yup! pretty much, you usually get about a year out of a set of tubes.
If you're willing to use solid state (and these days solid state are getting pretty darn close to a tube sound) line6 are great, the low range 'spider' series have 6 amp models, and the expensive 'flextone' models have 32, plus built in effects. The modelling is quite accurate and is perfectly legitimate, many pro players use line 6 amps.
Another good choice is a hughes and kettner warp 7 half stack. It's a half stack 100W with gain to spare, it's a fantastic price (less than a grand) sounds like a tube amp and is perfect for modern metal tones!
Hope this helps