Don't know what'd be unpopular, but I'll take a cue from XYCat's post and probably prove the point, saying same-y stuff is just fine as long as it's done well, and striving to be original or experiment in the stuff you actually release harms more often than not. Very, very few can do original and good at the same time.
Or, on a current topic, Nightwish can still release awesome music, and has done so in every "era", albeit mostly on 2nd try (Imaginaerum and now Human :II: Nature).
And growls absolutely ruin the songs they're on. And there's plenty of metal where that's a pity...
Breja: Nickelback is far, faaaaar from being the worst band out there, and frankly I don't understand where this reputation comes from.
Same, always confused me. I mean, you can find awful acts wherever you look, but what I happened to hear of theirs never struck me as fitting that description.
Breja: A lot of the, shall we say, veneer of heavy metal - all the leather, studs, skulls, album covers with demons stuff etc. - always felt a bit try hard and poser-ish to me.
*nods* And the unreadable band logo fonts...