A musical map of your crusty brain.

[Teh Grimace]

Every music fan is a particular, unique creature, with tastes and opinions different from any other and formed over time with some great degree of consideration (with the exception of Children Of Bodom fans, who are momos.) When you look at someone's "Favorite Bands" list, you can read it as a map of who, musically, they are. So how did you get here?

List the ten (or so) extreme music, or at least somewhat "heavy" music Albums/Artists, in chronological order of when you got into them, which you believe have shaped your current tastes. Not just your favorites, but the ones that, upon your first listen, changed the way you thought about music....

Mine...

1. Metallica - ...And Justice For All
My first metal album. Somewhere around 10 or 11, I saw the clip of "One", and my pristine little soul was forever after tarnished.
2. Bathory- S/T
Not more than a year after Justice, Bathory introduced me to the idea of liking raw, grinding ugliness in music.
3. Mayhem - Deathcrush
Around 13 or so, same as Bathory, but uglier. My first "trve" BM album. Introduced me to the concept of screaming rasps as a vocal style.
4. Emperor - Athems To The Welkin At Dusk
The realization that you could have extreme aggression and epic melodicism at the same time.
5. Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale
Crazyness. My earliest steps out of the box and into the world of Avant.
6. Opeth - Still Life
Most likely my original influence for all the prog/mellow/clean-vocals stuff I like now. Made me realize heavier wasn't always better.
7. 7 Angels, 7 Plagues - Jhazmyne's Lullaby
The first proper "metalcore" album I ever cared about (and still the best one I've ever heard). Came out in 2000 I think. All the brutality and aggression I liked in death and black, just different.
8. Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Probably my first ever experience with saying "I'm not sure what I just listened to, but I liked it." Made me see the beauty in totally obstinate dissonance and anti-music (anti-melody,-time,-"hook",-"riff", etc.)
9. Converge - Jane Doe
Never since I first heard "Deathcrush" had I been so shocked at a band's raw hate coming through so clearly and bile-drippingly on record. Jane Doe is, to this day, the most hateful work of guitar-based music I've ever heard, outdone only by a few extreme electronic acts in intensity.
10. Weakling - Dead As Dreams
The album that got me back into "raw" black metal again. Around that time I was listening to either brutal hardcore and death metal or viking/progressive/post-BM, but Weakling's epic minimalism, truly ugly vocals, abstract instrumentation, with all that dense, natural, earthy atmosphere... it hit a nerve.

---

What you got?

 

[harryhash]

Hmmm...cool concept. I'm gonna try this, even though I'm a big COB fan...

1. Metallica-Blackened
(AGE 15) I was addicted to the speed of this song. If I got pissed off, I'd slink off then blast this full volume. I took the first steps...

2. Korn-Got the Life
(AGE 15) While technically not a metal song, the bass playing and general melodies of this song convinced me that heavier (usually) = better. That, and that John Davies is a freak...

3. Parkway Drive-Gimme A D
(AGE 16) This song is a gem. While it strayed me from the path of metal (as PWD are hardcore) it remains one of my favourite songs of all time. Can you say power chords? How about blast beat? Ok then smart ass, how about breakdown?

4. Opeth-The Grand Conjuration
(AGE 16) After a long break from metal, my mate finally convinced me to give Opeth a whirl. I did, and then bought 5 of their albums in a week. I don't care if people say its the weakest track on Ghost Reveries, I fucking love it!!!

5. Children Of Bodom-Kissing The Shadows
(AGE 17) I love melodic music. Natch, I like a LOT of power metal (no matter how lame it can be). COB sorta provided the stepping stone to...

6. Cradle of Filth-From The Cradle To Enslave
(AGE 17) I was finally onto black metal (lite). I was addicted to the harmonies, the lyrical content...everything, basically. Looking through other black metal of the Danni Filth persuasion, I came to...

7. Cradle of Filth-Gilded Cunt
(AGE 17) Meh, in hindsight, a crappy song. Just shut up and follow the train of thought...from here I found Dimmu Borgir...

8. Dimmu Borgir-Burn in Hell
(AGE 17) Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia was my first Dimmu album, and this song stood out as Old Skool. From here it was onto...

9. Emperor-The Prophet
(AGE 17) Emperor were good for a while, but then I got sick of black metal. All of it blended into much of a muchness, and the production of most of it sucks balls. I went for something cleaner, something a little closer to my roots in old skool metal and nu-metal, with hardcore influences but with that metal edge I had grown to love...

10. DevilDriver-End of the Line
(AGE 17, about 3 weeks ago) DevilDriver. Kicks. Ass. Pure and simple. They have the ex-Coal Chamber vocalist, punk influences (hardcore note seperation), thrash episodes, and an insane vibe. I love most of their songs, and End of the Line just happens to come to mind (as does Die and Die Now). As a final note, if anyone knows any bands like DevilDriver, please post or PM me...


And thats where I stand now...

 

[Procella]

1. Deep Purple "In Rock"
2. Rainbow "Rising"
3. Iron Maiden "Seventh Son..."
4. Dream Theater "A Change Of Seasons"
5. Pain Of Salvation "A Perfect Element"
6. Evergrey "Recreation Day"
7. Nightwish "Century Child"
8. Bathory "Nordland 1"
9. Peccatum "Lost In Reverie"
10. Ulver - "Themes From William Blake's..."

 

[Birkenau]

And thats where I stand now...

Keep walking.

 

[Teh Grimace]

Korn to Devildriver in only 8 moves. What a transition.

 

[The_Harmathroditic_Ferret]

Well lets see here.

I started out with Korn's Follow the Leader, because at the time, Korn and lyrics about pederasty and buttfucking were cool at the time. Then Limp Bizkit, then whatever other shitty rapcore/nu metal band was on the market. This is when I'm about 11. From my entire experience, I must still say that the first Korn album I still find to be a pretty decent album.

Oh god I really don't want to have to write a fucking paper on this. Ok well in short

Classic rock phase.. Zeppelin, BLack Sabbath, Motorhead etc. I noticed the nu-metal bands didn't solo and were starting to sound the same so I needed escape. I'm about 14 now. I still haven't kicked the Nu Metal bug quite yet. I still listened to Slipknot and Mudvayne.

Then I heard Napalm Deaths Order of the Leech (not even their best release), and I was lke... wow this is heavy. And then over the next 2 years, my death metal transition occured. I found Carcass and I never looked back. And now I just turned 17.

 

[Kutryer]

10 - limp bizkit - that one song where they say "fuck" at laest 50 times...
11 - Metallica - seek and destroy - thats when i started listening to some thrash, and got into this forum.
12 - ozzy, iron maiden, black sabbath, all the old school stuff, guns and roses. then went to cheesy powermetal... rhapsody, elvenking, thats kind of stuff.
13 - started getting into children of bodom, opeth.
late 13 - got out of children of bodom, and into heavier black metal - emperor, darkthrone, burzum. also started getting into death metal, like bolt thrower, nevermore (not really death metal), dark tranquility, nile, into eternity, suffocation, demilich, dissection, entombed, and a shitload more.
14 (now) - still into all the death and black metal, but have now started getting more open minded, and i have a bunch of jazz fusion, blues, and classical music in my collection now.

 

[ProjectedBlack]

I went somewhere along the lines of:

-Morbid Angel (First "Extreme" band I ever heard, completely turned me off but left me curious)

-Killswitch Engage (Learned that there's more to "screaming" music then screaming. Liked some of the heavier sections and got used to the extreme vocals

-Post Clayman In Flames (Helped me start getting out of the Metalcore groove but still wasn't quite all there)

-At the Gates: Slaughter of the Soul (No catchy vocals, this was my first step into an album that had all Death Metal vocals, I liked the guitar playing and some of the leads)

-Iron Maiden (Helped me get into Power/Heavy Metal as I didn't like the vocals. Their themes about history and warfare made me listen to them until I was cool with their vocals)

-A little point here where I was introduced to a lot of bands, though none overly important in my transistion (Dragonforce, Dark Tranquillity, Old In Flames, Death)

-Back to Morbid Angel (I'd gotten used to the vocal style and was able to look at their music as music rather then noise and grunting, this was a big step for me as it got me into pure Death Metal)

-Emperor (Turned me off when I first heard it around the time I was just getting into things but after conquering a lot of Melo-Death bands I was ready for them. Started with IX Equilibrium then moved to In the Nightside Eclipse, they turned out being one of my favourite bands)

-Newer Sentenced (Showed me that not all Metal involved people singing in falsetto or heavy instrumentation, not a 100% Metal band towards their last days but brought me back to some of my roots in rock music and later inspired me to find some good rock bands, although at this time I was listening to 95% Metal)

-Immortal (My first step into non Symphonic Black Metal, I had heard the name of this band mentioned somewhere and saw the album cover with three guys wearing corpsepaint on the front and said "Ooh, Black Metal, I'll get this". I thought the guitar riffs were kind've boring and it didn't grab me too much, although with a little bit of time this ended up being one of my favourite bands along with other bands like The Crown, Emperor, Persuader, Hammerfall, etc.)

So there you have it.

 

[CF87]

Every music fan is a particular, unique creature, with tastes and opinions different from any other and formed over time with some great degree of consideration (with the exception of Children Of Bodom fans, who are momos.) When you look at someone's "Favorite Bands" list, you can read it as a map of who, musically, they are. So how did you get here?

Starting a thread including 'Converge' in your list. Ontop dissing fans of another band of makes you look like the idiot. I just thought i'd point that out for you.

..because slam dance DeP & converge fans punching the floor are not 'momos'.

Good job!

 

[lastthrash]

11 years old at a cousin's graduation party he was playing "Fade To Black", and the somber sound of the tune hit home, which led to the acquiring of everything Metallica. From there a few years later "Vulgar display of Power", took it to a New Level for me (ha ha). From there I kept searching for harder and more brutal shit like Chris Barnes stuff, Suffocation and Malevolant Creation. Since then I've moved to appreciate the more epic shit like Dimmu's Early stuff including Enthroned. Now I guess I just look for what I like, Fucking loved Wintersun's Debut, Vader is an all time favorite, old school thrash will always be major corner stone though.

 

[Weizenkeim]

- The Offspring - Smash and Green Day - Dookie: My first exposition to distorted guitars, courtesy of my elder brother. (~10 y)

- Metallica - And Justice For All: After having heard "blackened", "justice" and "enter sandman" this was the first metal album I got. (~12 y)

- Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle- Earth: The one that really got me into Metal. Upon seeing what was probably the only showing of a 30 sec- excerpt of "Mirror Mirror" on german TV ever, I was hooked (~14 y)

- In Flames - Whoracle: First Death Metal Album I liked (~15 y)

- My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the World got me into one of my fave bands and, generally, the darker side of metal (~16 y)

- Dan Swanö - Moontower: Although I had liked Dream Theater before, this was the record that made me fall in love with keyboards, and prog in general. It was also my introduction to the Swanöverse of bands like Opeth, Katatonia, Pan.Thy.Monium, Bloodbath (~19 y)

- Gentle Giant - Octopus: Exploring the roots of some of the prog bands I had grown to like, this got me into '70s music and, by extension, jazz fusion (~19 y)

That's about it, 22 now and listening to anything from Robbie Williams to Bolt Thrower.

 

[MasterOLightning]

1. Boston - Boston. An all time great rock release. I was really into this when I was 15 or so. Up until this time I listened to classic rock radio, but never really bought any cds.

2. UFO - Love to Love. This song is basically the epitome of rock to me. It was structurally much like a metal song, and had a very epic feel.

3. Metallica - Master of Puppets. Had the epic feel of that UFO song that I loved. Songs like Orion and MoP that I heard on the radio forced me to more actively pursue this band. I was probably still 15 then.

4. In Flames - Clayman. The first album with extreme vocals I had heard. I got pretty into it at the time. I think it's pretty weak for the most part now. I guess I was 16.

5. Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. This blew me away with its virtuosity and variety at the time. I still have a soft spot for this album, even though most people pan it.

6. Opeth - Blackwater Park. No album to date has struck me quite in the way this did. I was hooked immediately. Enter Opeth fanboy period. This was probably a little after I turned 17.

7. Death - Human. I was still 17. First true death metal album that I really got into. One of the greats.

8. Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. Not my favorite Emperor album now, but got me more interested in black metal. Still 17. Then for a while I heard a bunch of stuff that was good, but nothing that changed my outlook.

9. Darkthrone - Panzerfaust. Really got me into minimalistic and raw black metal. I was 18 or so.

10. Peccatum - Lost in Reverie. Sort of a more avant-garde phase now, I guess. That was within the last year.

 

[The Subjugator]

the first four metallica albums
iron maiden
slayer

um...

 

[Saparmurat_Niyazov]

1. At age 4 or 5 (this was the very early 1980's), I first started actually listening to music, you know, taking in what I was hearing and forming opinions of what it was. I remember liking in those young, formidable years, Supertramp, Prince, and Rick James.
2. About a year or two later, we got cable TV and I saw Van Halen's video for "Jump". I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, the way David Lee Roth did his Kung Fu moves and Eddie Van Halen played keyboards AND guitar! I was from that point on a rock 'n' roll fan.
3. Not long after that, I discovered by brother's cassette collection: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Motley Crue, Kiss, etc., I was now officially a metalhead.
4. From age 7 or 8 to about age 11 I really enjoyed hair bands - Dokken, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and the like, until an older kid who used to bully me and then (through some odd twist of fate) befriended me introduced me to Metallica. I was hooked. I mean, really hooked. I was a Metallica FANATIC.
5. My early teen years, I converted to more thrash metal: Megadeth, Slayer, Nuclear Assault, Sepultura, Voivod, Death Angel, and such.
6. In my late teens, I bought Once Upon The Cross by Deicide. At first I hated it, but it then grew on me, and of course - I started to listen to Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Immolation, Incantation, and all that. Death metal is still probably my favorite extreme metal genre.
7. A friend of mine introduced me to Cradle Of Filth. I don't dig them anymore, but they are the reason I tried black metal. CoF, as shitty as they are, opened the doors for me to listen to Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Burzum, and Darkthrone, among others.
8. Now I choose music not based on what is the most extreme, but the most creative and innovative.

 

[Velvet Creation]

1- All started with Guns N'Roses and Nirvana back in 1990
2- Moved up to Metallica black album, Iron Maiden and MEgadeth (Rust in Peace and Countdown...) got really deep into these bands for a looong time
3- at the age of 15 a friend's dad showed me AC/DC, I was amazed! Specially for making such an energetic and simple music like they still do.
4- Then I had a few years of "darkness". I used to hang out a lot with skaters and surfers and inevitably ended up into a lot of punk rock, skate punk, pop punk like Bad Religion, Pennywise, Green Day, Lagwagon, Offspring and so on... I still enjoy Bad Religion for example.
5- I always liked fast music, so a friend showed me some power metal. Damn, those double bass pedals drove me crazy! I was heavily into Angra, Gamma Ray, Helloween... but eventualy I got sick of the vocals and some time after that I listened Marduk - Opus Nocturne.
6- the Black Metal era started. From 1997 until 2002 my life was dedicated to BM. I worked with a friend on a BM label and distro that period, so believe me, I heard almost every fucking underground BM stuff to be known.
7- Since then, I have a normal life now (wife, decent work...) so I kind of didn't stay focused on music so much, listenening to everything and nothiing, if you know what I'm mean. I recently, been a LOT into death metal, which I think it's a very wide and diversified genre. I can find almost everything I want in it, ranging from In Flames, Dark Tranquillity to Nile, Psycroptic, Decapitated... and I must say I'm very happy with it at the moment. Discovering new bands every day.

 

[Teh Grimace]

Blahbety blahbety blah!

Converge rules.

The Greys = a momo.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I'm proud to say I have no nu-metal in my listening progression. This makes me more tr00 than others.

 

[The_Harmathroditic_Ferret]

Converge rules.

The Greys = a momo.

I like most core music and I can't stand Converge.

BTW, whats a momo?

 

[Carcassian]

1. At age 4 or 5 (this was the very early 1980's), I first started actually listening to music, you know, taking in what I was hearing and forming opinions of what it was. I remember liking in those young, formidable years, Supertramp, Prince, and Rick James.
2. About a year or two later, we got cable TV and I saw Van Halen's video for "Jump". I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, the way David Lee Roth did his Kung Fu moves and Eddie Van Halen played keyboards AND guitar! I was from that point on a rock 'n' roll fan.
3. Not long after that, I discovered by brother's cassette collection: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Motley Crue, Kiss, etc., I was now officially a metalhead.
4. From age 7 or 8 to about age 11 I really enjoyed hair bands - Dokken, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and the like, until an older kid who used to bully me and then (through some odd twist of fate) befriended me introduced me to Metallica. I was hooked. I mean, really hooked. I was a Metallica FANATIC.
5. My early teen years, I converted to more thrash metal: Megadeth, Slayer, Nuclear Assault, Sepultura, Voivod, Death Angel, and such.
6. In my late teens, I bought Once Upon The Cross by Deicide. At first I hated it, but it then grew on me, and of course - I started to listen to Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Immolation, Incantation, and all that. Death metal is still probably my favorite extreme metal genre.
7. A friend of mine introduced me to Cradle Of Filth. I don't dig them anymore, but they are the reason I tried black metal. CoF, as shitty as they are, opened the doors for me to listen to Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Burzum, and Darkthrone, among others.
8. Now I choose music not based on what is the most extreme, but the most creative and innovative.

Broadly the same as mine ^^. I was beginning to think I was the only old bastard on here too...

 

[Teh Grimace]

I like most core music...

Like... what? Shadow's Fall? Hatebreed?

BTW, whats a momo?

A boy who likes boys. Not just as friends.