The first Opeth song that I head was When. Oh boy, when my friend played that for me, I just ignored the whole song. Metal just didn't appeal to me at the time. Strange thing is that since then, maybe a year and a half ago, I have got every Opeth album and he still only has that one song adn BWP on cd.
What really got me into Opeth was listening to an entire album all the way through at a different friend's house (prolly a month later). I remember saying "I don't like that growling" when he asked me what I thought of it. I really didn't like growling at all at the time, however I really enjoyed listening to the album, despite those animalistic sounds. I would always judge music at the time by asking myself, "Would this song sound cool in a Castlevania game?" ^_^ I don't remember which album that was cause of my damn memory, but I am nearly sure that it was Blackwater Park. In fact, I didn't know that it was Opeth until asking him about it recently.
Ok, so I know that I liked Opeth then, but one day that friend came over to my house. I burned a few cds that he had with him. The music that I selected was completely random with the exception of the Mike Patton material. I burned CoB-Follow the Reaper and Opeth-BWP only because the albums looked really cool. I made a very good selection. ^_^
I didn't listen to BWP much untill after I purchased the album. I think I purchased it a few weeks later to creep a chic out. It worked and we broke up cause of Opeth and I found myself a new love, Mikael. And the rest is like a farie-tale ending. ^_~