.

Emperor - Into the Infinity of Thoughts

Here's the opener that first showed me what black metal was capable of so many years ago. It stood out among all the black metal that, at the time, didn't resonate a note in me. I'm including the intro as part of the piece here since originally the tracks were seperate, but even still, the intro alone is a worthy mention here as a memorable, haunting opener.

That's exactly what I thought too, but I didn't want to throw that name out there. But yeah, that's the reason I don't like the vocals.

Sacramentum - Darkness Falls For Me

Best ending to an album I've ever heard. The first time I heard it the WHOMP at the end scared the shit out of me. Mostly because the album is so fucking good that you go into one of those trances where time loses all meaning and you don't even realise that 50min have already passed.

The opener and the closer for Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk.

Cattle Decapitation - The Monolith/Kingdom of Tyrants has to be one of the most intense closers I've ever heard. The emotion and passion in it always leaves me pausing after it ends to reflect on what an awesome song it was.

The best opener of the year. I never get tired of this. It's just a fantastic, energized way to open up an album...great hooks, lots of attitude and short and sweet so it never lets up.

Bolt Thrower's 'Those Once Loyal' has the best opener/closer combo for me. It starts off great with 'At First Light' and closes with the magnificient 'When Cannons Fade'.
My favourite Death Metal album of all time.

Here's a few off the top of my head:

!T.O.O.H.! - Kali - The end of that song is among the absolute greatest moments in music history. Just utterly brilliant.

Slayer - Angel of Death + Raining Blood - Arguably their two greatest songs acting as bookmarks for an otherwise very good album. I'll even throw in Postmortem as the second piece of the ending that somehow makes Raining Blood even better.

Symphony X - Oculus Ex Inferni - One of the few intros that I don't skip.

Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings + Dante's Inferno - A perfect set-up and the greatest conclusion imaginable.

I'm pretty sure you meant to link to this.

That's a good one too, but nope.

Fear Factory - Pisschrist and Mirrorthrone - Ills Brandiront Leurs Idoles always struck me as having great closers

The last track on the new Peste Noire.

Gamma Ray - Rebellion in Dreamland. It starts off arguably their best album, with Kai singing again, and it's just incredible. It's almost too good, because it's the best track off the album.

oh GOD yes. Fuck that song is amazing.

That's not a closer. Did you mean "A Therapy For Pain"?

I rather liked Demanufacture as an opener because it set up exactly what Fear Factory were aiming for that album in terms of an overall industrial ambience. As well as being fairly heavy

My favourite opener at the moment is probably War Pigs... it makes the Paranoid album just gloomily explode into life; it's epic, it's heavy, momentous, iconic and thoroughly what 'Sabbath do best.

As for closers, "Alternative Ending" is an interesting "cool-down" at the end of Woods of Ypres - Woods 5. It ends an album preoccupied by loneliness, death and unhappiness with the line "holding on..." - is it optimistic? Perhaps not, but it is beautiful, sorrowful and concludes the album fantastically. One of the saddest sounding songs I've listened to lately, or indeed ever.