I've been checking out some of the artists/songs mentioned in this thread. I'm still only on the ones mentioned in Possessed first post in this thread, but here are my thoughts:

Kalmah and Insomnium have a lot of great music, but I just can't get used to the death growls of death metal. Insomnium is simply fantastic when they actually sing. Their melodies call for something other than animalistic growling (I can't even imagine what that does to their throats). Kalmah's melodies fit slightly better with their vocals, but I still don't like the latter, which is why I prefer listening to Possessed's covers of their work.

Coldworld was sometimes OK, but I wouldn't want to listen to them again. Again, it was the vocals I disliked hated. In general, that sort of thing just isn't for me, as much as I like the guitar work.

I'm listening to Collective Soul's 1995 album of the same name and really enjoying it. I'll have to download some of their music eventually.