First of all, let my express my distaste in fads. I hate them, and people that follow them.

Second of all, let me show you why I am a hypocrite.

There is not greatest band ever. My tastes are split between several different bands (each a different variety of rock), and there is not one that I prefer over all others, they all have their own merits. I'm not going to give examples of each band because nobody ever likes my favorites, so I don't waste my time anymore.

The best place to start off is probably what I am listening to right now; King Crimson. This is definitely one of the best bands ever. Robert Fripp is a really great stylized guitarist, and the band itself is very progressive. It's good as it doesn't limit itself to one particular style, some songs sound more like Classical than Rock. Most of their rocky stuff is fairly mellow, by mellow I do not mean soft rock style. It's just not entirely upbeat. Far too progressive for that.

The band I was listening to just before I started listening to King Crimson is The Mars Volta. It's loud. While it draws much inspiration from King Crimson, it's quite the opposite in that it's very fast, very loud, and not mellow in the least. The Mars Volta is probably the loudest and the closest to metal that I listen to. Apart from drawing influence from King Crimson, they also have fairly heavy Latin influences. Several of their songs have lyrics that are partially or completely in Spanish.

Speaking of Latin rock, another of my favorite bands fits that category perfectly. Santana. They are the only band in this list that I've seen live, and I'm damn proud of it. Carlos Santana, the guitarist and generally main person in the band, is, in my opinion, one of, if not the, greatest guitarists in the world. (At this point I'd like to tell any metalheads out there to hold your tongues, as you only pay attention to the technical skill of a guitarist, and you ignore style and talent which also factor into how good a guitarist is.) Also, the concert I saw had one of the most amazing bass solos I've ever heard/seen. You would have to be there to understand.

On the topic of bassists, one of my most favorite bands is Pink Floyd, founded by bassist Roger Waters. I've observed that people generally say that Pink Floyd is absolute crap. Their reasoning usually includes something about "not hard enough" or "not catchy", the definitions of which are not definite, "catchy" is a matter of opinion, so is "hard". Pink Floyd's music is split into two basic genres. Progressive and Psychadelic. You most likely have not heard their psychadelic stuff, but if you have, I salute you. Their progressive stuff isn't quite as progressive as King Crimson, but I do enjoy moderation, and don't particularly care for the ultimately overindulgent bands (I.E. Dragonforce). The Wall is Pink Floyd's only Rock Opera, and I much enjoy Rock Operas. Pink Floyd's is incredibly… Creepy/Depressing. It's rather neat.

My favorite rock opera has to be Tommy by The Who though. The Who invented the concept of a rock opera with the movie, and, as such, it is amazing. I don't know much of The Who other than their two rock operas, Tommy (album and movie) and Quadrophenia (just the album). Despite this progression, The Who are most 'normal' band I like.

The Doors were a rather abnormal band, whose life was cut short by the tragic disappearance of Jim Morrison, who I currently suspect to be alive and well, hiding with various shamanistic native tribes in South America. He's far too awesome to be dead.

Those are my favorites, other bands I like include:

- The B52's (who I saw in concert)

- Joy Division

- Cream

- Mindless Self Indulgence (Only one song though)

- Muse (Only one song that I've heard)

- An Endless Sporadic

- The Clash

…Did I mention my particular fondness of Fall Out Boy?

Wondering when people will notice the inconsistencies of his name,

- Joseph "Halibutski" Stalin