you can get a gibson sg special faded for $650, it's an excellent guitar, it can play all the afore-mentioned metal bands.
I however am looking to change the bridge pickup to a 498T rather then the 490T that came with it, then it'll have the same pickups as a gibson sg standard, the les paul studio, and the les paul supreme(a $3000 guitar!) along with other high end gibson guitars.
you could get it and the pickup for around $730, within the budget. but personally, I would not mind having either LTD, I want to own at least one guitar with active pickups, but I also want a guitar with the JB/59 set... so, I would take either, but for what you want, the JB/59 will do it (without batteries!)