18, Rural Northwestern Tennessee, I was into Nu Metal like Mudvayne and Slipknot I was 13 and I didn't know what death metal was until I was 16-17 and my first bands were Six Feet Under and Morbid Angel, so I've been into extreme metal since Summer 2005 so it's been nearly 2 years. I've been into black metal since Summer 2006, my first CD was In The Nightside Eclipse. I actually bought my first death metal CD the same time I bought my first black metal one, it was Six Feet Under-13.
16, Iowa, around 2 years of the real heavy stuff, I dabbled in the core stuff before that, but it was always missing somthing. Around here though, you have to find heavy by yourself.
Holy shit, someone else on this forum is from Virginia! I thought I was all alone out here in a sea of country music lovin' conservatives.
As for me: 21; Richmond, VA; 3 years.
My gateway band was Rammstein, which I found on some goth's shared folder in my college dorm's LAN. Until then, I didn't think I'd ever have any love for rock music. Everything I'd heard before had been either alternative rock, nu metal, or my dad's music.
22. From Perth, Australia. Though currently living in Tokyo (which, by the way, is an awesome city for heavy metal). Been listening for close to five years now.
26, from Joliet, Illinois. Grew up on Metallica and Megadeth. Listened to them since I was about eight or so, and started listening to a wider variety of Metal ( Death and Thrash mostly, with a bit of Black metal now and then) on 88.1, the local College radio station when I was about ten. I'm 26 now.