Nice! Good move. What happened to your budget? Win lottery?
The preamp is $660 in the states.
The SM7B is a decent mic at American prices maybe but with the markup in the rest of the world I think there's better out there.
Personally I find the Shure large diaphragm dynamics like the SM7B or RE20 too warm and bassy and lacking in detail to my ears...sort of the American radio voice sound vs. the European sound...but that's down to taste.
You certainly need a pre-amp with lots of clean gain in my experience though.
Question for the OP...are you recording each track separately or will you be recording as live with the typical metal sound levels around the vocalist?
I recorded with the SM7B last sunday and wasn't blown away by it, I'm affraid. Check out the dry sample. The voice sounds dry and muffled somehow . I removed the cap and placed a popscreen in front of it, the singer stood about an inch from the mic. And he doesn't like the sound either.
Is the mic supposed to sound like this?
I'm afraid that your problem may be with your preamp! What are you using Acierator?