If you could choose four bands to see live, who would be on the bill (dead, deceased or inactive)?
How much would you be willing to pay to see it too?

Deicide, Behemoth, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Arch Enemy
I said why not

not on a particular bill but Death, Autopsy, Nocturnus, and Darkthrone are all bands I wish for the opportunity live. Conveniently with the exception of Autopsy it's rather impossible, and in the case of Autopsy just very unlikely.

He said four bands.

Obviously, we would want some semblance of bands to make such a good ticket. I would love to see Mayhem, Immortal, Nargaroth and a special appearance by Sodom on the bill. Now if we could choose our own fest fantasy lineup...but I will leave that for someone else to thread some other time.

Iron Maiden
Immortal
Opeth
Moonsorrow

Morbid Saint
Hypnosia
Death
The Absence

Napalm Death
Impetigo
God Dethroned
Discharge

I still wouldnt pay more than $50 for that lineup though =)

If certain eras count too, then:

Dark Angel - Darkness Descends era
Death - Individual Through Patterns era
Pestilence Testimony of the Ancients era
Paradise Lost - Gothic era

Stop listing people, the mods hate list threads.

Iron Maiden
Simply because that is my favorite band, and even if I have seen them two times, I would never miss a concert with them in Stockholm unless I was suffering from a serious disease. Would probably go to a concert even if I was deaf

Judas Priest
Probably my second favorite band, even if they have aged and are not as energetic as before. I want to see them before they quit, and I will Priest Feast '09 booked!

Fates Warning - John Arch era
The 4 first albums are some of the best in power metal, and John Arch is such an overlooked vocalist. Hell, even the whole band is overlooked! But it might be deserved, because after No Exit, they turned into crap. I want to hear songs from Night on Brocken, The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian live!!!

Helloween - Walls of Jericho tour
Why this tour? Well, because Walls of Jericho(including the EP) is one of the best albums ever! Sure, Kiske era was fucking great, but nothing Helloween ever has done can compete with those songs.

The sum I could pay for seeing these bands together on a tour? Dunno, a lot probably. If I could choose the set-list, I would pay even more.

Haven't heard The Absence, but the rest are fucking awesome. Spectrum of Death is one of my absolute favorite thrash metal albums

This is hard, but randomly picking four out of the dream line-up:

Saxon, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath.

Akercocke, Nile, Suffocation and Iron Maiden

Artillery (By Inheritance era), Metallica (Ride the Lightning era), Kyuss (Red Sun era), Exodus (Bonded By Blood era).

Reasons why are obvious, I suppose.

The announcement of Paganfest 2 (Blackguard, Moonsorrow, Eluvietie, Primordial) is pretty damn close to a dream tour. But here goes.

Emperor
Immortal
Mayhem
Satyricon

An evening of classic black metal. No band would play anything they've recorded the past ten years.

Sunn O))), Boris, Earth, Jesu and Khanate.

A festival full of drone chaos. This would probably be everyone's last concert, due to disembowlment by sound, and/or severely impaired hearing by all the amazing drone riffs presented in front of you.

As I was reading some of the other posts, it would be pretty funny to see Metallica and Megadeth get together for a concert, although that would never happen...ever. It would definitely be a rare, one night only thing though so I would probably go, if I had the oppurtunity.

Megadeth and Metallica actually had a tour together I think...

Eventually, I would add Judas Priest, but this is almost exactly like my fantasy line-up

Dark Angel - early era
Pummel me into submission as the first band. Get the energy going.

Moonsorrow
Let me relax a bit before the next two bands.

Celtic Frost
Some fast thrashers with their slower stuff in between.

Morbid Angel
Must I explain?


I think that'd be nice. It starts off with energy flying off the walls, goes into more atmospheric stuff, then builds up with Cetlic Frost and climaxes with Morbid Angel!

Gwar

Monster Magent (Powertrip tour)

Black Sabbath (Ozzy era)

Jimi Hendrix



This isnt exactly a varied tour... Hendrix, sabbath, And MM are all stoner rock to soem extent or another, but it would be an orgasmic show.
For the record, id also like Slayer and gorgoroth to be on that list, but I had to wittle it down.

Teh legendary clash of the titans tour. Testemant and Slayer also went.

I wish I would have gone... of course, i was about six at that time...

Amon Amarth to open up the set and kick my ass. I'd be able to lose my voice and snap my neck right away.

Then Blind Guardian for some more intensity/great live performance.

Iced Earth would then come on playing their classics only of course.

Then Black Sabbath would come on

Edguy as an opener to keep the crowd pumped and energetic for 40-50 minutes before Virgin Steele came on, blaring out a run of classic epic songs from the 90s, and followed by Slough Feg with a gamut of their heavy/hard rock/folk mix to blow away the crowd in a high quality setting that they've long since deserved. Iron Maiden would finish with their genre-defining Heavy Metal thunderstorm - a rather fitting end.

Motley Crue - Vince Neil drink drives onto the stage, a passenger is ejected through the window and impales himself on Nikki Sixx's over-inflated sense of self importance. Vince proceeds to warble out of key through an array of mainly bad Crue songs. During one of the few good Crue songs - Kickstart My Heart - Vince gets his penis out and proceeds to play what can only be deemed willytar during the talk-box solo. Vince then falls into the press pit and his bloated self crushes about 3 journalists... all thankfully from the NME and the support bands - Winger, Warrant and an ensemble of former Bathory drummers are brought on stage to help lift Vince back up. Tommy Lee would probably also contract a disease or something.

Ok, I'm done.

Rainbow - LLRNR line up, Ritchie destroys 7 strats, a lute and splits his kegs revealing underwear with a picture of Ian Gillan's face on it.

Motorhead as openers perhaps on the back of the Ace of Spades tour, and they pull out some unsung classics like Poison and Stone Dead Forever. While the other bands set up the guitars are left feedbacking at very high volumes.

Thin Lizzy - In 1978, Robbo and Scott twiddle away. Phil gets a leather trouser solo and anthems keep coming.

AC/DC - Highway To Hell line-up, they do stuff like Walk All Over You and Nightprowler. The highlight of the show is when Angus gets on Bon's shoulders and then Vince Neil drink drives into them both.

Black Sabbath circa Volume 4
Saint Vitus circa Born Too Late
Electric Wizard NOW
Sleep

Oh yea, what a glorious night that would be.

I would be inclined to agree with you there. Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard expecially.

That would be the sexy.

However, i would switch Saint vitus for Candlemass or Bongzilla.

How about actually contributing to threads, instead of just telling everybody what they're doing wrong in them.

Rather hypocritical don't you think...?

Not really, seeing as I don't go into every thread like I'm a mod and correct everybody. But, I can see where you're coming from. So, anyways...

Behemoth
Mayhem
Marduk
Akercocke

Hmm... this is a tough one but I'd probably have to pick:

Demolition Hammer (pre Time Bomb era of course)
-They are intense as hell on a CD and they'd probably be better live.

Bathory
-Come on, its Bathory

Silencer
-I know there are a lot of people who hate this band but judging by the picture of Natramn on their MA page and since he's insane and all that it could make for a very good show.

Bolt Thrower
-One of the best death metal bands in my opinion and I bet they put on one hell of a show.

Cathedral: They would open the show, and play a variety of stuff from their older doomy material to their new more straight forward stuff. They would be followed by:

Whiplash: A very underrated Thrash band in my opinion. Some of my fave thrash songs are by them, including Last man alive and power thrashing death.

King Diamond: Yeah, well, he'd come out and play whatever, it's all good, but preferably stuff from the Abigail-Conspiracy periods. It would than end with:

Dream Theater: If they stuck to their older material and newer material, and ignored a lot of their work from the middle of the career (late 90s to early 00s), it would be really good.

With someone mentioning Bathory and probably someone who also mentioned Darkthrone, this looks to be turning into more of a "four favorite bands" type deal. Because obviously those two great bands never played live.

the best live bands i have ever seen are (the real) Repulsion & DismembeR
so i would combine them a dream band: Demolition Hammer pre-Timb Bomb
and a favorite i have yet to see: SinisteR

Doom metal show:

Electric Wizard- mostly seem to be touring Europe lately, it'd be trouble to get into the US with all the airport security/checks etc., so seeing them in the US doesn't seem likely for a while.

Reverend Bizarre- have now split up, but they were/are one of my favorite bands, and I'd love to see them live.

Sleep- now split up. Guitarist has his own band, bass/vocalist and drummer stayed together, drummer now left. A reunion would be amazing.

Worship- I keep hearing about them playing shows, and about doom metal festivals in Germany, UK, and other places...I hate America. Anyway, seeing them as they are would be cool, but if their old vocalist was still alive, they would complete the bill for my dream doom metal show.

To see these four, I can't really name a limit on how much I'd pay. I'd certainly travel a few states over to see them. The same goes for my second dream concert:


Death metal show:
Morbid Angel- my favorite DM band, with David Vincent on bass/vocals.

Death- an outstanding death metal band led by a true visionary who is unfortunately no longer alive. Seeing them with Chuck would be unforgettable.

Autopsy- formed by drummer/vocalist Chris Reifert after he left Death, sadly now split up. Guitarist Danny Coralles seems vastly underrated and unmentioned when great DM guitarists are talked about.

not death metal, but:
Primordial- I would love to see them live, I hear they are great in this setting. To the Nameless Dead was nothing short of perfection.

Seance to open things up.
Kataklysm next.
Suffocation to get the crowd ready for......
DEATH!!!!!!!!

And then, for the final encore (obviously there would be at least two), several members of Judas Priest would come out with Death and they would perform Painkiller together.

I'd take the Metal Masters tour lineup, if you replaced Testament with Iron Maiden. Or Saxon. Or Arch Enemy, although they would be completely out of place.

A week of superb shows, where each band plays a headlining set:

Grind:
Napalm Death (1st 1/2 w/ Barney, 2nd 1/2 w/ Lee Dorrian)
Nasum (last line-up)
Pig Destroyer/Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Insect Warfare (2 hours of relentless grind!)

Death:
Death ('Symbolic' era playing it in its entirety plus)
Morbid Angel ('Domination' era)
Bolt Thrower ('IVth Crusade' era)
Immolation (present)

Tech Death 1:
Death ('Sound of Perseverance' era playing it in its entirety plus)
Cynic ('Focus' era playing it in its entirety plus)
Atheist ('Unquestionable Presence' Era)
Pestilence (1st 1/2 w/ Mameli on vocals, 2nd 1/2 w/ Van Drunen)

Tech Death 2:
Cryptopsy ('None So Vile' era playing it in its entirety plus)
Necrophagist (w/ Marco Minnemann playing 'Epitaph' in its entirety plus)
Martyr (Can) (present)
Psycroptic (1st 1/2 w/ Peppiatt, 2nd 1/2 w/ Chalky)

Melo Death:
Carcass ('Heartwork' era playing it in its entirety plus)
At The Gates ('Slaughter of the Soul' era playing it in its entirety plus)
In Flames ('Colony' era)
The Absence (present)

Black:
Emperor (last line-up)
Dissection ('Storm of the Light's Bane' era playing it in its entirety plus)
Enslaved (present line-up playing songs from their entire catalog)
Deathspell Omega (present)

Folk:
Ensiferum (w/ Meiju, 1st 1/2 w/ Petri, 2nd 1/2 w/ Jari)
Týr (present)
Primordial (present)
Moonsorrow (present)

Death
Anaal Nathrakh
Candlemass with Messiah
Anthrax with Belladonna

There are undoubtedly a lot of other bands I'd like to see just as much, but these are ones that are unlikely, or in the case of Death, impossible, so given the godlike power to bring one about I'd choose these.

My choices would likely change day-to-day, though.

What do you think of their new stuff with the Solitude Aeternus singer?