Opeth fans! Do you have a sense of metal history?

[The Shape]

One thing I've noticed around the internet alot lately is that Opeth(because of thier popularity) and thier fans get steriotyped and knocked on on alot. One thing I've seen mentioned 2 or 3 times is that Opeth fans are just a bunch of teenagersWith no sense of metal history. I just saw this somewhere a couple minutes ago and thought I would make a thread about it here.

Alot of people seem to think that Opeth's fanbase is made up mostly of little teenagers that came right out of the mainstream, stumbled upon Opeth somehow and now its all they litsen to, and they have no idea of what metal is, its history and where its roots lie.

So I guess this is kind of an experiment of sorts.

I need you to make a post listing not all, but some of the other metal bands you listen to and how you got into Opeth.

I'll start

Heres a few of my favorite bands:
Opeth (of coarse)
Judas Priest
Dark Fortess
Iced Earth
Iron Maiden
Dream Theater There are many others I listen to, but these tend to be towards the top of my favoites list.

How I got into Opeth:
Back in 2000 I read about Opeth and someone describing thier sound. I was entrigued, so I got on Naptser downloaded a few songs, liked what I heard and then went out and bought My Arms, Your Hearse. I listened to Opeth casually for a couple years and it wasn't till about the middle of 2002 that I heavily got into them, and they became my favorite band.

Please try and participate in this little experiment, as it will show us that we are not to be stereotyped, but rather are to be viewed just a bunch of great fans of a great band in the metal scene.

Thanks.

 

[Dark Life Dying]

My favourite bands:
Opeth
Maudlin of the well
agalloch
Ephel dauth
Godspeed you black emperor
Porcupine Tree
Emperor
Dissection
Edge of sanity
Cynic

I first heard of Opeth from a friend of mine back in 1999, he told me to download Black Rose Immortal, because it was unlike you'd ever heard before he said. So I did, and at first I didn't really like it, beacuse is was so long, but I did download a couple of other songs, and then they became my favourite band. And in the end BRi became my fav. song..

 

[deathbearer]

Death, Nile, Emporer, My Dying Bride, Commit Suicide, Vehemence.Immortal, Necrophagist,Sigh,Cryptopsy, Spawn of Possesion, Maudlin of The Well, suffocation, Anall Nathrakh,Vital Remains,,Gorgoroth,Darkthrone,Marduk, ect..
In 2000 a freind of mine suggested Opeth and just like the original poster I went on Naster and dl a few files..Liked what I heard and bought Still Life AND MAYH..Still a fan today..Always been a fan of death metal since I heard Death's Individual though Patterns..-l-

 

[Celestial-Voyage]

I started out when I was a teenager(mid 90's) with a lot of classic Sabbath/Maiden.
I started out with:
Iron Maiden
Black Sabbath
Slayer
Megadeth
DEATH
PESTILENCE
CYNIC
Gordian Knot
Carcass
Morbid Angel
just to name a few...

I've been currently listening to so many different styles/genres of metal for some years now.

I first heard Opeth some years back. A friend had mentioned that they were horrible keyboard driven black metal. I downloaded and listened to Forests of October and Black Rose Immortal off of Napster. I noticed right away that my friend was so full of shit about Opeth being a waste of time. I was instantly hooked at the sound of those guitar harmonies, double bass, acoustic, clean vocals. Me being a Maiden fan and a fan of Death Metal and all I just loved Orchid and Morningrise. Then I went and bought the Orchid and Morningrise albums. I then got MAYH, Still Life. I purchased the last three albums as they were released. I own almost all the vinyls, and they're pretty much like my favorite band.

 

[ucsbdude]

Haha, wow this is interesting. Well lets see I have never been hardcore a metal guy but I am a fan of all "true" metal. Listen to as many bands as I can. But this is strange I started listening to U2 and DMode (still my all time favorite bands) when I was 12 years old, its strange how listening to them has lead me to this path of metal, lol. I listen to "When" as my first Opeth song I was floored I was hooked afterwards

My metal list at the moment:

1 Opeth
2 Slayer
3 Vader
4 Old Man's Child
5 My Dying Bride (incredible band)

 

[_]

Favorite bands at the moment:

The New Pornographers
Diabolical Masquerade
Gastr Del Sol
The Dismemberment Plan
Built to Spill
Labradford

Personally, I don't think having a sense of metal history should matter at all. I know the classic metal bands, and I think most of them are shit. Metal was a genre that started out based on trying to be extreme as possible, unfortunately. Bands like Slayer, Pantera, Anthrax, Mayhem, etc. exemplify this. Now that most people don't find any of their theatrics and the like "extreme" any more, various metal bands (usually obscure) have been going towards avenues that hold more artistic merit. This is what I care about, and this is why I listen to more modern (yet obscure) metal bands. I don't think having a "sense" of metal history makes you a tr00 metal fan.

But I can understand people disliking the watered-down, teeny-bopper, Hot Topic subcultures that somehow leaked into the real metal scene. In this case, I would have to agree, as they are ruining the scene. They are just looking for "extreme" music, and if they happen to stumble upon real death/black metal, they basically listen to it for the fact that it's a lot more brutal than "numetal." But overall, I would say that the Opeth stereotype is bad, and the only reason why the classic metal bands would have an [iolder fanbase is that they are older bands...

Ironically, though, I would say that classic metal is actually more appealing to the mainstream than bands like Opeth...

 

[Celestial-Voyage]

Yeah having a sense of metal history doesn't matter at all. But those who do, see how metal has changed and evolved since the 70's till now.

 

[The Shape]

I love 70s and early 80s metal. Not only do I like the music alot, but I love hearing the beginings of metal, and seeing how everything evolved. Opeth is my favorite band, but IMO, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are the holy trinity of metal, and will never be topped, as far as metal is concerned. All metal created today, is based on the foundation they layed, in some way shape or form.

 

[CONCLAVE OBSCURUM]

In Flames
Nile
Dream Theater
Haggard
Black Sabath
Novembers Doom

The first time i got into Opeth... humm.. i was looking for some music.. Melodic Death metal... and i saw on the internet about this band called Opeth, i downloaded Blackwater park, the song, and i didn't like it that much, then i bought My Arms your hearse, and i tought that it was an "smart" album... maybe not that good, but i decided to give Opeth another chance and i bought Blackwater Park.. now its my favorite band...

 

[Windom Pearl]

Metal history is the history of gayness. Curly hairs, leather pants. PU-K-E.

 

[Netheral]

Bands:
Emperor
Cryptopsy
Primordial
My Dying Bride
Death
Anathema
Tenhi

How I got into Opeth...........I read a review about the "Still Life" CD in a magazine called "Legacy", so I listened it in a CD Shop. I bought the CD but it took about a year to really get into it.

 

[bleed for me]

Metal history is the history of gayness. Curly hairs, leather pants. PU-K-E.

haha, very true




Well i'm pretty young (about to turn 17 in 3 weeks) and i started listening to metal pretty early.
I got into metallica's black album when i was about 8 and after that i listened to almost everythin from metal to alternative to techno and even some *GASP* pop. when i was about 10 i got the mortal kombat soundtrack which had some awesome techno shit, which is why i got it in the first place, but i soon stopped listening to the techno tracks and got into the napalm death, fear factory and type o negative tracks. From then on type o and fear factory were two of my fav. bands as well as the tea party.
after that i started listening to some of the first nu-metal bands like korn, deftones, rage against the machine but wasn't really satisfied.
eventually i started to get into death/black metal

this is what i listen to now:

opeth
novembre
emperor
nile
katatonia
death
cynic
agalloch
anathema
in flames
soilwork
dark tranquillity
arch enemy
borknagar
aghora
carcass
isis
my dying bride
nevermore
the tea party
deftones
+many more which i've only heard one or two albums of


i do listen to alot of older bands like celtic frost and iron maiden but i no where near as much as the ones above

 

[FlatteningOfEmotions]

Other bands I'm into:

Nile
Cryptopsy
Emperor
Death
Diabolical Masquerade
Porcupine Tree
Borknagar
Cephalic Carnage
Hate Eternal
Morbid Angel

...any many, MANY others.

I got into Opeth when I had been hearing about how awesome they were from various people for about a year. I downloaded "Under the Weeping Moon" and I loved it. I went out and bought Still Life, and then eventually all of their albums.

 

[Aecliptica]

in flames was the first metal band i listened to

 

[Thanatopsis123]

How dare anyone question my metalness.

*goes back to listening to Aqua - Barbie Girl*

 

[metalathiest]

Bands I like are:

-Dream Theater
-Enslaved
-Emperor
-Rush
-Pink Floyd
-Iced Earth
-Lost Horizon
-Tool
-Pain of Salvation
-Dan Swano!!! (EoS, Nightingale, Bloodbath etc)
-Gorguts
-Judas Priest
Got into metal when I was watching a skate video (Welcome To Hell by Toy Machine) anyways, one of the skaters used "Hallowed Be Thy Name" for their song. The vocals, the dumming, the guitars, and bass, it was so intense!, i never understood why I never hear good shit like this on a regular basis. No one I knew really liked metal that much, but I progressivly started searching for more and more, found Opeth winter 2002 from a forum, because there was so much buzz about them. Checked it out, and I thought it was brilliant.

 

[Thorns of Sorrow]

Happens with every abnd that gets famous. I can say the same for all the new Slayer and all the new Dream theater fans. Its bullshit, I hear it all the time at shows too.

 

[ham]

first metal band i got into was Metallica, and it was solely metallica for quite a few months... then i started to get into other bands like Tool, Megadeth, Slayer...

then I heard about In Flames and how 'great' they are, so i downloaded Moonshield and was in love with the whole melodic-death thing. Next came Dark Tranquillity, In Flames' entire back catalogue, and Opeth.

Didn't really get into Opeth for about 5 or 6 months though, Orchid and Morningrise were pretty boring.

then came the more important metal like Emperor, cryptopsy, Nile, et al.

In between In Flames and Opeth i also got into a lot of Power Metal and cheesy 80s bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, sonata arctica, Iced Earth etc

 

[Celestial-Voyage]

New Slayer really does suck. I saw them last year for the first time. And they played mostly old shit off the first few albums, Show no Mercy to Seasons. It was cool listening to some good old thrash with Lombardo drumming. Nu Slayer sucks I agree.

 

[The Shape]

Metal history is the history of gayness. Curly hairs, leather pants. PU-K-E.

I'm afraid your mistaken.