xUpTheIronsx

I bought so many albums for the artwork first...Grim Reaper; Venom, Diary OF A Madman by Ozzy, tons of punk and hardcore 7"s...we also had a great metal radio station...WAZU, but it was only on for a year. By then, hair metal was starting to blow up, and the local big stations were either playing pop crap, or hair metal, or straight up rock. As metal in general got more popular, the radio stations around here played it less and less...which was fine with me...let me have my niche genre that made me feel like I knew something no one else did...

pretty much. The camp wasn't as creepy, but we looked the part, being a bunch of Midwestern middle class white kids...no girls at that camp though, but it was rough. Lots of great times playing the metal on our "snuck in" headsets. Also sitting around the picnic tables nerding out playing D&D and having - what would have been considered cos-play now-a-days - battles in the woods with sticks for swords and trash can lids for shields....

Yeah. I think King OF The Distant Forest is their best...as far as music and production etc. "Raven" is coo in that you can tell they were young and still "poor". I don't have the one you mentioned...by the time that was out I was checking out Borknagar, Kampfar and Amon Amarth, as well as other straight out black metal stuff...

Awesome!! Probably the best use of those songs I could think of! Too bad this ws the follow up to what I think is a monumental album...Pyromania.

got into metal in the late 70's and early 80's....raiding friends older brothers music collections and mix tapes were the way we discovered new music. College radio stations, and some local stations were good also got into underground punk/hardcore, so there was 'zines.... but seeing live shows at all ages clubs, VFW's, church basements and punk houses were my biggest exposure...people would hand out flyers about other shows; record distro's would have 7" records and 'zines....so organic....it was true Social Media.... early MtV exposed me to some cool stuff as well. Headbangers Ball was awesome in it's first 3-4 years...before the clog of hairspray and grunge happened.... I LOVED those catalogs!! Got sooo many patches and pins form them...never even considered the scam possibilites...but I think back then, the notion to scam was not as prevalent

first metal album - well more specifically, cassette - was Iron Maiden Number of the Beast. Purchased on a trip that also included Signals by Rush; Speak Of The Devil by Ozzy and Worlds Apart by Saga probably the most underrated Ozzy album for sure. It was also the last one I ever payed attention to. Once Jake left, I was bored....to me, Ozzy is Blizzard to Ultimate....

I started playing drums in first grade. 1976. Would play along to old Mowtown R&B albums that my dad had...Jackson 5, Gladys Knight and the Pips etc. At the same time, mom was listening to Sabbath, Styx, Kansas, so I would play along to that as well. Decided that I was goign to be a musician/drummer for life in 3rd grade when I got into Rush... picked up the bass in 7th grade, and added that o the list. Played my first live show summer between 8th and 9th grade at the State Fair with a rag-tag band of older neighborhood guys who needed a bass player. Cover stuff of 70's and 80's rock. did the whole band thing in high school...marching and concert band (drums), and jazz band (bass). Got into my first all original metal band in high school. We were influenced by Maiden, Priest, Queensryche, BOC, Accept, Dio, Fates Warning etc. We played everywhere. Won Battle of Bands etc. College came along and we split but remained friends. I got into the hardcore punk scene the in the early 90's. Spent many a great time playing house shows, basements, and dives all across the midwest. lived in a van, etc...got into a surf/punk/lo-fi/indy-pop band in the mid 90's who did some mid level touring and shows: got to play with David Byrne, Howard Jones, Fountains Of Wayne....have 4 albums on iTunes. That band is called Go Robot, Go! Along side of that, I got back into a metal band, who I have now been with since 2002. we also have 3 releases on itunes etc, and have opened for In This Moment when they were just touring in an old white van. also played with Skeletonwitch, Lair Of The Minotaur....that band is called Fools Crown Finished my Bachelors of Music Education in 2013 (on the 20 year college plan!) and have always been a band director/percussion instructor as my 9-5.

Mythotin was one of the first "viking" metal bands I had ever heard. I had been into all of the original black metal bands, but this new genre of "viking metal" was really undefined back then, at least to me, , but I remember liking the sound of the music, and the norse mythological references. Back then, I did not really consider bands like Enslaved, and Bathory as "viking metal"....and Emporer, Immortal and those guys were all more black metal in my mind. Mythotin was the first that defined it for me...them and Thyrfing

great stories to hear!!! My defining moment: 1983(?). Sitting in my friends house, who was the only kid in a 10 mile radius whose family could afford cable tv. We were flipping through using the big new channel box , and came across a video by the band Asia...Heat of The Moment. This caught our eye and ears, so we stayed on the channel. After this video, another one came on with the coolest drumbeat I had ever heard....then, that riff. These dudes with long hair, a killer looking metal-light rigged stage set; a guy with a blue sparkly bass...then the main riff; fast, chugging...the crazy drummer with super fast hands...and then the lead singer witht he full studded leather arm band..."The White Man Came, across the sea...." It was the Run to The Hills video, coming on in my firs t5 minutes of watching a verryy young MtV. My freind and I were hooked. Metal it was for me. My gateway bands were Styx and Kansas, and my ultimate most favorite band: Rush. I already had decent mane of 70's era "hesher-hair" going, but this was it. I was in. Later that week, we raided my other friends older brothers album/cassette collection: Ozzy, Sabbath; Deep Purple, BOC, Van Halen, Judas Priest; Motorhead; Budgie.... moment 2: later on that fall, I was at home listening to the radio when another song moved me forever....the opening strains of rushing wind, chirping birds...and then a haunting e minor to C picked chord progression and a mournful whistle...my ears perked up..then, the most AWESOME voice I had ever heard: "All alone, we walked this morning, A Light mist in the air..." I was transfixed as the "New Iron Maiden" as the DJ called them played The Lady Wore Black...Queensryche. Next level achieved. My freinds and I went out that weekend and bought the ep. I spent all my time in class learnign how to draw the font on the cover, and learning the drum and bass parts moment 3: the next summer...summer of 84, I was at Boy Scout summer camp. I had smuggled in my electronic pride and joy into camp - my sony Walkman cassette player - and was hanging with some friends from my troop, when some kids from another troop saw our Maiden and Ozzy shirts, and came up and said "you guys like metal? Listen to this"...he flipped me a tape and I put it in. This cool sounding acoustic guitar riff came on. I thought it might be a new Ozzy song....then cymbal roll/swell/crescendo into....the fastest, most evil, brutal sounding thing I had ever heard...ever. The double bass melted my brain... I think I remember just giggling uncontrollably, and thrashing around the picnic table....Fight Fire With Fire by Metallica had upped the ante...the world of underground thrash, speed, hardcore punk etc had opened up, and I was head first down the slide!!! There have been millions of other "indoctrinations", and metal has been the central core of my being since I can remember.

any Cirith Ungol Hysteria - Def Leppard any and all Nu-Metal I have ever been exposed to Soulfly Rob Zombie - Sinister Urge

Recently been into: Lost Society - Finnish old school thrash Devin Townsend - Epicloud Budgie Mythotin - Sign of the Ravens and King of the Distant Forest Fates Warning - Theories of Flight

what's up y'all? Old guy metalhead here from Central Ohio!! Looking to keep up with the metalz and talk shop. Got into metal in 1979-ish (as a 10 year old) with Rainbow, Sabbath, Rush, Deep Purple, BOC etc. Saw Iron Maiden's Run To The Hills video on a verrrrry young MtV and was hooked for life. The first Queensryche EP, a well as Ride the Lightning, Blizzard of Ozz, Krokus Headhunter, early Def Leppard got me even more into it. Along side this, I was also into the early DC Straight Edge hardcore punk scene...Minor Threat, Teen Idles, Bad Brains, SOA, Goverment Issue...all of the real fast, short, pissed off stuff got me going! Grew up in the underground punk/thrash/speed metal scene. As well as early prog-metal too: Fates Warning, Watchtower, Sanctuary.... have always played in metal or punk bands. I am a drummer by profession and also a bass player. My current band is called Fools Crown...original stuff a-la DRI, Pantera, Madball, Slayer, Maiden, Mastadon, Circle Jerks...lots of short dast and loud combined with groove.. hope to get in the pit - the CIRCLE pit - with everyone. None of that stupid ninja, crowdkilling, "crew" stuff....