Oh god. Its going on 5 years now. I was in the 7th grade right before the Thrashed, Lost & Strungout EP was released. I had just started to get into playing guitar several months before that and I picked up a Guitar World and it had a lesson from the guitar player of this up and coming band from Finland called Children Of Bodom. I checked out the video and it had Alexi playing the riffs from Chokehold and I was completly blown away by his skills. Not long after I got some cash and bought AYDY, HCDR, and FTR all on the same day. Bought the rest of the CDs sometimes later and finally saw them last September with TBDM. I tried to see them every time they came to town for 4 years and got screwed out of it every time Detroit Rock City style!
What pisses me off is all the freshmen at school who think there such big fans even though they dont own any CDs, Merch, etc. All I can think is "Bitch I was a Bodom fan when you were still learning how to divide numbers!"