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When Did You First Get Into Metal?


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Before I got into metal, I was listening to a few rock bands. When I was 9 or 10, my older brother introduced me to bands like Skillet, My Chemical Romance, and Linkin Park - and my dad introduced us to classic rock bands like AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Queen, Bon Jovi, Journey, Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Nirvana, Twisted Sister, etc. He got my brother into rock, and then my brother started getting me into rock. I never really enjoyed a lot of music on the radio at the time, so I was always listening to music with my dad and my brother. 

Eventually, maybe in middle school, I started wanting to expand my taste from the rock music I was listening to. Maybe there were more bands I may enjoy, so I started researching more bands that were like what I listened to, or anything similar with guitar solos and awesome drumming. Eventually, while I was on YouTube, on my recommended, I saw a mixed playlist of rock songs, so I clicked it and was listening to it while I was doing schoolwork, and this song came on that I just found myself headbanging to: It was the song Sad But True by Metallica.

I started listening to more Metallica songs from there, and as I go into Metallica, I started researching a little bit more about the band, and found more bands from there that got me into metal: these bands include Slayer, Pantera, Judas Priest and Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, and System of a Down, mainly, along with Metallica. Metallica's songs also made me want to learn how to play the drums, so I started taking drum lessons, even though I was already in percussion in middle school. (Unfortunately, because of my schedule, I don't really play as often as I'd want to, so I kind of lost the groove. I do want to get back into it, though.) Whenever my teachers let the class listen to music while working on classwork, I would always be listening to those bands. 

I remember early high school, I looked up bands that were like System of a Down because I wanted to hear more songs like the band, and I found a list of nu-metal bands, and gave them a listen. Then I started getting into Korn, Disturbed, Mudvayne, Deftones, Papa Roach, Rage Against the Machine, etc. Even started listening to some metalcore too, like Bullet For My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, Parkway Drive, Architects, etc.

Then, in 10th grade, I got into a band called Jinjer. When I was listening to metal from bands I normally listened to, I never knew a woman could scream like that, even as a girl myself. I listened to Skillet a lot, but the drummer doesn't necessarily scream, right? From 10th grade, Jinjer became one of my favorite bands of all time! I even earned the name "Jinjer" by my friends because of how often I'd geek out about the band, and the fact that my name starts with a "J", so I guess it works. And then I looked into more bands that were female fronted, like Arch Enemy and In This Moment, and just loved them! 

And to this day, I still listen to those bands, and more. Recently, I've even gotten into deathcore too, and also want to discover more bands within the genre.

And that's how I got into metal!

[I apologize if this is long, you might notice I like writing a lot. Haha!]

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I don't have an exact estimate, but for the most part I remember being AWARE of metal for most of my life, with my earliest Disney days being the exception.  The earliest metal song I can specifically remember hearing was something along the lines of Jump in the Fire by Metallica on the radio, and  I'm not sure that was the song but it was pretty similar.  After that, I slowly got into a bunch of different bands, notably classics and not many modern acts.  I was a Sia fan as an early teen, though.  It started with Scorpions and eventually evolved into more radio metal and then into more METAL once I joined the forums at 18.  After that, it was an evolving process in how to accept the heavier albums, and I still remember the first time I checked out black metal.  The first two albums were At the Heart of Winter by Immortal and Bergtatt by Ulver.  I don't remember if that or death metal came first, but I do know my first two death metal albums were Symbolic by Death and Unquestionable Presence by Athiest.  Now that stuff just comes naturally to me.  I don't think I have a limit on heaviness that I can tolerate.  I mean, I can recognize if an album's just being heavy for the sake of it and lets the songwriting suffer (deathcore?), but for the most part, I can't have unintentionally light metal like the second Twilight Force album.

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2 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Female fronted bands, no that’s something I don’t think about very often, mostly because if the music kicks ass and then it doesn’t matter to me the gender of the vocalist or anyone else in the band for that matter. Chastain and Holy Moses come to mind though.

I do, but only because I still find it to be somewhat of a cool novelty.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First of all, my father and mother were metalworkers. That's why they used to listen to it all the time in the car and at home when I was little. That's why I started listening to metal in middle school. We decided to start this adventure with my friend from school and after learning a few bands, one day I learned a genre called black metal. That's why I used to listen to black metal all the time. Then I realized that I had to listen to everything and everything changed. After that, I met death metal. And after that, many more, I have been to the same helvete since that day. only in advanced.

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  • 1 month later...

Grew up in the PNW and was in HS when grunge hit the scene big, at least there (later on MTV).   Until then I was all over the place with my music tastes (still am to a certain extent).   The Smith, Beastie Boys, some Rap, Cure, radio rock. 

Then I got turned onto the grunge scene and kind of got sucked in for a year or more.  Same time found Pink Floyd, Tool, Nine Inch Nails.  It was the start of heavier things.   

There was a big all things underground Industrial stint, mostly in early college, where I also got into some love for the early days of metal's mainstream like Metallica, Megadeth, and Ozzy. 

We'll skip the time when I actually listened to some nu-metal.

I my mid 30's I found Opeth (main contributor) but also early Lamb of God and early In Flames.   From there, Death and Atheist.  Set the stage for my getting past the harsh vocals and really finding music I find interesting. 

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  • 1 month later...

  I was an avid fan of innovative, largely instrumental music in the 70's and 80s - eg. - Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, Goblin - when I was about 25.  I used to drink in a pub with my brother's metalhead friends and got introduced to metal. 

  One notable event was me watching and later getting the soundtrack of "Creepers" or "Phenomena" as it was variously known, a film by Dario Argento.  On it was "Flash of the Blade" by Iron Maiden.

  I was relatively soon immersed in "metalia". and still am, at nearly 64.

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Before listening to metal my dad introduced me to Twisted Sister, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, YU-Rock...

My neighbor listened to Metallica and I still remember first time hearing the opening to Blackened, still gives me the goosebumps, brings back the memories :)

 That was around 1995, and we started exploring music then :)  

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  • 1 month later...

My parents listened to country and classic rock but nothin heavy. So in the early 90s I was in 5th grade and for my birthday I got my first CD. It was a movie soundtrack with lots of rap and I hated it. I took it to school on Monday and showed it to this kid whose locker was next to me. He asked me to trade for it right away and pulled out Metallica-Master of Puppets and Dr. Dre-The chronic both on tape. Gave me both for my shitty CD. I loved that Metallica album more than any other music I had heard up till then. That same year my new neighbor started to invite me over to watch Beavis and Butthead and Headbangers Ball. And that was when I figured out that metal was my favorite music. 

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My mom listened to classical music and the golden oldies station, so that was my start to music.

The first thing I ever bought for myself (in 6th grade) was a cassette tape of Britney Spears (I thought she was cute!)

Then I started to branch out into softer rock (U2, Nirvana), and got into punk (Punk-O-Rama (Epitaph Records) samplers), and got into Rancid and NoFX and Pennywise and Millencolin - I also got into some hardcore from those samplers, Madball and Raised Fist...

I heard "Girl at the Rock Show" by Blink-182 on the radio and decided to get the album - but I thought their name was Linkin Park, and as soon as I listened to Hybrid Theory I got my mind blown away. 

After that I got into Nu Metal (Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine, Tool...) and then I branched further out to hardcore (Hatebreed, Walls of Jericho, Throwdown (Bleeding Through later on in my life).

The first death metal record I ever bought and listened to was Nile's - Annihilation of the Wicked (having heard "Lashed to the Slavestick" off of those free metal mixtapes, Concrete Sampler. And from then on I was hooked into Death Metal forever!

My top 5 most influential DM CD's were Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked, Deicide - Scars of the Crucifix, Cryptopsy - None So Live, Behemoth - Demigod, and Opeth - Deliverance

I still kept listening to all sorts of music, but those metal sampler cds and label promos and movie soundtracks really let me know about all of the other metal bands that were out there.

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I will never get tired of telling this story.

I was in school. I somehow made my way into marching band from orchestra???? And I was given a new instrument I didn't know how to play, so I tried faking playing it. That didn't fly with the drumline instructor, who told me to be louder, really aggressively, and then took my mallets and WHALED on the glockenspiel I was assigned, backwards, while screaming, and headbanging. 

I found his band a year/year and a half later. I needed to know.... Something.  I still am not sure what I needed to know. But it was there saying "GO OVER THERE. YOU NEED TO."

I get tickets. Ten dollars. Get in line. The rails. The people. Walk in. Earplugs. 

Darkness.

Lights shine on small pyramids with fake flames coming out. The band plays. I'm in another entire world. Egypt, Osiris and Isis interacting with the world around them. Tragedy strikes, Set kills his brother and seals his soul into his body. Osiris waits. 

And after coming back to reality, I was very aware that I was going to go to shows for the rest of my life. 

The bands name was The Phöeniix, and I credit them with even being here today. I say I was found by metal. I feel it's correct because the only year THAT instructor was there was the year I participated. The show at that first venue was one of the last shows of that venue before it got in trouble.  If I had the money back then I would have happily risked going bankrupt to save it.

So much was positioned just right for me to not only learn about Dio fairly early, but also avoid everything that I could have followed to my detriment. 

Long live heavy metal!

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Hard to say, at my age it's been so long. I mean I started listening to hard rock in the late 70's when I was snotty nosed kid. I remember really, super being into AC/DC in middle school and Aerosmith a bit. Iron Maiden came a little later. But I'm pretty sure it was Judas Priest and I have a recollection of the album cover of Sin After Sin. Could have been British Steel which was 1980.  It definitely wasn't some cathartic aha thunderbolt,  parting the seas moment though.  

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On 8/23/2022 at 7:47 PM, RelentlessOblivion said:

It was my cousin who introduced me to metal back in 2002, just realising that was 20 years ago now I feel old, I remember one day we went to visit them and while hanging out he started playing Cemetery Gates. Well 12yo me lost his mind and here we are two decades on…

Wait, so you were born in 1990? I did not know this. I'd gathered you were a bit younger than some of us, but I didn't realize you were quite that young. Not that there's anything wrong with being young. My daughter was born in 1990. Unfortunately she did not have a cousin to play Pantera songs for her, her cousin listens to rap and pop and mainstream normie stuff like that with her. I remember them coming over one time when they were about 15-16 and they went on my computer and started listening to 50 Cent. I remember wondering "where did I go wrong?" She'd always thought my music sounded "scary" so my love of metal never rubbed off on her. I don't hold out much hope for my 3 grandkids either, living in that house I'm sure they'll all end up listening to rap and pop too. Oh the humanity.

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3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Wait, so you were born in 1990? I did not know this. I'd gathered you were a bit younger than some of us, but I didn't realize you were quite that young. Not that there's anything wrong with being young. My daughter was born in 1990. Unfortunately she did not have a cousin to play Pantera songs for her, her cousin listens to rap and pop and mainstream normie stuff like that with her. I remember them coming over one time when they were about 15-16 and they went on my computer and started listening to 50 Cent. I remember wondering "where did I go wrong?" She'd always thought my music sounded "scary" so my love of metal never rubbed off on her. I don't hold out much hope for my 3 grandkids either, living in that house I'm sure they'll all end up listening to rap and pop too. Oh the humanity.

Yep I’m a nineties kid, actually it’s embarrassing looking at some of my early posts here, twenty something Oblivion was far from the metal head I am today. I mean I didn’t even know black metal existed back in 2011…

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15 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Yep I’m a nineties kid, actually it’s embarrassing looking at some of my early posts here, twenty something Oblivion was far from the metal head I am today. I mean I didn’t even know black metal existed back in 2011…

Haha, if you think I'm an dickhead now you should've seen me 40 years ago. You don't need to be embarrassed about being an opinionated loudmouth who talked out of his ass without knowing much of anything in your early 20's, we've all been there. It's par for the course. You've gained a fairly respecatable amount of metal knowledge in the last 12 years, I'm sure you'll be getting an invite to the grumpy old bastards club in the not too distant future.

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4 hours ago, OneLouderForever said:

It was SONAR, but it was fake flame.  I thought I mentioned that, but maybe I didn't. No, yeah, I did. 

My mistake...missed that part when I was reading through.

I've definitely got some good memories from the Sonar, saw some great bands there for sure, but I can't say I really miss it as a venue. Always thought the sound in there was hit or miss, depending on which side of the stage you were on, and goddamn could it get hotter than hell inside if you weren't standing directly under one of like, only three A/C vents in the building.

Was it bankruptcy that got them? I know the majority owner got nailed with a 10 year prison sentence for running some kind of illegal drug ring, but i never heard exactly why it got closed down.

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4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Haha, if you think I'm an dickhead now you should've seen me 40 years ago. You don't need to be embarrassed about being an opinionated loudmouth who talked out of his ass without knowing much of anything in your early 20's, we've all been there. It's par for the course. You've gained a fairly respecatable amount of metal knowledge in the last 12 years, I'm sure you'll be getting an invite to the grumpy old bastards club in the not too distant future.

Always more to discover, such is the beauty of metal. Does one have to be both grumpy and old to join this club?

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3 hours ago, SurgicalBrute said:

Was it bankruptcy that got them? I know the majority owner got nailed with a 10 year prison sentence for running some kind of illegal drug ring, but i never heard exactly why it got closed down.

Head honcho gets big time arrested, his minions have no idea how to run the place, place loses liquor license for the thousandth time, some asshole bought it and turned it into a BALLROOM. A fucking ballroom.  And venue after venue just started to fall after that, but Ottobar and The Depot are still fighting like they owe the devil money. Thank God... I love small venues. I might not love the background goings on at SONAR but as soon as I walked in there the vibe (at least that night) was like the square peg that's been expected to somehow fit into a round hole all it's damn life found a square hole that fit like a good glove. I don't even drink that often. Most of the time I'll buy something NA off the bar for courtesy's sake. 

22 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Yep I’m a nineties kid, actually it’s embarrassing looking at some of my early posts here, twenty something Oblivion was far from the metal head I am today. I mean I didn’t even know black metal existed back in 2011…

89 here, consider myself a nineties kid cuz....I had most of those experiences. (Sock em boppers, sock em boppers, more fun than a pillow fight! 🤣) But you have more on me, I discovered that metal was a thing in 2010. This May it'll be 13 years.

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