I had just gotten into music pretty much and was listening to all that numetal bullshit. I was in the Napster metal room (back in the days when Napster was just getting big) and talking to some people. A guy came in and said, "everyone needs to get Opeth, they are incredible." I just kind of ignored him at first but got curious after a while, he recommended I download The Moor, so I did. While downloading it, he told me to listen to it three times in a row to get used to it (I had 56k at the time and an 8min+ song was a long download).
I started the song up and was kind of confused at why he liked it so much, being a numetal dipshit I didn't appreciate the progression of this song. I just kept talking on Napster while I listened and I heard the guitars kick in and I started paying attention again, I didn't really like it that much yet. I kept talking and then I heard it really kick into full speed, I was a little surprised at how different it sounded from what I had been listening to, once I heard the growling I didn't really know what to think, I guess my first impression was neutrality, I didn't hate it and I didn't really like it. Once it ended I started it again like he recommended, this time I liked it a little bit more but I didn't really expect to end up really liking it. The next day the song was kind of stuck in my head and I kept hearing the growls in my head, I knew I had to listen to it again when I got home, I did and liked it a lot, I also downloaded some more Opeth songs from all their albums (excluding BWP which wasn't out yet) from then on Opeth was one of my favorite bands and I listened to less and less numetal and more and more real metal, I eventually shifted completely over. And yes I bought all their CD's i'm not an MP3 bum, I just get the MP3's to see if the CD is worth buying.