When metal means "gutural", that's the generation I'm in... well a list of bands you should listen to enjoy the core of Metal. (not saying Death, Doom, Dark and Black is not metal).
-Accept (Amamos la vida, Balls To The Wall, Teutonic Terror, Midnight Mover, Fast as a Sharj, etc)
-U.D.O. (Heart of Gold, Thunderball, Holy, Azrael, etc)
-Gravedigger (The Battle of Bannockburn, Excalibur, Highland Farewell, Liberty or Death, etc)
-Running Wild (Uashitshun, Port Royal, Riding the Storm, Adrian SOS, Warchild, etc)
-Iron Savior (The Battle, The Call, Titans of Our Time, Hall of the Heroes, etc)
-Stratovarius (Father Time, Against The Wind, Future Shock, Distant Skies, etc)
-Sabaton (Poltava, Ghost Division, Carolux Rex, No Bullets Fly, Night Witches)
-Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow in The Dark, Don't Talk to Strangers, We're Stars)
-Blind Guardian (Majesty, Mirror Mirror, Another Stranger Me, Nightfall)
-Black Sabbath (Die Young, Heaven and Hell, War Pigs, Paranoid, etc)
-Ynwie Malmsteen (Any damn song)
-Alestorm (Black Sails at Midnight, Keelhauled, Shipwrecked, etc)ç
-Korplikaani (God of Wind, Vodka, Wooden Pints, Happy Little Buzzer, etc)
-Ill Niño (My Pleasant Torture, How Can I Live?, etc
-Sonata Arctica (Gate of Fear, Wolf & Draven, Kingdom for a Heart, etc)
-Testament (True Believer, Into the Pit, The Hauting, etc.)
-Overkill (World Of Pain, Ironbound, I Hate, etc)
-Helloween (I Want Out, If I Could Fly, Ms. God, etc)
-Amon Amarth (Fate of Norns, Twilight of the Thunder God, Cry the Blackbirds, etc.)
I think that's a soft and general start to someone new to basic of metal, combine that with any musical education and passion for literature and you will be ready.