What sounds lead you into metal?

[Kir-ir-Bannog]

Thought this might be an interesting thread (or not, as the case may be). But anyway, im interested in what sounds lead you into getting to like heavy music and how did it progress?

For myself, when i think back, i think it was largely due to my old man constantly listening to "The Wall" by Pink Floyd when it was first released. The heavy parts to "In the Flesh", "Waiting for the Worms" and the rock and roll of "Young Lust" really rang a bell somewhere. The galloping bassline from "One of these Days" (Meddle) was also an early favourite.

I also remember when "Run To The Hills" and "Number Of The Beast" were released and made it in the top five in the singles charts and really liking it, but never actually owning it. There was also the old Lucozade advert on tv, which i was, a few years later, to learn was "Phantom of the Opera".

Then i was introduced by an elder cousin to Whitesnake of all bands. He recorded me their entire discography and become addicted to their blues infected hard rock ("Trouble", "Lovehunter" etc) and the incredibly flashy heavier guitar playing from "Slide It In" and "1987".

I can then remember really falling in love with the distorted guitar sound for good and bought a few singles "Heatseeker - AC/DC" and Freedom - "Alice Cooper". I also recorded a premier of Alice Cooper's "The Nightmare Returns" from the tv. Became aware of Led Zep and Black Sabbath.

First album was "Somewhere In Time - Iron Maiden" and then bought "Garage Days Re-revisted" by Metallica. First concert was Motorhead.

From then on, it quickly progressed to thrash: tracks which really swung me in that direction were:
Slayer - Angel Of Death
Anthrax - Medusa
Megadeth - Liar
Testament - Over The Wall
Overkill - Electro-Violence
Exodus - Toxic Waltz
Annihilator - Alice In Hell
Sacred Reich - Surf Nicuragua
Suicidal Tendencies - Waking The Dead
Forbidden - Chalice Of Blood

Then i got interested in European thrash:
Kreator - Pleasure To Kill
Coroner - Punishment for Decadence
Destruction - Live Without Sense
Sabbat - Dreamweaver

The "bridge" from straight out thrash to more extreme stuff was definately "Inner Self" by Sepultura....Then: Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Carcass, Entombed, Nocturnus and so on and so forth. Soon after (prob around '92 - 93) i had a big hiatus from metal and found electronic music. The bands that got me listening to it once again were Type O Negative, Tool and Opeth.

OK, a bit drawn out i guess...how did it go for you? Don't be afraid to include the embarrassing stuff, you'll see i have and im fully prepared for the ribbing i probably deserve!

 

[Kenneth R.]

Got into rock with radio stuff like Third Eye Blind (who I still enjoy), Live, Creed (who I now very much dislike) etc. From there someone handed me Metallica - S&M which I initially did not like, but grew on me. After that I got into oldschool metal, following which I discovered Dream Theater and prog. Got bored with wankery and got into the really interesting prog bands. Got into dm through Opeth & Death.

The first 'metal' concert I went to was Savatage.

 

[Procella]

70's hardrock bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin...

 

[Keith!]

My first taste of metal striking me was the intro palm muted riff on metallicas struggle within, id never heard anything like it, the distortion, the palm muting technique and how it made it sound so heavy. But i guess in the first place it was the sound of heavily distorted guitars that got me going.

 

[FRUGiHOYi]

metallica did it for me

 

[Braighs]

Opeth

 

[soundave]

My dad loved the Zep. I used to listen all the time.

One of my mom's boyfriends gave me Maiden's 'Piece of Mind' after a trip to Norway, and said all the kids there loved it (this was in '84, I was 10). I thought it was cool as hell, and it was the heaviest thing I listened to for a long, long time.

 

[belgarath68]

I love the Foo Fighters, and some of the heavier stuff they did was great. Then in the early years high school, got into Metallica through St. Anger (Yes...I know.) and after watching SKOM, I bought ...AFJA. Took me a while, but I got into it.

 

[Rocky Raccoon]

From Green Day to Nirvana to Metallica..... Then from there went crazy with Pantera & Sepultura etc

 

[opeth8]

Ozzy & Metallica

I really liked the blistering solo's & ofcourse the palm muting !

 

[Sadguru]

Iron Maiden

 

[i aint play this]

Alice in Chains and Black Sabbath, then Slayer, Sepultura, Megadeth, etc.

 

[illidurit]

zeppelin ffs

 

[metal_wrath]

I have been listening to metal for a short time, but I was instantly into metal after hearing the overall dynamic of the music, vocals, and also cool riffs + guitar solos. First tracks that got me into metal:

COB - Needled 24/7
Unearth - Zombie Autopilot - I really liked how they added acoustic parts in the song, as well as the complex guitar parts and amazing solos.
Carcass - Heartwork
Amon Amarth - Death in Fire
Meshuggah - Rational Gaze
Opeth - When

 

[Opethian666]

Rage Against The Machine --> Pantera --> Opeth

 

[arzachel]

sabbath

 

[Towedwart]

I am writing my long history of music exploration that leads up to where I am today. Stay tuned. It's logn and interesting.

 

[derbeder]

I bought a tape of Turkish metal band called Pentagram (they go as Mezarkabul outside of Turkey) and liked some of it. I wasn't really keen on the sound of the drums at that time, but I enjoyed the heavy guitar sound. I hadn't even listened to any rock properly, except for some Queen and some Dire Straits. I was listening to classical almost exclusively.
The next album I got was Sepultura's Arise, of all things. I bought it on the street randomly from a guy selling tapes he recorded. It sounded so different from anything else I had heard. That album still kicks ass for me.

 

[Zephyrus]

Rammstein ---> The Kovenant ---> Arcturus ---> Borknagar ---> Black Metal ---> Death Metal

 

[Towedwart]

Started listening to old Christian rock like Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys, and dc Talk. Note: it isn't that rocky. So, heard some of my dad's Yes when I was in middle school. This opened my eyes that there is better music out there. I was also, by the way, only allowed to listen to Christian music up to that point. I don't listen to any Yes, really, though, since it is my dad's album and I am technically not allowed to hear it.

So, I'm now in high school (in the story, not right now, iirc). I hear a short, 45 second song from a buddy. It sounds pretty darn awesome. He also shows me Tenacious D which I find to be only semi-funny and musically uninspiring. But that short song was cool. I come to find out it is by a semi-obscure punk band called AFI. I'm told I can use morpheus to download it. Morpheus opened the world to non-Christian music for me.

So, from AFI I spread into old school emo: Saves the Day, the Juliana Theory, the Get Up Kids, and a band everyone called emo, At the Drive In. The meaning of emo has changed a lot since then. I really like At the Drive In. Then I get into a cool band called Thursday. Then, another friend of mine who is really into blues and rock gets me to download a band called System of a Down. I do. I think they are pretty freakign awesome. Another friend tells me he likes two bands called Rammstein and Stratovarius. I download. I like.

Then, holy crap, Thursday releases Full Collapse, and it freaking rocks. Then, something terrible happened. At the Drive In broke up. Not much happens after this, other than me listening to a few bands.

Summer comes, and I work all kinds for my uncle. I didn’t really find any new music or listen to what I had. I return to school again for 10th grade. Everyone seems to like punk music all of a sudden. I listen to it: The Exploited, the Virus, Aus-Rotten. It all pretty much blows. Just horible yelling with shit music. I find a few good things in that era like the Ramones, the Clash, and Anti-Flag (Undergroudn network had just come out earlier that year).

So, punk gets boring really fast and I somehow manage to get caught into hardcore. Zao, Underoath, a static lullaby, Atreyu (we called it vomitcore because it sounds like the singer is throwing up whilst screaming), etc. I like this better than punk for sure. Even better than most of the emo stuff, I figure. Somehow, I find one metal band in this: Children of Bodom. I think they’re the greatest band ever. Period. We had a singing group from Azusa Pacific University come to our church to sing. We had two of the guys stay at our house. One was supposedly a music genius. Basicaly, he only knew popular stuff. I show him CoB, and he says it’s fake because no drummer can hit the bss pedal that fast. Lolz.

Another summer, this time of more hardcore and CoB fun. Music life is good. I think I was using kazaa at this point now.

Now we’re in 11th grade. My buddy who got me into System of a Down is now even mroeso into his classic rock thing, as I saw it. He got me into the Beatles though at this point. I decide they are pretty cool, having never heard them before. I then meet a couple new guys at school. One gets me into a band called Rage Against the Machine. I think it’s pretty cool even though I don’t like rap. The other guy knows I like CoB (he’s only heard a couple songs of theirs) and Stratovarius so he decides to teach me the ways of metal. He weens me into it, I guess. He starts me with some more power metal. He shows me Iced Earth. I think they’re pretty badass. I then begin internet searches to find bands similar to what I have. Between this guy and myself, I get into Angra, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and a few other power metal bands (which, by the way, I don’t know is power metal at the time). In any case, I thnk metal is the best kind of music anywhere, of all time. I then refind my dad’s Yes albums. I like them all, but find Yessongs to be the best compilation of my favourite songs, and it is live, and I think it is just so perfect. I play it all the freakign time despite my newfoun metal music.

But I still think CoB holds the throne. Then, this guy decides to do an exchange with me. He warns that this band is different, has growly singing like CoB, sort of. He hasn’t listened to much CoB, and I am always praising them, so he lets me listen to his favourite band and I burn him CoB. So, we trade CDs, and I go home and put the mp3s on my computer. I click a song that has my birth month in the title. I am not quite sure what to think, but I liked it. Quality kinda sucked, but there are other songs to check out. I then click another song. The whole song is chill. I like it a lot. A lot, a lot. Then I click another song. Holy crap. Can words describe its pure pwnage? I then listen to song after song after song. That whole Christmas break is nothing but continuous playing of Opeth. Non-stop.

After that, I decided I had a new favourite band. I continue my search for more music, though, just because I decide I like it so much. More metal, lots of metal. Lots of rock. I start having tons of late night talks with my dad (my mom ist still pretty anti-non-Christian music at this point) about music. He tells me all about the bands he used to listen to: Yes, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Rush, Devo, X, Oingo Boingo, the Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and so many others. I use my unique kazaa abilities to find a bunch of stuff. I also download every simgle Opeth song I was missing. I also started my great mp3 sorting adventure.

Last year of high school, not much changed. I discover a few other awesome bands like Avantasia, Edguy, and Rhapsody. Heh. Now, I’m all over the place musically. Just trying to find everything that I like.