re: Metal bands that did not get their due.

Iced Earth seems like the logical choice when it comes to this topic. They were overshadowed during the '90s due to the domination of Pantera, death metal, hardcore acts, and nu-metal bands. By the time most of these groups fell by the wayside or disbanded, there had been a massive stylistic shift in metal as a whole and Iced Earth's more traditional style did not fit in well with the polarizing metal fanbase (those who favored more extreme metal and those who leaned towards metalcore and more 'radio-friendly' genres).

Check out Burnt Offerings, The Dark Saga, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Horror Show, and list me one band during that particular time period (1995-2001) with a more impressive run of albums.

Also, Canadian thrash legends Annihilator deserve mention.