How did you get into metal?

[waif]

I realize this has probably been done before, I'm just too lazy to check.

Basically, how did you get into metal? Were you introduced or did you find it on your own? Who introduced you? What was the first thing you heard? How did you respond? Etc...feel free to skip the next section.

I used to listen to pretty much nothing but the Red Hot Chilli Peppers...my favorite album was Blood Sugar Sex Magic (which is a fantastic album you should all own) and there were some relatively heavy parts on a couple songs that I couldn't stop listening too. I would literally rewind midsong just to hear the heavy bit some more. Someone told me this was something called heavy metal. So, having never heard any of this "heavy metal," (I lived a sheltered life) but confident that it was what I wanted, I went out and bought Master of Puppets by Metallica. Just like that. It wasn't at all what I expected. Having never heard anything but Iron Man, I was blown away by how heavy it was. When I first put it in, I got bored of the intro to Battery, so I skipped...straight into Puppetz itself. I actually got kinda scared...it was heavy and I didn't really understand the meaning behind the lyrics, so I took them literally...got really creeped out. But I was totally hooked. That album was amazing, and still is, even though it isn't heavy or edgy at all compared to what I listen to now...

 

[Alteredmindeath]

I wanted to explore the devils house, so I entered.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I had to discover it myself. During my freshman year at college, I found some Rammstein on the shared folder system for my dorm floor, and it totally kicked my ass. Before then, I thought all modern rock music was just the alternative shit you hear on the radio all the time.

From there, I went on to listen to a lot of gothic stuff like Nightwish, Type O Negative and Cradle of Filth, eventually making my way to more classic bands, and systematically exploring each of the metal subgenres via Wikipedia and bittorrents.

Metal also got me into classic rock -- perhaps in large part due to Opeth. I went on to discover tons of late '60s and early '70s bands, and at the present day I listen to metal and classic rock in roughly equal proportions.

 

[Matt]

Always listened to classic and prog rock, liked power metal at age 12-13

 

[A8]

To be honest, metal really had a huge effect on almost all aspects of my life. I used to be very into Pop/Rap/Hip Hop. I was very materialistic, etc. Well I remember I made this friend Dan, who loved all kinds of metal. We were hanging out and he put on Slayer. I liked it and would listen to Slayer occasionally but didnt really explore metal. a few years later i started dating a guy that was really into metal. He opened my world to so many bands and so many genre's and types of music. i am forever indebted to him, because once i got into it i couldnt stop. Eager to find out more about it I came upon this forum and thats where i am today. I'm relatively new to metal and the scene, but im really happy to be a part of it and im always trying to find new stuff.

 

[Vossyrus]

I remember back in about 1996, hearing Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" and being completely hooked on the song, at the time I thought it was incredibly dark and "heavy metal". I was only 9 years old so I suppose it was inevitable that I would get into metal - I could never enjoy anything else I saw on TV or radio.

A few years of bands like Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and other hard rock bands and some gothic bands, and then I got into Cradle of Filth after watching their video for "Her Ghost in the Fog." This newfound interest of mine led me to getting into black metal, death metal and other extreme metal.

Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar" was my 'first album' so I suppose that gives a bit of insight into what I was looking for at the time when most others my age were into pop and whatever. That album got me 'into' music and helped me appreciate what music could do for me.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I thought "The Beautiful People" was pretty awesome too. Unfortunately, upon hearing a few Manson albums, I found that there was nothing else that sounded as awesome as that song.

 

[IWP]

About two years ago, when I was still listening to Slipknot, As I Lay Dying, Avenged Sevenfold, etc. I got into In Flames, Pantera, and Metallica, and the rest is history.

 

[Perdition's Light]

I had heard clips of metal before or seen portrayals of it in the media (usually parodying it or berating it) but knew nothing of what it actually was. One day a friend of mine (who now thinks metal is a joke) played Blackwater Park for me after school one day. I liked the atmosphere of it and the vocals really didn't put me off at all. I thought they were perfect for the music. I decided I would check out some more of this music online and ended up downloading some tunes on Napster by bands like Therion, Nightwish, Iced Earth, Tristania, and other "easy-lisening" metal. Some of it I thought was alright, some of it I thought was unbearably lame.

Eventually I started going to this local record store and buying a magazine called SOD or something and picking up random metal albums I thought looked like they might be cool. Thus I discovered real death and black metal and I ran with it from there. Oh yeah, one of the owners of the record store who was a metalhead really helped me out in discovering good bands and he kept me updated about any shows coming through.

 

[Rabid Headbanger]

Christian Metal. Ick. But it did ease my parents minds and the metal eventually pryed me from god.

Be happy to know that I never listened to crap and went straight for something that sounded like cannibal corpse. But when I heard my first megadeth song, thats when I became the crash crazed man I is today.

 

[Vossyrus]

I thought "The Beautiful People" was pretty awesome too. Unfortunately, upon hearing a few Manson albums, I found that there was nothing else that sounded as awesome as that song.

Really? I'm surprised you wouldn't like Antichrist Superstar then. I think he's had much better songs, especially from Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals, as well as some highlights from his earlier days. Those albums are classic as far as I'm concerned.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Well, it's been fucking forever since I listened to that stuff, so who knows. I just recall everything being really 'edgy' sounding, and never just balls-out like "Beautiful People" was.

...Okay, so "Beautiful People" wasn't really balls-out, but it was at least head-bangable.

 

[DarkBliss]

I started listening to metal at age 17-18 through Queen when I learnt that Metallica covered one of Queen's songs(Stone Cold Crazy, to be precise), got addicted to Ride the Lightning subsequently, and listened to nothing but Metallica's first five albums for two years straight. Which would explain why I burnt out on them completely.
Then via a friend I was introduced to Nightwish, Tristania, Opeth, Children of Bodom and Death. Then through him also found a great place where I can satisfy all my metal-purchasing needs(The metalshop here has a really great selection. Basically anythying that is still in print is obtainable. ) Found The Metal Observer site and Metal-Archives soon after, which led me here. The rest is history.
Now, thanks to Candlemass I'm thinking of exploring the early doom/heavy metal classics that I've somehow missed along the way.:zombie:

 

[Pessimism]

Was raised on the rock classics, and got into thrash bands as a result of my parents and their hatred of mainstream radio crap at the time. From there I went on to early 90's death metal (at around 96/7, waaay behind the times...but I was ten or eleven - big deal). My interest in black metal happened after ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADING!!! some early mayhem rehearsels, and then I promptly got my ass kicked by Dead of Mayhem. Only within the last 4 or 5 years have I latched onto doom/funeral doomdrone/ambient stuff (and other similar crap) and actually got back into heavy metal and its modern variants.


My early thrash was extremely limited btw - Metallica, Megadeth, Kreator, and Exodus (that's all). Which really blows because I can't believe how much I missed when it was available

 

[RosesofShadow]

Ok let me see... *closed eyes remembering the past*

ah, it was way back in '95 when I had my first dose of Metal... I was just 12yo back then, and I had a Metallica Shirt, and I got into Metallica's black album by way of radio... Songs like Enter Sandman, Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters...And of course, GNR... Sweet Child O Mine

And in '96, my brother's friend introduced us to a local radio station which usually plays Grunge, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Nu-Metal, and a bit of Metal... and It clicked on me at first listen... it's like someone injected something in me and I automatically got hooked...

By then, I was listening to Metallica, Silverchair, Bush, RATM, Pantera, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rollins Band, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, GNR, Motley Crue, The Cure, Manson, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Better than Ezra, etc. Then local bands like Wolfgang, Razorback, POT...

I still remember my first and only cassette tape of Megadeth. I found it lying on the ground at the school campus as if someone accidentally lost it and it was me who found it! It was Megadeth's Cryptic Writings. And i got pretty much hooked in this album which my favorite song is "Trust"...

And in '98, '99' and 2000, we participated in the Battle of the Bands where we played "Mata ng Diyos" by Wolfgang, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, and a Nu-Metal medley ("Wake up" by RATM, "Nookie" by LB, "Freak on a Leash" by Korn) and "Anthem for the Year 2000" by Silverchair.

Got into Nu-Metal in those years specially Korn, Limp Bizkit, RATM and SOAD...

Then, when I got into college in year 2000... I was still digging NuMetal back then, plus the emerging love for Slipknot... haha!

But in those years, I'm also already hooked up on Metallica and Pantera. And a little from Slayer, Sepultura and Megadeth...

In 2001, I got to listen to Hardcore, Punk, Reggae, Ska by introduction from friends, mainly Hardcore...stuff like Minor Threat, Black Flag, Cro Mags, Earth Crisis, 108, Walls of Jericho, Converge...

It was also the time I first listened to Deicide, Suffocation, RDP, Malevolent Creation, Obituary, etc....

In 2002, I saw a video of Cradle of Filth's No Time to Cry and somewhat got curious... Then I started listening to CoF albums... which then got me into Gothic Metal... Got hooked on the "Beauty and Beast" stuff like Tristania, Sirenia, Trail of Tears, The Sins of thy Beloved, etc...

Then In 2003, I got more in-depth listening to Metal... Where I listened mainly to Death, Black, Thrash and Doom Metal...Stuffs like Death, Heathen, MDB, Opeth, Arcturus, Morbid Angel, Kataklysm, Krisiun, Dark Funeral, Mayhem, Anathema, The gathering, etc...

2004, the time I signed up here in UM... I got to listen to more obscure stuffs mentioned by the board members, and then started to research on my own on the various kick-ass bands and albums...

Then, as so we say, the rest is history... Sorry for the lengthy post, I just feel like writing coz I'm pretty bored here... hehe..

 

[Pessimism]

I wouldn't worry about the length

 

[Brozeth]

First started listening to grunge and NWOBHM when I was about 12. Of course I also listened to Slipknot, Disturbed and SOAD arpound the same time. I was introduced to Candlemass about two years before they reunited for the s/t disc and then I started asking for recommendations for Thrash, Death, Black and Doom metal. Here I am now, a proud supporter of the Heavy Metal scene, especially the underground.

 

[audiophileguy]

rap for 10 years>nu-metal for 2> melodeath for one>great metal ever since than(3-4 years ago).

 

[Discovery]

My first ever experience with music would be the grunge scene of the early 90's. STP, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden ,etc. From there i got into Tool through my middle and high school years. Soon after i was really getting into Metallica and that led me to hearing 'Darkthrone' mentioned on an internet chat channel. That's where it all started.

 

[Andromidius]

One of my cousin's friends was playing Rammstein at his house. I found it interesting so I investigated it by downloading pretty much everything I could find.

A guy in another forum mentioned he liked Slayer, so I checked them out. Became hooked very quickly, and quickly just moved farther and farther into extreme music.

After this point I essentially just discovered everything else by myself. I got into Cannibal Corpse by accident - downloading them instead of another band - but fell in love with it and started listening to more Death Metal. And from there I fell into Grind, and then Drone.

And I started listening to Black Metal out of curiosity about two years ago. It's different to Death Metal (obviously) but it's just as enjoyable.

And my friends have never forgiven me for turning to Metal.