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Great story! I love reading this sort of thing. By the way, I had a great time in Milan when I visited a few years ago, but, funny story, it was only on the train as we were leaving that I realised that The Last Supper was in Milan, and we missed it!! At any rate the Cathedral in Milan is amazing. One of the greatest I've seen (and I've seen a few). For some reason the authorities were not letting people take bottles of water in, so outside were dozens of bottles of water abandoned by visitors. But yeah cool story! I'm going to write my version of this at some stage!

I grew up listening to Scorpions, Kiss and Iron Maiden from my parents. My first ever concert was back in 1988 when I was 2 years old and Iron Maiden came in Athens. However, the first metal album which I bought with my own money (after cleaning and ironing at home...) was the ''Paranoid'' of Black Sabbath at the age of 13. When I listened to the CD for first time, I was so surprised and happy! I guess this moment marked my whole life... Since then, I remain loyal to metal! Loved them so much

Ahah thanks, I'll explain how this phenomenon occurred. Back in those days (2001) I was in junior high school here in Milan. During my last year of elementary school, 1999, MTV Italy was created and was being broadcasted as a regular tv channel (you did not need satellite TV to watch that, but you needed satellite TV for the American and pan-European MTV's and, of course, I did not have satellite TV). When I discovered that channel, I dived deeply into contemporary music, which, at the time, meant Britney Spears, TLC, Backstreet Boys, Five, Ultra, Boyzone (and half a dozen of other boybands that emerged in the wake of New Kids on the Block in the US and Take That in the UK), Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, Will Smith, Cranberries, Corrs, the occasional new video of established artists like Blondie, Roxette, Madonna, David Bowie, REM, U2, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams. I was exposed for the first time to music big time and, most of all, to the visual aspect of it too. As an 10-11 year old kid, I was very pleased to watch videos like "Ooops I did It again" (some years later I found out that hair metal was also obsessed with school-themed videos... see Twisted Sister and Britney Fox). Occasionally the Italian MTV would air some heavier music like Guano Apes (from Germany), the Offspring (back then they had just hit it big with their album "Americana"), KoRn, Marylin Manson and Kid Rock. For some reason Italy was not exposed to stuff like Limp Bizkit until later on. Remember that the biggest metal band in the world, Metallica, did not have a new record out in this period (they only had the Garage days stuff and the symphonic album, but they were NOT rotating because the video for "Whiskey in the Jar" with chicks making out, binge drinking and puking the hell out of their mouth simply couldn't be aired on Italian tellie's). Also bear in mind that Maiden was currently irrelevant, having put out the useless "Virtual XI" and being about to reunite with Bruce. So, for a while I was as mainstream and contemporary as I could get! I managed to get a few CD's as a gift over the course of the next few years. In chronological order: New Radicals, Vengaboys, Lenny Kravitz (5), Eagle Eye Cherry (his second album) and, most of all, "CALIFORNICATION" by Red Hot Chilli Pepper! See? At the tail end of my last year of elementary school, RHCP reunited with John Frusciante. I had absolutely no idea who the fuck they were, but suddenly their video for "Scar Tissue" was all over the place. That video was the most vintage glorifying thing I had ever been exposed to. Actual instruments, some slide guitar and a video that looked straight from some sort of crazy exploitation movie of the late 60's early 70's (obviously I had no clue about the existence of exploitation movies back then). The Kravitz album was also very important because it featured GUITAR SOLOS and, in particular, a cover of the Guess Who's "American Woman", a sort of hard rockin' track from the early 70's that some years later I also found on a Krokus record! Now let's move on to 2001... my best friends in my classroom were starting to alternate hip hop and nu metal. A classmate bought the "Starfish Chocolate and Hot Dog Flavoured Water" CD by Limp Bizkit. I borrowed it and ripped it on a tape. Listening to it my thought was: "fuck, I like energy, I like it loud, but I want musicianship, I want melody, I want guitar solos and I want some singing, I can't stand this rapping bs... I can't find what I have in mind on MTV now and I cannot find it on the radio, but I am sure that in the past something like this must have existed and must have been BIGGER THAN LIFE". The reason why I thought that had to do with my dad. He had a record collection that included Cream, Led Zeppelin and Mountain. He even had a Deep Purple record. One day he bought a VHS about Cream and we watched it together. THAT was the pivotal moment. Amidst the video footage of Cream jamming away on stage with fury, there were interview snippets with Eric Clapton himself and two dudes named ALEX VAN HALEN and SLASH. At some point Eric Clapton (then going by his Armani suit phase and trimmed beard) said: "I THINK CREAM WERE THE FIRST HEAVY METAL BAND... LED ZEPPELIN FILLED THE VOID LEFT BY CREAM". THAT'S when I thought: I NEED TO FIND OUT ABOUT THIS HEAVY METAL THING! Between Cream and Limp Bizkit there has to be a MISSING LINK. That missing link meant two decades of solid HARD AND HEAVY GUITAR OBSESSED MUSIC: the giants (dinosaurs if you will) of the 70's and the 80's! I was sure that was gonna be my music genre of choice. I went to record stores and gazed at the covers in the Hard'n'Heavy department. I went to bookstores and read all I could in music encyclopedias. One day I got to see the Kiss video for "Psycho Circus" (which originally came out in 1998). Another day MTV aired a video of KISS playing "I Was Made for Loving You" live in Germany in 1996. I thought the song was kind of odd compared to the look (compared to"Psycho Circus", which was reasonably heavy), but the look and the fact that they were playing for real was it for me! But there were also two very important factors in my heavy metal development, although I was unaware of their influence back then. See, as a very little kid I was a fan of Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan in wrestling (I am talking 1991-1994, before the 'roids scandals) and my favorite cartoons were anthropomorphous post-atomic no non-sense crazy shit like Teenage Ninja Turtles, Street Sharks, Biker Mice and Swat Kats. Now go look for the theme song of the Biker Mice... yes, it's pure heavy metal from 1993 and it is actually sung by Jeff Scott Soto, the dude who sung on the first 2 Malmsteen records and tons of others! Many years later I rounded the circle when I actually found the soundtrack to that cartoon in a record fair! I still own it. So, my love for classic heavy metal had been SUBLIMINAL and had been silently growing within me like a symbiotic parasite all along! Check this out! It as cheesy and HEAVY METAL as it fucking gets: Biker Mice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbbwaib1wbk Swat Kats (riffs galore at 0:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_AdxJWFUh4 Street Sharks - the shark and roll episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfI0F03eIs I tell you what must have happened. Heavy metal got kicked out of the mainstream in the early 90's. It was all grunge this and alternative that. But the dudes who drew cartoons and comics were all metal fans, so they slipped heavy metal into themes for kids cartoons. Very few kids must have been influenced, but I was for a fact

Danzig III How The Gods Kill

When I was 13 in August 2001 I went to a local record store because I wanted to buy a KISS cd. I had decided that they were gonna be my favorite band based on their look. The shop only had two: "Greatest KISS" and "Alive II". I wanted to buy the latter, but went away with the former because I clearly remember thinking this: "if my parents find out that I bought a CD with a picture of Gene Simmons spitting blood, they gonna throw it in the trash straight away... maybe I can get away with the more sober cover of the greatest package". About two months later I used all my money to buy "Alive II". My first non-Kiss related CD was "Ace Of Spades" by Motorhead in february 2002. I remember it fondly because I used my birthday money for it. All of 13.90 €. Through the course of 2002 I used lunch money to buy at least one CD from each of the following: Manowar, Whitesnake, Rainbow, Dio, Judas Priest, Saxon, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, Black Sabbath, Helloween, Gamma Ray and Blue Oyster Cult. It took me a full year to move on to thrash metal. Got me "Ride the Lightning" first, then "Kill Em All", then "Master of Puppets", then "Rust in Peace", then "Peace Sells", then "Among the Living". It took me another year to be able to digest "Slayer". Got me a ripped copy of "Reign in Blood" and then one day I bought "Seasons in the Abyss", "South of Heaven" and "...And Justice for All". That's probably why to this day I do not like "AJFA" that much... it got overshadow by my first taste of proper SLAYER! No wonder I was a skinny kid then. Heavy Metal now, food later.

Enslaved - Frost

Nice! Glad you appreciated, I had a good time looking back on it eheh Curious to hear yours! I'm also a big fan of my city. Yes the Duomo, our cathedral, rocks big time! I love the gothic architecture. Last summer I went to Normandie. They have some pretty cool cathedrals up there too, but they tend to look very similar among them. Ours is quite unique, but I am obviously very biased. I am lucky because I work close to it, so I see it everyday with the morning light and early in the evening when I'm done working overtime to buy me more metal ahahah Did you check out the metal cd shop that is exactly below the Cathedral? It's not a joke, there is a heavy metal CD shop in the underground station

Sinmara "Aphotic Womb"

Deicide - Serpents of The Light

Yeah, I also consider "Killing Machine" a big step down from "Stained Class", but luckily I more or less accidentally bought my JP albums in this order: British Steel Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather Painkiller Screaming for Vengeance Defenders of the Faith Sin after Sin Stained Class Point of Entry Turbo Ram it Down Angel of Retribution Rocka Rolla Jugulator Demolition Sad Wings of Destiny (I couldn't find it in stores!) Nostradamus A Touch of Evil Live Priest... Live Unleashed in the East Redeemer of Souls Live Metldown So, because of this, I only realized that "Killing Machine" was a stripped down more accessible affair later on. I was very satisfied with some of the songs of British Steel ("Rapid Fire", "Breaking the Law", "Metal Gods", "Grinder" and "The Rage" above all) but was a bit letdown by a few others ("United"). I liked "Living after Midnight" but I wisherd KK had played a longer solo on that KISS-kinda track. When I first heard "Killing Machine" I loved it because "Delivering the Goods", "Hell Bent for Leather" and "Running Wild" sounded incredible! I thought that it couldn't possibly be that their previous record, "Stained Class", was gonna be any heavier and more futuristic than that... but it actually was! "EXCITER" is crazy! That Les Binks intro, the melody in Glenn's solo, Rob's high shriek! That's Judas Priest's pinnacle for me... I started with Stained Class, which is their masterpiece without question, so that may have made me less accepting of their more stripped down and poppy albums. Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

I felt that way too. I'm not sure if the songwriting is weaker or if it just doesn't sound as good, but I'm more inclined to believe the latter after seeing them live. Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

Wolfheart - Shores of the Lake Simpele New album is great!

A couple of tracks of the new Immolation. A bit too early to call but production wise I feel it is very muted.

@salmonellapancake no not familiar - will add them to my list thanks. Now Playing: Immolation "Here In After"

Woah it's the tour from which they shot "Made in England" with the iced stage! My first concert was Gamma Ray in Milan in October 2002. I went with my dad because I did not know any metalhead at the time ahah. My dad brought me there because he thought this "alright I'll bring him to see this shitty thing, my son will see how shitty this whole metal world is and he will give up on it". In the end he enjoyed 4 minutes of it: the drum solo by Dan Zimmermann! Everything else he thought it sucked, I thought it rocked. Too bad he had me leaving before the encores...

...wait, so you and I are the same age? Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

Immolation - Close to a World Below. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Really? MDB worship? I'll need to check this out then, not aware of this band. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk If you like Turn Loose the Swans, then yes, check out that album. Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk Soon as this Immolation is done I'm straight onto these guys... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Love both, but sometimes Mercyful Fate end up being called "black metal", "progressive metal" and even "power metal". King Diamond back in the 80's was sometimes considered "power metal". Back in those days (late 80's early to mid 90's) you had horror themed power metal (his), pirate themed power metal (Running Wild), fantasy themed power metal (Blind Guardian), space themed power metal (Gamma Ray), whatever the fuck themed power metal (Helloween and Rage), history themed power metal (Grave Digger), and so on. All quite different bands, but all were being labelled power metal. These days I would agree that King Diamond's music was straight heavy metal from the get go, nevermind the lyrics. Same goes for Mercyful Fate. I always considered "Melissa" as "Stained Class" on steroids: higher shrieks, more riffs, even longer tracks, and so on! Mercyful Fate's last few albums were heavy metal, but their early stuff was black metal, along with parts of Fatal Portrait. Both bands have always had a progressive and even gothic bent, but black metal for MF and heavy metal for KD are more appropriate. Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

Deathspell Omega - Chaining The Katechon

Enslaved - Blodhemn

I'M HOME!!! So we picked the worst POSSIBLE time to stay in LA. The Oscars can fuck right off thank you. Turns out we actually stayed just off Hollywood Blvd. Great location every other day but we couldn't walk out of the hotel without being approached by security/police and asked what we thought we were doing that day. I had a blast and plan to go back next year. Didn't get even half what I wanted to done. Brother won Silver in the 4km pursuit and bronze in 1km time trial so that was good. I blew threw $1300 US which wasn't so good. Also gained five kilograms which is both good and bad. Think I ticked 1 of the beers FA recommended (Stone IPA...wait was that one I don't remember anymore). Pretty good or maybe that's just compared to Aussie Beer. Sierra Nevada IPA was one I tried too exatly average.

First Metal album, I bought when I was about 14 maybe a lil younger, and was actually all 8 of the Original line up of Black Sabbath xD [was my birthday, had money] i had recently got into Heavy Metal properly and just threw myself into the deep end and haven't looked back since \m/

One week to my concert after that one week to my graduation on my course I slept with like baby with my cpap machine it was good

Firstly, happy International Woman's Day to all metal ladies on this forum And secondly...I've finally been to the Sabaton + Accept concert I was waiting 7 and a half months to! It was an amazing day (despite being a rainy Monday). Firstly, my friend forgot his concert ticket (!!!), but luckily my dad was free so he went to his house, got the ticket and brought it to the city where the concert was (distance: ~40km)...(we travelled by train and my dad drove there by car). Because of this delay we missed the opening act, Twilight Force, which only played for half an hour. Accept came next and they rocked the whole arena! The feeling of seeing these legends live, in flesh and blood, I could describe, but it would take a lot of text on this post Anyway, they played classics like Restless and Wild, Metal Heart and Balls to the Wall, as well as some of the newer stuff and the atmosphere was amazing! (got into a few moshpits during their performance) Then, when Sabaton started to play the whole arena just exploded! When the first song, Ghost Division, started I spent most of the time just trying not to trip or fall because the crowd was moving in every direction...like boiling water basically. Almost every song was greeted equally by the audience, with a lot of noise, but at specially the song Last Dying Breath which was dedicated to the defenders of Belgrade in WWI. Although this song means a lot to us, still I think that the best one was the acoustic version of The Final Solution. The acoustic version is a f##king tearjerker..much better than the original, IMO. When the concert ended, my friend and I walked 4.2km to Kalemegdan - a park and a medieval fortress. Despite visiting it a lot of times, in all weather conditions, I've never been there at night. It looks absolutely wonderful!...and eerie in some places I was so glad we made that visit because parks closer to the river bank look amazing when looked upon from the fortress. All those lights shining, making a perfect contrast, like fireflies in the night. (and here's a little picture I thought you'd appreciate..I call it "A Path to Darkness") After this visit, we walked 4.2km back to the train station to catch the morning train. (note: we aren't familiar with bus lines in this town so we decided to walk, and there was a closer train station but the first train departed in 7am, while the one we caught was at 4). Overall it was a great experience. A lot of memories to look back to one day. And I really hope this isn't the last time I see Accept live.

I'm a big fan of Dio, and solo I'd take Dio over Ozzy any day. But in Black Sabbath, Ozzy's the only way to go for me. Ozzy's voice works perfectly with the doomy sounds of Iommi's guitar, it all blends into this really beautiful concoction. The problem with Dio is, when Dio sings all the attention is on him because his vocal style is so idiosyncratic and has so much personality. Plus, his vocals are kind of soaring, so they seem to pretty much always undercut the doomy Sabbath sound. In other words, Ozzy's voice works perfectly with the instruments, but it feels like Dio's is swimming in a different direction, which IMO sounds awkward and undercuts the power of both.

Have you tried much Type O Negative?, deep voice, dark lyrics, some stuff from the albums Bloody Kissed, October Rust, and World Coming Down might be to your liking.

The first album I bought was Brave New World by Iron Maiden. It was new, and I bought it because I liked the artwork and had heard that they were a popular metal band. I was truly blown away by the music - the melodies, the epic choruses, the scale of the songs... To this day it's one of ym favourite albums - I have very fond memories of it.

Christian music in the classical music field is awesome. A lot of choral music is great. I even find some Christmas Carols catchy. But in black metal, no. There's a time and a place for everything. And black metal is neither the time nor the place for Jesus worshipping or giving the thumbs up for clean living.

Re: Christian Black Metal