As we all know, after 1993, a lot of the classic '70s/'80s/early '90s bands that were still around tried to update their sound, and flirted with alternative, grunge, industrial, groove metal or nu metal.
I haven't heard much of this stuff, but from what I've heard, in most cases it didn't go too well.
So, I'm looking for good releases by older bands from mid-'90s and on - I'm mostly looking for releases that have the band's classic sound, but I'm ok with grungy releases as well, if they're good.

This is mainly concerning hair metal and thrash metal bands - seeing that in most cases, traditional metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Riot, Dio, Running Wild, Virgin Steele, Manowar etc. didn't follow the trends in the '90s/'00s,
although in most cases, it's not as good as their older stuff.
However, with thrash and glam, I just stop at '92-'93, and never get to listening to their later releases - for some reason I get afraid I'll hear some lame post-grunge smurf poo.
The latest albums from Whitesnake, Mr. Big, Extreme and Ratt sound pretty good, but I'm clueless when it comes to the rest.

Any suggestions?

Since you mentioned thrash metal, a few bands that kept their sound and in some cases made it more aggressive are Testament, Exodus, Destruction from the early 00s onwards.

As far as hard rock goes and since you mentioned Whitesake, check out House of Lords.

Good Metal releases during the Grunge Explosion ('91-'98?) are a rarity, unless we're talkin about those hardcore Independent labels
Don't be afraid to experiment with Nostalgia-sounding Metal bands of today, altho I still believe 90 percent of them suck, but once you spot something worthwhile It'll definitely click on you.

The Only album that I can think of is Winger's PULL (1993), that is , if you dig their sound

Actually, I'd consider Pull to be within the "classic metal" timeframe, despite grunge being at it's peak during that time.

Have you ever tried Nevermore? Their debut came out in '95 I believe. They were pretty unique. A nice blend of power, thrash and goth. Check 'em out.

http://www.amazon.com/Nevermore/e/B000AQ6KZS/ref=ntt_mus_dp_pel

I really like Warrant's latest "Rockaholic" not to mention the album they did with Black 'N Blue's singer called "Born Again", I like it as well.

I like Dokken's "Lightning Strikes Again" as well.

others to checkout:

Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles
Def Leppard - Euphoria
Arcade - 1 and 2
Airbourne - Runnin' Wild

and Jani Lane and Bobby Blotzer's
Saints of the Underground - Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner (around 2008ish)

Ultimatum never went for the trends in the 90's.

...and I second Nevermore. Great band that came out in the 90's.

The worse heavy metal years were between 1993 and 1996 but here you have a list that i made for you with some great real heavy metal albums released during 1993 to give you a exemple(no thrash or hard rock) from my personal collection:
1993:
ACCEPT:OBJECTION OVERRULED
ANGELES DEL INFIERNO:A CARA O CRUZ
AVALANCH:READY TO THE GLORY
BLIND GUARDIAN:TOKYO TALES (LIVE ALBUM)
CRUSH:KINGDOM OF THE KINGS
DORO:ANGELS NEVER DIE
EXCITER:BETTER LIVE THAN DEATH (LIVE ALBUM)
GAMMA RAY:INSANITY AND GENIUS
GRAVE DIGGER:THE REAPER
HELICON:HELICON
LIGHTMARE:CERTAIN DEATH
MARSHALL LAW:POWER GAME
MERCYFUL FATE:IN THE SHADOWS (great great comeback album)
NOT FRAGILE:LOST IN A DREAM
OMEN:ANARCHIA (hungarian heavy metal band, great)
PHANTOM:CYBERCHRIST
PROROCK:ROCKOK
RAGE:THE MISSING LINK
RATA BLANCA:EL LIBRO OCULTO
RIOT:NIGHTBREAKER (killer album)
If you want more, i can give you my fave heavy metal releases from 1994, 1995 and 1996.

Annihilator were a little hit and miss during these years. They kept their sound though, and released a few solid albums.

AC/DC - The Razor's Edge, Ballbreaker, Stiff Upper Lip, Black Ice
Aerosmith - Honkin' on Bobo
Deep Purple - The Battle Rages On, Purpendicular, Abandon, Bananas, Rapture of the Deep
KISS - Sonic Boom
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
Rush - Test for Echo, Snakes and Arrows
Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (although I think this one came out in '91?)

Yes, i agree with THE BATTLE RAGES ON by DEEP PURPLE and the AC/DC albums. Also RAINBOW did a cool album back in 1995 and BLACK SABBATH´s DEHUMANIZER was cool too.

Tesla-Bust a Nut(1994)
Cinderella-Still Climbing(1994)
Dokken-Erase the Slate(1999)
Poison-Native Tongue(1993)
Motley Crue-New Tatoo(2000)
Vince Neil-Exposed(1993)
Aerosmith-Nine Lives(1997)
Van Halen-Balance(1995)
Coverdale Page-st(1993)
Mr Big-Bump Ahead(1993)
Alice Cooper-The Last Temptation(1994)
Slash's Snakepit-It's 5 o Clock Somewhere(1995),Ain't Life Grand(2000)
The Cult-Beyond Good and Evil(2001)

anything by Motorhead.

It took Ratt a long time to finally release a good album (their post-grunge stuff sucks except for Detonator), but Infestation is a great album

Ha! Anything that had massive MTV airplay sucked at the time, it's like endless looping torture,

I remember back in the day when our Local MTV played nothing but EXTREME's 'Tragic Comic', POISON's 'Stand' and A whole bunch of GNR's and NIRVANAs and other first-Wave Grunge Acts


There were almost no fresh Thrash or Heavy Metal releases, I was happy listening to my KREATOR cassette tapes tho

Anything by Sodom is great!
Kreator - Violent Revolution
Kreator - Enemy of God
everything Tankard has put out.
Celtic Frost - Monotheist