How did you hear of you current favorite band/s (thanks Maynard 420 for the idea)

[Bryant]

Vanden Plas has been my favorite band for about five years, though my tastes range from AOR type melodic metal to thrash. Anyway.... I was browsing through an MP3 newsgroup and came upon a band named Vanden Plas and the whole "The God Thing" CD was posted there in binaries as individual MP3s. I thought the band name sounded cool, so I picked three songs by them that also sounded cool. "Rainmaker" and You Fly" were two of the three. I was hooked after three or four plays (the singer sounded a bit nasal at first) and have never looked back.

Bryant

 

[Lycanthrope]

Forums, like this one, are great places to hear about new/different bands and artists. I've discovered alot of cool shit simply by frequenting different forums and message boards. I also do alot of general exploring on the net. I always check the 'links' page if I visit the site of a band I'm in to. They'll almost always have a slew of urls for other bands that they like. I'll usually dl stuff via winmx to check it out and if I like, I buy.
Of course, friends can be great sources as well.

 

[LuminousAether]

Here's how I found out about mine:

Maudlin of the Well -
newsletter from Dark Symphonies

Dredg -
post on Front Line Assembly fanpage message board

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum -
live chat with members of Dredg

Tub Ring -
similar artists function on amazon.com for Dog Fashion Disco

Ephel Duath -
originally, from SSMT message board
this album, p2p

Agalloch -
Beyond Death message board 4 or so years ago

Porcupine Tree -
Heard they toured with Anathema so downloaded on Audiogalaxy (RIP)

 

[delize]

Message boards
Mp3s
E-mail friends.

Yeah! Audiogalaxy was my gateway to so many bands. Now I use Kazaa Lite.

 

[None_So_Vile]

my friend dan got me into metal and introduced me to a fairly substancial dosage of bands but most of the stuff i listen to now ive found out about by myself by looking on here, reading terrorizer etc...

 

[maynard420]

For me it was switching back and forth with my best friend. I'll let him hear something I stumbled across and vise versa. I must especially thank him for Symphony X, Kamelot (beautiful) and many others. I hope he is happy with Evergrey, Zero Hour, and Pain of Salvation.

 

[AndICried]

www.allmusic.com has been very useful. It's also reliable enough.

www.pitchforkmedia.com got me into Pavement, Aphex Twin and Godspeed you! Black Emperor.

My friends haven't really helped me get into other bands... They suck.

Haha, Top of the Pops made me a Radiohead fan, when I was a lot younger, and MTV got me into (some of) Madonna's music with the video for "Frozen".

Also, these forums are pretty useful for finding new, wonderful bands you never knew existed.

 

[svenske kocken]

Iron Maiden is my favorite band and the first time I heard them was on a disco over ten years ago. Love at first... hearing.

 

[Hatebreeder33]

i don't know...random places on the internet.

 

[prince_of_darkness54321]

my fav of all time is alice cooper (the band and solo career) and i first saw him on the waynes world film, a close second is dio, who ironically i first saw when they played support for an alice gig i went to, so the first time i ever heard of them, i was when i saw em live, shame really cos if id known them before hand i could have enjoyed seeing em more.

 

[Nightmarez]

Frequent visits to boards such as this one, links pages on band websites, label newsletters are also a good way.

 

[plfffffft]

Metallica - Saw the video for One during a special on MTV when Load was released(I'm young, so sue me) and I was hooked.

In Flames - About three years ago my friend sent me an mp3 of December Flower. "Holy shit!" was all I could mutter

Dark Tranquility - since they're so closely tied with In Flames, it was only a matter of time, and about two years ago I was in a record store browsing and picked up Skydancer, since it was Anders singing on it(that's another way I get into new bands, seeing if they've done covers of other bands I like or checking out a side project or a previous band of one of the members of a band I already like

Opeth - Had a few extra bucks in my pocket(Graduation Money) and picked up Blackwater Park without ever hearing a single note they played(I heard a lot about them from various places). the next day I went back to the record store and picked up Still Life, MAYH, and MorningRise.

Slayer - oddly enough, Gremlins 2. I was watching that movie one day and heard a riff that I thought kicked ass. Turns out it was the bridge of Angel of Death, so I d/l'ed the whole song, then went out and bought Reign in blood a few hours later

 

[None_So_Vile]

wow andicried you like god speed you black emperor, my mate dan will love you

 

[LuminousAether]

How is liking Godspeed novel? They are a hugely overrated band that almost everyone knows.