I lived in Seattle during the Grunge era and when I was much younger, I listened exclusively to Pearl Jam, AiC, Soundgarden, etc. My mom and uncle have always been into metal, so my respect for bands like Priest and Maiden was always really high. Yet, when KaZaA came along, a simple search of "Stratovarius" would start my path towards the Dark Side.
How'd you get into metal?
- Thread starter RagePSV
- Start date
Yippee38
Living the dream!
My parents weren't really "into" music, but they did have a bunch of albums that would probably be considered pop. I listened to most of them and liked some stuff. I really liked Marty Robbins (old western singer) and still do. I guess my Dad's influence got me into country when I was a kid. I still don't get that, though there are one or two artists who still blow me away (Emmylou Harris for one). However, he had two Beatles albums on reel-to-reel tape; Hey Jude & Sgt. Pepper's. Yes. It was that long ago. I fell in love with the Beatles at an early age. They were always my favorite band growing up.
When I was in 6th grade or so, some friends of mine and I started listening to KISS. This went on for a year or two. I stopped buying their stuff right when they all came out with solo albums at the same time. That was junior high. Right about then I got two albums for Christmas that I really liked. I got ELO - Out of the Blue and Aerosmith - Get Your Wings. I dug, and still do, the ELO album, but it took me a while to really start liking the Aerosmith album. One day after school I was walking home with somebody - don't remember who - and we ran into this guy who was this amazing drummer from our school. We walked together for a while and ended up hanging out at his house for a while. He played some Rush for us. I really liked it. For my next birthday, my two best friends got me "2112" and "Hemispheres". I was a Rush fan from that day forward.
I remember going to visit the HS as an 8th grader. While we were there, there was a fire alarm and we had to go out behind the school. We ended up by the smoking area which is where all the burnouts hung out (they were the smokers of course). One guy had a great car stereo and was blasting "Running with the Devil" out of it. I really didn't know what to make of it at the time.
Right then Steve Dahl was on the radio with his whole Disco Demolition thing. Everybody was very anti-disco that I knew (I hung out with the burnouts even though I was about as different from them as you could be). The first hard rock album I ever bought was Aerosmith - Live Bootleg. Joe Perry was my idol. That's why I own two red B.C. Rich Bich guitars. I think because I was hanging out with the burnouts that summer before Freshman year, I started to pick up on some of the hard rock stuff. My best friend was a smoker and he started to pick up on it too. We started getting into anything hard rock/heavy metal. We listened to Scorpions, Black Sabbath (Dio), Zepp, Aerosmith, Triumph, April Wine, Y&T, BOC, Ted Nugent, Bad Company, Van Halen, etc..
From there, I never really stopped listening to metal. We were lucky in that we had a string of metal stations in Chicago for a while. That was enough to keep me in metal. My friends and I used to get together on Saturdays and play D&D, drink, smoke pot (I had quit by this time), and listen to The Blaze all day, every Sat.. That's where I was first acquanted with "Rage for Order". I became a huge Queensryche fan. My friend bought me tickets to see Queensryche open for Metallica that year. That got me into Metallica.
When the metal stations died out in Chicago, I kind became musically lost. The only thing that kept me listening to metal was mp3.com. I used to roam that site downloading samples and found lots of great bands that way. Later, I discovered Impulse Music, and used to stop there on the way home from work about every other week. The problem was that I didn't know any of the bands. I was buying mostly older stuff, and trying one or two bands based on the recommendations of the guy working at the store, or bands that I had heard on mp3.com. One day I was in there and came across a little 2"x3" flyer for a festival called ProgPower. I was psyched because it had all these bands I liked. Then I got to the bottom of the flyer and saw that the date was about a week gone. I had missed it. However, I also found a little fanzine called "Lamentations of the Flame Princess" and picked it up. I read the thing cover to cover. Jim is a really good writer. If he ever writes a book, I'll buy it. I tried out some stuff that he recommended and quickly found that my taste differed quite significantly from Jim's. However, I learned to pick up from his reviews what I might like, and what I wouldn't regardless of whether or not he liked it. LotFP played a huge part in me getting into a lot of the newer bands that I'm into now. Of course, that's how I heard about PPIII. Now I have this forum to find out about new music.
That kinda turned into "My Metal History" rather than how I got started listending to metal. Sorry it's so long.
When I was in 6th grade or so, some friends of mine and I started listening to KISS. This went on for a year or two. I stopped buying their stuff right when they all came out with solo albums at the same time. That was junior high. Right about then I got two albums for Christmas that I really liked. I got ELO - Out of the Blue and Aerosmith - Get Your Wings. I dug, and still do, the ELO album, but it took me a while to really start liking the Aerosmith album. One day after school I was walking home with somebody - don't remember who - and we ran into this guy who was this amazing drummer from our school. We walked together for a while and ended up hanging out at his house for a while. He played some Rush for us. I really liked it. For my next birthday, my two best friends got me "2112" and "Hemispheres". I was a Rush fan from that day forward.
I remember going to visit the HS as an 8th grader. While we were there, there was a fire alarm and we had to go out behind the school. We ended up by the smoking area which is where all the burnouts hung out (they were the smokers of course). One guy had a great car stereo and was blasting "Running with the Devil" out of it. I really didn't know what to make of it at the time.
Right then Steve Dahl was on the radio with his whole Disco Demolition thing. Everybody was very anti-disco that I knew (I hung out with the burnouts even though I was about as different from them as you could be). The first hard rock album I ever bought was Aerosmith - Live Bootleg. Joe Perry was my idol. That's why I own two red B.C. Rich Bich guitars. I think because I was hanging out with the burnouts that summer before Freshman year, I started to pick up on some of the hard rock stuff. My best friend was a smoker and he started to pick up on it too. We started getting into anything hard rock/heavy metal. We listened to Scorpions, Black Sabbath (Dio), Zepp, Aerosmith, Triumph, April Wine, Y&T, BOC, Ted Nugent, Bad Company, Van Halen, etc..
From there, I never really stopped listening to metal. We were lucky in that we had a string of metal stations in Chicago for a while. That was enough to keep me in metal. My friends and I used to get together on Saturdays and play D&D, drink, smoke pot (I had quit by this time), and listen to The Blaze all day, every Sat.. That's where I was first acquanted with "Rage for Order". I became a huge Queensryche fan. My friend bought me tickets to see Queensryche open for Metallica that year. That got me into Metallica.
When the metal stations died out in Chicago, I kind became musically lost. The only thing that kept me listening to metal was mp3.com. I used to roam that site downloading samples and found lots of great bands that way. Later, I discovered Impulse Music, and used to stop there on the way home from work about every other week. The problem was that I didn't know any of the bands. I was buying mostly older stuff, and trying one or two bands based on the recommendations of the guy working at the store, or bands that I had heard on mp3.com. One day I was in there and came across a little 2"x3" flyer for a festival called ProgPower. I was psyched because it had all these bands I liked. Then I got to the bottom of the flyer and saw that the date was about a week gone. I had missed it. However, I also found a little fanzine called "Lamentations of the Flame Princess" and picked it up. I read the thing cover to cover. Jim is a really good writer. If he ever writes a book, I'll buy it. I tried out some stuff that he recommended and quickly found that my taste differed quite significantly from Jim's. However, I learned to pick up from his reviews what I might like, and what I wouldn't regardless of whether or not he liked it. LotFP played a huge part in me getting into a lot of the newer bands that I'm into now. Of course, that's how I heard about PPIII. Now I have this forum to find out about new music.
That kinda turned into "My Metal History" rather than how I got started listending to metal. Sorry it's so long.
Bryant
Mr. Sleepy
Dude I thought I was old !! Seriously though... it was a smooth transition. I dug Kansas, Styx, Boston, etc. as a boy. I simply got introduced to heavier stuff as a teen. The popular bands like Quiet Riot were cool and got me interested in some heavier struff, but once I heard Accept and Yngwie, I was hooked.
Bryant
Bryant
LunaTEKKE
Madness Reigns
- Mar 23, 2006
- 1,220
- 8
- 38
That was pretty much my path as well. My favorite bands in Jr. High School were groups like Styx, Kansas, Journey, and Foreigner.
About the time I hit high school, a former easy listening radio station in my home town of Spokane, WA changed formats and started playing all my favorite bands PLUS Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Judas Priest, and Def Leppard. I definitely got hooked.
(Ah, the glory days of radio and of course, MTV...once my neigborhood FINALLY got cable TV.)
MetalRose
ProgPower EMT
Dr_Metal
The Destroyer of Liver's
It was more or less a natural progression for me.... In the mid to late 70's I was into acid/prog/classic/and hard rock along with early metal bands like Priest & Sabbath.... Once the 80's hit and metal really started becoming popular (and heavier), my taste for music got heavier as well....
Chai
Marching with Mephisto
- Dec 6, 2006
- 103
- 0
- 16
I remember the exact song that got me into metal. I was talking to a friend of mine from Jersey, and he was talking about listening to metal, to which I replied: "I don't like feeling like musicians are just screaming at me." So he asked me to at least listen to one track: In Flames - The Quiet Place. Now, say what you will about post-Colony In Flames, but that song was my gateway into the metal world. I started downloading everything the band did, and waded my way through the lighter tracks (pretty much listened until the chorus, and if I didn't get some clean vocals I stopped listening).
I listened to In Flames exclusively for awhile. Other metal bands were still too rough around the edges for me as a fledgling metalhead. Then I got Napster, with its "If you like this band, try these" function. This directed me to a couple of bands I could care less about, and strangely enough, to a little band called Kamelot. I was hooked from my first listen to Descent of the Archangel. From then on I've been gobbling up every band I can get my hands on, trying new bands and genres. My tastes have refined, but I still remember where I started
.
I listened to In Flames exclusively for awhile. Other metal bands were still too rough around the edges for me as a fledgling metalhead. Then I got Napster, with its "If you like this band, try these" function. This directed me to a couple of bands I could care less about, and strangely enough, to a little band called Kamelot. I was hooked from my first listen to Descent of the Archangel. From then on I've been gobbling up every band I can get my hands on, trying new bands and genres. My tastes have refined, but I still remember where I started
.
Diamond45
Terminate Bad Music
1983 - I WANT MY MTV!
2008 - YOU CAN KEEP YOUR DAMN MTV!
uke:I remember when my cable system upgraded and added MTV. I was addicted. Like you, a lot of good stuff was coming out about that time. But since about 1991 or so (when they started that reality TV crap), I quit watching. Now all they have are those crappy reality shows! :zombie:
If I want to watch music videos - I go to YouTube.
Entrerie
Member
- Sep 14, 2006
- 552
- 2
- 16
I don't know exactly when I got into metal music specifically as it wasn't really outside the norm and I was never really big into music in general growing up. I spent most of my childhood growing up in Los Angeles near Hollywood and at the time Metal was a big part of the culture especialy in this city. I guess it was really blurred with hard rock, you had hair/glam everything all mixed together under the metal banner and in the media everywhere. I think in it's prime there were at least 2 radio stations I can remember one was KNAC and the other was Pirate Radio. I can recall walking down Hollywood Blvd and seeing at least some type of storefront dedicated to Metal/Hard Rock every block selling t-shirts and all that stuff. I liked Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, Pantera just to name a few.
I guess anymore would be an autobiography and I'll cut it short while I'm ahead or I'll write a novel.
I guess anymore would be an autobiography and I'll cut it short while I'm ahead or I'll write a novel.
KingsGene
God of Thunder
Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
1983 - I WANT MY MTV!
2008 - YOU CAN KEEP YOUR DAMN MTV!
I remember when my cable system upgraded and added MTV. I was addicted. Like you, a lot of good stuff was coming out about that time. But since about 1991 or so (when they started that reality TV crap), I quit watching. Now all they have are those crappy reality shows! :zombie:
If I want to watch music videos - I go to YouTube.
You and the rest of the world.
I still remember when onetime MTV "veejay" Adam Curry quit the network because they had gone way into reality TV and other shows, and turned their backs on music (specifically metal, which A.C. liked). They didn't air his on-camera resignation, but the studio people preserved it. Priceless.
I know this because at the time, Adam ran a computer BBS out of his house in NJ and I was a regular caller.
Very cool chap he was, and well ahead of the digital curve: he was the original owner of mtv.com; they had to acquire it from him.
DoomsdayZach
The Professor was right
I'll chime in. Pretty much got into metal... well, I'll start by saying i'm 23 now. Back when i was in middle and high school (so what... 12/13?) Nu Metal was the big thing. I remember just being in love with Korn, Limp Bizkit, Tool (yeah, i know... different thing), RATM, even caught Papa Roach right at the end of that whole thing. Then when I was in high school I acquired a shitload of stolen cds (don't worry, I gave them back once I found out they were stolen and who's they were). One of the albums was Metallica's Black Album. of course i'd heard Enter Sandman before, but never really thought a lot about it, but actually listening to that album just made me go apeshit. I went out and bought my own copy of that album along with pretty much every metallica album I could find at the time and became obsessive about them. I knew every lyric, every riff, everything there was to know about the band at the time within a month or two. Then i got curious about Garage Inc, especially the satanic lyrics of the Mercyful Fate medley. Something about it drew me to them.
Of course, upon hearing the real Mercyful Fate songs, I thought "jesus, what's with this dude's voice?" Still, it was intriguing and like nothing I'd ever heard before, so I bought Mercyful Fate's "The Beginning" and King Diamond's "The Graveyard" (the only two albums with King on them that my local cd store had) and spun the fuck outta them. From there I started exploring the Metal Blade website and got into everything from God Dethroned to Symphony X, found a site with some tracks in real player format (jesus, remember that?) and downloaded Hammerfall, Kamelot, and tons of others that I'm sure I don't remember. Also bought Iced Earth's "Horror Show" on the day it came out due to a good review in Guitar World of all things. From there on, it was all blind buys until I became familliar with the stuff. A few of my buddies were cool and listened to this "new" shit i was showing them, but most thought i was retarded. I'm not friends with those people anymore (no joke... I literally dont' talk to most people from school who didn't understand and appreciate why I was into this stuff).
That's about it.
Of course, upon hearing the real Mercyful Fate songs, I thought "jesus, what's with this dude's voice?" Still, it was intriguing and like nothing I'd ever heard before, so I bought Mercyful Fate's "The Beginning" and King Diamond's "The Graveyard" (the only two albums with King on them that my local cd store had) and spun the fuck outta them. From there I started exploring the Metal Blade website and got into everything from God Dethroned to Symphony X, found a site with some tracks in real player format (jesus, remember that?) and downloaded Hammerfall, Kamelot, and tons of others that I'm sure I don't remember. Also bought Iced Earth's "Horror Show" on the day it came out due to a good review in Guitar World of all things. From there on, it was all blind buys until I became familliar with the stuff. A few of my buddies were cool and listened to this "new" shit i was showing them, but most thought i was retarded. I'm not friends with those people anymore (no joke... I literally dont' talk to most people from school who didn't understand and appreciate why I was into this stuff).
That's about it.
Berek2000
Member
My older brother and I shared a room as kids. He used to wake up and throw on 2112 or Moving Pictures. My interest grew from there. Once I became a garage musician, I grew away from the mainstream music and looked for complicated music and lyrics that spoke to me. I found all I needed in bands like early Metallica, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Rush, Fates Warning and Dream Theater. Not hearing this stuff on the radio made me like it even more. It felt more personal. And now with Progpower, it still is a personal as ever. Thanks again Glen.
ConnieOH
Metal Lover in Ohio
I remember it well...I was a junior in high school and someone loaned me a few record albums. When my dad found them in my room, he told me to get that "trash" out of the house. I did, but I still listened to them and was hooked. I remember one of them was AC/DC Back in Black.
By the next year, I remember listening to Van Halen 1984, then on to Dio Holy Diver, Queensryche O:M, Scorpions, Kiss, Whitesnake, etc.
When grunge hit, I mostly listened to all my old music, though I did find a website that sold AOR/Melodic Rock and got into some of that (91 Suite, JSS, Jaded Heart) and I still like that stuff. Then I discovered internet radio via Live 365 and was ecstatic to find that good music WAS still being made - it was just all in other countries! So I started buying my CD's online and life has been great ever since.
Great thread!
By the next year, I remember listening to Van Halen 1984, then on to Dio Holy Diver, Queensryche O:M, Scorpions, Kiss, Whitesnake, etc.
When grunge hit, I mostly listened to all my old music, though I did find a website that sold AOR/Melodic Rock and got into some of that (91 Suite, JSS, Jaded Heart) and I still like that stuff. Then I discovered internet radio via Live 365 and was ecstatic to find that good music WAS still being made - it was just all in other countries! So I started buying my CD's online and life has been great ever since.
Great thread!
yardleybates
Chick Wrangler
Metal? Yippee did it to me - started with Queensryche when we started dating.
My parents, unlike Yip's are VERY into music. I grew up around a LOT of music. My Dad is a guitar player and writer of his own songs. I grew up totally hooked on the 50's and 60's tunes (Solid Gold Saturday night every week) and my Dad was always into great 70's rock music (Styx, etc) and he's a HUGE Pink Floyd Fan. We went to summerfest every single year in Milwaukee saw Moody Blues and Beach Boys 300 times - Rod Stewart, etc etc etc
My Dad worked in a music shop when I was little. He always had top of the line stereo equipment. I remember in their last house, he was the first person any of my friends knew with speakers wired into the walls of the house so we could have the stereo playing in every room
Oh wait, what was the question again? Metal, oh yeah, Yippee did it. I think the first Iron Maiden concert he took me to really turned me.
My parents, unlike Yip's are VERY into music. I grew up around a LOT of music. My Dad is a guitar player and writer of his own songs. I grew up totally hooked on the 50's and 60's tunes (Solid Gold Saturday night every week) and my Dad was always into great 70's rock music (Styx, etc) and he's a HUGE Pink Floyd Fan. We went to summerfest every single year in Milwaukee saw Moody Blues and Beach Boys 300 times - Rod Stewart, etc etc etc
My Dad worked in a music shop when I was little. He always had top of the line stereo equipment. I remember in their last house, he was the first person any of my friends knew with speakers wired into the walls of the house so we could have the stereo playing in every room
Oh wait, what was the question again? Metal, oh yeah, Yippee did it. I think the first Iron Maiden concert he took me to really turned me.
- Nov 24, 2002
- 14,135
- 176
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I wasn't into metal on highschool until one day I saw in a friend's house (he had cable) the video of 'Flight Of Icarus' and I love it. Still I wasn't into metal. Another day listen to National Radio (kind of Government PBS) they were showing music from around the world and they played 'The Trooper' which also hooked on me. But I wasn't yet into metal.
Until one day I was looking for the single of 'Stairway to Heaven' (I like the song from the radio) but only I found the album, also I saw the domestic tape version of "Piece Of Mind" (I still have it) and bought it blindly. Going all the way home banging my head because I was sure I wouldn't like it and was a money waste....in the end I loved the tape, after that was Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Saxon, Judas Priest, an so on.
25 years afterward I'm still into metal, 'Flight Of icarus' is still my favorite Maiden tune... and never got into Led Zeppelin
Until one day I was looking for the single of 'Stairway to Heaven' (I like the song from the radio) but only I found the album, also I saw the domestic tape version of "Piece Of Mind" (I still have it) and bought it blindly. Going all the way home banging my head because I was sure I wouldn't like it and was a money waste....in the end I loved the tape, after that was Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Saxon, Judas Priest, an so on.
25 years afterward I'm still into metal, 'Flight Of icarus' is still my favorite Maiden tune... and never got into Led Zeppelin
yardleybates
Chick Wrangler
Diamond45
Terminate Bad Music
How'd I get into metal? Only very recently. Though I'm an "old fart", I only seriously got in to metal about three years ago.
SkiBumMSP (Steve) did it. He found it by discovering Stratovarius on Music Choice on DirecTV (they have since switched to XM radio). He then found out the world of power and progressive metal.
He was telling me of all these bands he was listening to, and about how Strato was going to play at ProgPower USA VI in 2005. He invited me to go with him. So I started to listen to the bands that were playing that year - and it grew from there. Had a blast at the last three ProgPower USA shows and already have the tickets to the upcoming one.
Lots of metal out there to listen to. Still playing catch up!
SkiBumMSP (Steve) did it. He found it by discovering Stratovarius on Music Choice on DirecTV (they have since switched to XM radio). He then found out the world of power and progressive metal.
He was telling me of all these bands he was listening to, and about how Strato was going to play at ProgPower USA VI in 2005. He invited me to go with him. So I started to listen to the bands that were playing that year - and it grew from there. Had a blast at the last three ProgPower USA shows and already have the tickets to the upcoming one.
Lots of metal out there to listen to. Still playing catch up!
