I never gave a shit about metal until my senior year of high school. I was, however, a huge fan of pro wrestling, and of a wrestler by the name of Chris Jericho in particular. After a little while, I heard that said half-naked grappler was in a band, and I instantly wrote them off as shit. Then I heard a small clip of one of their songs during a commercial on WWE television, and actually kind of liked what I heard. I went out and bought the album, which consisted largely of covers of 80s metal bands like Maiden, Priest, and Scorpions, and I found myself hooked quickly thereafter. I ran out and bought a Judas Priest greatest hits album and Iron Maiden’s Rock In Rio, and the rest was history.

Like you I always thought metal was for dumb losers and I was sooooo much cooler because I didn’t listen to that stupid crap. I was 18 and into a lot of punk music at the time; I was pretty convinced NOFX, Bad Religion, and Pennywise were the greatest things that ever happened to music.

After my first year of college, I took a 7 hour road trip to Boise, Idaho to check out a college my buddy wanted to attend. As we hit the road and began toking our first bowl of many; my buddy put in a cd and said, “I’m not going to tell you who this is because you’ll think they suck if i do. Just listen to it and then tell me what you think.” He then proceeded to play Hallowed be thy Name off Iron Maiden’s – A Real Dead One. I was floored.

Needless, to say that album never left the cd player for the whole trip and the rest is history.

My uncle played Vulgar Display of Power once when I was in his garage helping him fix a car at the age of 8 or so. That was shut down by my mom, but I remembered and finally got back into it when I was 17.

yikes, I was young. 5th grade. My older bro and his friends were into Maiden and Priest. My first metal tape was Somewhere In Time that I “inherited” from my bro. The next year I got 7th Son when it came out for my birthday. I was fucking pumped. It all big time changed the first time I heard Slayer’s War Ensemble. I got heavily into anything fast. Speed/thrash metal, punk, hardcore…. anything. 22 years ago and still going stronger than ever.

My aunts brother is the first person that got me into true metal. I can remember being 6 or 7 years old listening to Megadeth with him, but probably around 8th grade he introduced me to Obituary and Cannibal Corpse. To this day 80′s bay area thrash and 90′s Tampa Death Metal are my favorite types of music.

I’ve always been a metalhead and will always be a metalhead.

hey Focus Shift, I had the same experience in 9th grade English class with “Rime” too funny. That was 25 years ago for my old ass.

For my entire life that I can remember I’ve been into metal. There was a brief period (roughly two years in the mid-90′s) that I listened to gangsta rap because at the time metal was dead. Or at least on these shores it was. When you are all of 14 years old and live in the suburbs before the internet was widely used, you weren’t aware of bands like Dissection and Mayhem. So gangsta rap was the logical choice as its lyrics were just as violent (if not more) than any of the metal I had heard. But before that, at the ripe old age of 4, I had already bought my first metal album. It was Kill Em All by Metallica and I bought it with my allowance when my older brother took me up to the local music and head shop. I don’t remember any of this but was told my my bro years later. There is a picture of me in first grade wearing a home made Ratt shirt with a crude picture of a dead rat on the front. I drew it with a magic marker. Wish I still had it. I remember picking up Sepultura’s “Beneath the Remains” cassette in a chain record store and my brothers friend saying “You still listen to that metal bullshit? You need to check out Big Daddy Kane!” It may have been a year or two later that I succumbed to the rap music. Attending a single Too $hort concert a couple years later was all it took to turn me back. I was treated like absolute shit. My friend and I were the only white kids in the audience and the emcee on stage was going on a rant about being pulled over by a white cop. People started throwing pennies and full fucking cans of pop at us and THE FUCKING SPOT LIGHT WAS PLACED ON US! After running to the busted up El Camino that my friends uncle had driven us there in (he was sleeping in the car until the concert was over) we made a daring escape as we were literally CHASED out of the venue by a gang of dudes…quite possibly LITERALLY a gang…and I never listened to rap music again. I was actually racist as hell for a few years after that until I realized that going to a rap concert in inner city Dayton was probably the stupidest fucking thing I could have done and I probably had a whole auditorium full of gang members thinking my buddy and I were under cover cops or something. Unfortunately this was during the mid to late 90′s when metal was still Korn and Limp Bizkit. So, on advice from the clerk working at the very same record store I had purchased Kill Em All in 1984, I checked out a band called Arch Enemy. They had just released Black Earth. My life was fucking changed. I had discovered Scandanavian metal. Soon I was buying every melodic death, death metal, black metal, and even power metal release that was coming out from over seas fucking ANYWHERE. By the mid point of the last century, the tides had turned and metal was coming out in America that rivaled that of Scandanavia and Europe. Plus I was already discovering bands on the internet. I thank high speed internet service for propelling that avenue along nicely.

People on Facebook last year they were like “OMG THIS AVENGED SEVENFOLD SONG IS SO KEWL GAIZ” and I was like “It goes crazy for like 10 seconds then it become dull as fuck and the lyrics are just bullshit”. So, I do the cool thing that I always do… I goggled “Avenged Sevenfold sucks”. I’m then led to a website called Metalunderground and there is a blog post trash talking Avenged Sevenfold. Score!

I sifted through the trash talking on the comments section and found the most intelligent person there trash talking Avenged Sevenfold. His name was “Cynic” so I was like, mhmm… Then I checked out his profile and was like “I’m going to find some fucking awesome metal!” and then I put up YouTube and went to the first band. Watchtower? Wut? Maybe they were good but I didn’t like them at the time.

Then I proceeded to the next band and then I find out the band’s name is “Cynic” which is like the dude who is posting, and I was like “This has got to be good”. Then Evolutionary Sleeper was being played in a 2007 concert on YouTube and I was like “This is cool shit!” So, yeah…

I first heard Metallica on a road trip with my Christian youth group when I was 10 or 11, circa 1995. My favorite bands at the time were The Beatles, Oasis and Nirvana. I thought it was garbage, and said so, pretty loudly.

Fast forward 5 years, after consuming Way Too Much pot ‘n alcohol, and add a growing taste for punk rock in the vein of Dead Kennedys and Black Flag… well, the next time I inevitably heard “Master of Puppets,” a whole new hemisphere of my brain opened up. Eargasm. It was a quick jump from there to In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Iron Maiden… blah blah blah. Ended up taking classical guitar in college so I could learn to shred neo-classical, like Alexi Laiho. I still can’t quite do that…

Yeh, I too have a pretty serious man-crush on Devin Townsend.

My parents both listened to your typical hair metal and such. My dad occasionally listened outside of the box, but i think it was more of a “part of his generation” sort of thing. I remember being in 5th grade and going to a record store. I had heard The Darkness on the radio and my liked the album. (it was sort hair-metally). They didn’t have the album, but my mom saw a Black Sabbath album and made some comment. For some reason, what she said intrigued me, i had always heard about Ozzy Osbourne, but never heard him. I asked more and she said she didn’t like Sabbath or Ozzy. That made me want to buy it even more, so she let me.

I listened to it on the way home, i loved every bit of it. Especially the song Black Sabbath, it was just sounded so evil (to my 5th grade brain). I remember family coming over and blasting that album on a tiny little radio in my room. It was fun. I just remember this band and how they stood out from all the other shit i had heard.

In Middle school, i didn’t get into a lot of the music all the other kids liked (i was at the point of rap dying out and going into i guess what you would call the “beginning” of metalcore) I remember looking up shit on a music channel thing, some sort of digital music program on my tv and hearing screamed vocals. My first response was to hate it, but i heard it in some more melodic bands (which at the time kids didn’t give a shit about, this was also the whole Nu metal shit) like As I Lay Dying, August Burns Red and The Bled. I also didn’t mind System of A Down too much, but i hated the rest of the Nu metal.

At this time, i had also taken an interest in computers and the internet. Something about knowledge and creation that could be accessed by anyone at all clicked in my 7th grade mind. Through the internet, i discovered more bands that played similar styles to the bands above and learned new ones as well. I was pretty much stuck in a metalcore rut up until late 8th grade when i heard Between the Buried and Me. Never had i heard a band combine so many elements of metal and other music in a way the evolved over time. This also helped me become a little more tolerant of non-melodic bands and abstract ideas, as well as creative song writing like The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Human Abstract, Mastodon.

I remember in 9th grade being made fun of for my musical tastes by people that listen to more mainstream bullshit that was unoriginal, rehashed stuff from the 90′s. I remember them saying it was just noise or yelling and not music. They don’t realize how opinionated, uneducated and single-minded this made them sound. I always look for ways to expand art and metal has helped me learn that. Art is something that doesn’t always have to sound melodic or pretty, it has to portray a tone or message or feeling the artist wanted to get across. Metal helped me understand this and helped me become more open to other styles, people and even help with my schoolwork.

Im now in 10th grade and i plan to listen to metal and all its subgenres for as long as i can. (except crabcore =P) I love this style of music and its helped me through a lot. In always finding new things (this blog often helps too) Im now quiet into Death metal, grindcore and trying to get into Black metal (having trouble with that one).

I spent teenage years playing video games like a addict, then started looking for music to listen to whilst I played away, and realized the only good radio station was a metal station, thanks chronix

At first i was big on U2 and anything else that mainstream radio or MuchMusic (Canadian equivalent of MTV) was throwing at me at the time. This was the late 90s and early 2000s, in this dark chasm of life that was the bridge between elementary and high school. Therefore, i listened do things like Default, Tantric, Limp Bizkit, Blink 182, and yes even Creed *shame*

My first encounter with “metal” would be through a friend that loved Rammstein. I only liked a few songs, but i wasn’t to crazy about the music, i only liked hearing them sing in German. My sister is a HUGE Bon Jovi fan, so that gave me the itch for heavy distorted guitars and bitchin solos. After tiring myself with Van Halen, Motley Crue and other hair metal bands, i enjoyed the Big Four.

I then made two discoveries that changed my life. The first was seeing the videoclip for “Left Behind” by Slipknot. Those masks….the guitars…..the drums…..and Corey Taylor’s voice. I didn’t know anything could sound like that before. It traumatised me. I couldn’t believe how awesome it was. Shortly after, a friend lent me a CD by this band with a really cool name: Children of Bodom. The album was Follow the Reaper. Those two discoveries opened a new gateway for music.

This is how my life got ruined. I’ve been on a steady downward spin towards more extreme and offensive music. Now i dig anything from Kataklysm to Bathory, Dimmu Borgir and Katatonia, etc. But my classical upbringing (i took violin lessons, then switched to guitar) makes me very excited about cheesy power metal for some reason XD go stratovarius!!!!

i was raised on classical music, playing piano/violin every day since i was 8. I thought pop music was shit, and pretty much just stuck to classical. At that point, i didn’t actually know that hard rock/heavy metal existed.

Of all places, on the bus to choir camp in grade 8, my new friends had their ipods (when they had just came out), and one of them was listening to zeppelin, van halen, guns n roses, iron maiden, metallica and rage against the machine. I couldn’t believe this music existed; had the intricacies and coolness of classical, whilst offering a heavier and angrier side to it. As soon as i got home, i emptied out my bank account, wallet and piggy bank whilst also stealing from my parents, and went to the local record store and came back with about 20 albums. etc etc etc.

great post

I remember being a very small child in the late 80′s and seeing news clips of various “heavy metal” bands who had subliminal satanic messages if you played the records in reverse… At the time, I thought this was quite ingenious, even if I did think that the music was not cool. (Mom, why are all of these boys dressed like girls?) I knew that satanic messages were wrong, and was quite enthralled by the rebellious nature of the messages. Most of my family was Southern Baptist, and had quite the reverence for Jesus and whatnot. I knew better, and had already read about how cool the devil was in Revelation… Musically, I’d discovered GNR by that point, and was convinced that Axl Rose and Slash were the baddest dudes walking around on planet earth… Fast forward to 1991, as I’d just turned 10 years old. My parents had thrown a huge Christmas party to which neither my sister or I were invited. We went to our babysitter’s house across the street. My babysitter was cool. She’d introduced me to Faith No More and Living Colour, but she had a “bad seed” of an older brother who drove an IROC and smoked cigarettes. He was very similar to the dude Justin talks about. At any rate, I heard this noise coming from his room that I was completely unfamiliar with and peeked in. He had Iron Maiden and Metallica posters on the wall, but was listening to death metal. It was the soundtrack to every nightmare of a monster I’d ever had and I was immediately obsessed. He made me tapes of Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Slayer, Morbid Angel, Death, and Deicide. I could only listen to these bands on my Walkman or at a friend’s house, as I would’ve been severely punished if my mom would’ve ever heard “Sacrificial Suicide” or “Cop Killer” coming from my boom box. I was hooked by the time I was 11 years old.

I was in 7th grade… My friend had showed me Children of Bodom(I’m a sophmore in highschool now) and ever since then ive been hooked. By eighth grade id figured out how to find more music and whatnot and its greattt. sorry im not vintage…i wish i coulda been around in Decapitated’s prime etc.

I was 15 and hadn’t really listened to anything beyond what was presented to me on the radio-pop music. I wanted to fit in, nobody wanted me, but I had nowhere else to turn, you know?
/story shortened for brevity

Anyway, I was in debate class and a senior class buddy gave me a copy of Judas Priest’s Ram It Down to listen to on my walkman.

I’d never heard anything like it and for five years I never looked back. Sure, I liked/like some shitty bands and eventually my listening habits broadened out but I’m still hunting for the next Ram It Down (read; the album that made me feel like that one did. T’was not Judas Priest’s best record.)

its a little odd and embarrasing really… I never really liked any music at all until i was like 13 or 14, and by then my sister blaring God awful radio pop tunes EVERY FRIGGIN DAY at six IN THE FRIGGIN MORNING had driven me insane. I bought Guitar Hero 3 and i really liked the fall of troy, so i looked them up, instantly fell in love with heavier music, then i along with my friend steve, discovered Sputnikmusic.com and i soon possessed more music than i ever though possible. its too bad that the fall of troys new album absolutely sucks, (they treid to be a fucking pop band jesus) and i almost feel betrayed. Now i just search random blogspots for the most underground unheard of stuff possible, a fruitful search indeed. LISTEN TO GOES CUBE DAMMIT!

I grew up listening to country up until I was about 10. My parents, are only in their thirties, so they were big hair metal fans. They thought it would corrupt me as child so i rarely got hear anything other than classical or country. around 11 or 12 I just kind of snapped and decided fuck country. I then started listening to whatever shit was popular at the time. i always was pushing myself a little more. I wanted it heavier and faster. about that time I also started playing guitar. One day I heard some song with a touch of screaming, and there I was… hooked on screamo. (fucking dumb ass at 14) The first actual metal band I got into was killswitch engage, after a friend showed me it because it sounded like something I would listen to. About that time I also met a group of friends who were all just getting into metal as well. Nothing was ever heavy eneough for me, until i found Death Metal and black metal.

The first thing I ever saw that could be considered metal was a video by Van Halen with David Lee Roth acting like a clown. Wrote it off for quite a while…but then I changed schools in 7th grade and knew no one but this kid whose older sis used to watch me. He became instant friends with me and in my second week there or so he asked what I listened to. When I said RUN DMC he started laughing hard and told me to get some Metallica….so that night I went out and ripped off their latest cassette – Master of Puppets. Wow! Something clicked instantly and I’ve been an obsessive metalhead ever since. I still remember doing laps in gym the very next day with my buddy while trading off shouts of MASTER! MASTER!

My story is the same as a lot of people. I was into punk as a teenager because of the anti-establishment message and the fast pace. I thought metal was for weirdos who were into drugs and devil-worship.

However, punk soon began to wear on me. A lot of the popular stuff was pretty formulaic, as was some of the hardcore scene. One day II decided that I should at least give metal a try, since it was the only other form of aggressive music I knew of. I Googled around for some famous metal bands, and found that Mastodon was being called the “hero” of modern metal. Once I saw a Youtube video of their live performance of “Mother Puncher,” I was hooked hard. It had all the best of metal in it: awesome riffs in the beginning, really sludgy stuff towards the end, aggresive vocals, and general bad-assery. Bought Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and then began to explore from there.