it sounds cliche, but metal makes me feel alive. it’s the only thing i’ve ever really connected with on a level that went beneath the surface.

I got into metal back in grade 8 (2004ish), when a friend online showed me Bodom and few other metal bands. The weird thing was I never really paid attention to to vocals…I obviously knew that it was screaming, but I never thought of it as another type of singing. Maybe I was just a stupid kid? I think I really dug the melody and energy compared to a lot of stuff presented to me via the mainstream. Anywho, I kept listening and listening and her I am now typing on a Metal blog site 6 years later.

I should also note my Dad was into Metallica, Nirvana, Suicidal Tendencies, System of a Down and a whole bunch of heavy music that he’d blast in the car when I was a kid. Grade 5, I had a big time obsession with Linkin Park. Then grade 7, I was way into System of a Down.

It’s also worth noting that I get along great with my Mom, Dad, siblings etc. etc. And my life is pretty good, middle-class yadda yadda, and pretty content socially (could certainly use more wimmens tho…)

Fin.

Nothing else compares to metal…all the formulatic, over-processed bull crap out there doesn’t do anything for me…..metal is just great, one of my greatest passions as of now.

I didn’t choose it, it chose me.

Simple. It’s abrasive, brutal, and portrays the emotions of hate, passive aggression, strife, and derision I wish to convey.

Also, suburbia is boring as fuck. Metal makes it exciting and worth enduring.

its all about sound/texture and energy to me…i fucking love distorted guitars….nothing beats a great metal guitar tone. hearing a great metal band can give you shot of energy….can make you think…and can make you want to fuck….what’s better than that?

Just hit my 30′s and still into metal even more so then when I was just getting into Pantera at 13. It defintely doesn’t come from a dark place. With just a quick thought about it, I think its the intensity and aggressivness of it, providing an outlet as I myself don’t outwardly show those often. I only listen though, I never have played. Is it cliche that I am really into horror movies also? Good question I’ll have to think about this more, great post as always.

I got into metal by way of The Haunted. I was 16 and I was in a punk band at the time, hanging at a friend’s house, and he put on “The Haunted- Made Me Do It.” I immediately recognized what I interpreted as a punk structure, with a darker feeling, and with guys who could really play. From there it all opened up: I devoured records from all the Swedish greats and couldn’t be satiated. It wasn’t long before I realized what EXACTLY it was that I dug so much: these guys were playing classical music. Plain and simple. The interplay between the instruments, the structures, the arpeggiated sequences. The lead guitars were violins, the bass was a brass section. It was at that point that I felt that I really “got” what these metal guys were trying to convey.
I think that still holds true for pretty much all of the metal that I’m in to. The prog-metal guys are mixing it with Yes, the doom guys are making it ethereal, the djent guys are playing with time-signatures and using the rhythm as a different expression of virtuosity (just as Prokofiev and Debussy were doing at the beginning of last century with their sonatas.)
Which leads me to why I still listen: metal stands out as a field in which the practices of experimentation and genre-crossing aren’t just happening, they are thriving. Making a new style of metal, putting your spin on it, is practically required in order to really thrive in metal. And as a listener or a performer, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
By the way, it’s quite a relief to hear someone else express many of the same quirks of my own musical tastes: generally dark (because I seem to have this filter in my head that interprets anything else as…. cheesy) and requiring a “newness”. In order for it to really pique my interest, music must challenge conventions, or at the very least put at least a slightly different spin on things. I thank you for that, Eyal.

I came at this kind of backwards. Yeah, I heard Metallica’s One when I was a teenager and listened to it quite a bit but I never connected with the rest of metal back then.

Fast forward to my 30s and I am nuts for progressive rock, constantly trying to relearn the history of rock from the 70s. But what I found was that often prog was not as heavy a sound as I wanted to hear. So some friends turned me on to a band called Moonlyght (highly silly and defunct), but it opened a door for me back into metal and all the amazing crazy shit that has been going on since I abandoned it all those years ago.

Someone said above that it’d great to listen to music that for once is not about happy poppy love shit. I agree. It’s why I started listening to progressive stuff – sometimes it’s pretentious but it’s also thinky in a good way. So is a lot of metal. Same appeal.

I wish I could say the culture was part of it but not many of my friends like metal. Not feeling the brotherhood over here. But I know the feeling in the crowd is awesome at a really good show, maybe more so than other kinds of shows.

My journey into metal started around 2003. I had always heard Metallica on the radio and liked it better than anything else on the radio. I bought St. Anger the day it was released and it was the heaviest, most awesome thing I had ever heard. bear in mind, I was 12 and had only ever listened to the radio. Now this was just my first taste of metal and i didn’t really listen to mush other metal than St. Anger.

Fast forward to the release of Guitar Hero. I played the game constantly and it had some great metal in it, including Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth and Cowboys from Hell by Pantera. Cowboys from hell blew my mind, so I went out and bought Pantera’s greatest hits. Then I bought Master of Puppets, an subsequently every other Metallica album. I basically just started with a bunch of thrash and some groove metal, but Blood Mountain was a HUGE game changer for me and opened up a world of metal to me.

To this day Metallica and Mastodon are still my favorite bands. There’s just something about the music that feels genuine, and angry, and beautiful, and right all at once and inspires me. It connects with me. Like someone said earlier, I didn’t choose it, it chose me.

My metal history goes back to eighth grade, when I was a smart kid growing up in a rigidly conservative family in a small, redneck-dominated town. I was a sterotypical “good girl” who made good grades, went to church on Sunday and stayed out of trouble…and felt so stifled and repressed that I wanted to scream most of the time. At the time I listened to Duran Duran and Rick Springfield….mostly because that’s what my friends listened to…until the longhaired dude who sat next to me in study hall took it upon himself to enlighten me. He slipped me mixtapes of Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Sabbath…and thus a metalhead was born. Metal was power, passion, energy, excitement…it was a little dark, a little dangerous, a temptation, an awakening. A secret society that only a few were privileged to know about. Today I am a 40-year-old, married woman (no kids, long sad story) with a boring suburban life and a boring, straight job in the legal field, with extremely conservative bosses who would probably fire me if they knew I was blasting Killswitch, Shadows Fall, Down, Queenryche and Dio on my iPod (Thank goodness they let me use my iPod!) I may not look “metal”–one looks a little ridiculous in heavy black eyeliner and a Goatwhore t-shirt at my age–but I remain a diehard metalhead at heart. Throughout the years, metal has been a touchstone for me, a life force and refuge that has gotten me through some very, very bad times. There have literally been days where I could have done physical harm to myself (or someone else) had I not been able to blast Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets” or Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power” or Slipknot’s “Vol. III: The Subliminal Verses” through my stereo speakers. Without metal I might have turned to drugs, alcohol or other dangerous habits, as some in my family have done.

My tastes in music do extend beyond metal; I am a trained singer and have a soft spot for choral music, particularly that of Carl Orff, Arvo Part and Eric Whitacre. I listen to classical (especially baroque), jazz (of the Coltrane and Davis variety…no smooth jazz, please) traditional bluegrass, singer/songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Jeff Bucklley, modern folk (Ani Difranco, Dar Williams) traditional Celtic music, reggae, and pagan music artists like Gaia Consort, Emerald Rose and Avalon Rising. There’s also classic rock and prog rock like Yes, Rush and Tool in my playlists, and a few “guilty pleasures” as well, like cheesy 70s pop (think ABBA and the Bay City Rollers…memories of Saturdays at the roller rink) and Madonna, because everyone is entitled to a little musical junk food. I also have some New Age artists like Loreena McKennitt, October Project, Clannad and Mannheim Steamroller, because sometimes you just need to turn your brain off. Anyway, somewhere I read that the level of skill, precision and talent required to play metal is equivalent to that required for classical and jazz, and I believe it. The musical skill of metal musicans is grossly disrespected outside the genre.

I think many metal fans and musicians, are, frankly, a little smarter than most, or at least our eyes, minds and hearts are more open to reality and we are not afraid to call bullshit when we see it. We know life is not simple, it is not black and white, it is not sunshine and rainbows and fluffy little bunnies. We live in reality (no, not the TV variety), a place that is usually messy, ugly, unpleasant, complicated, and lived in a million shades of gray. Metal helps us survive in this reality.

Why do I love metal? Like others here have said, because metal makes me feel alive. Because metal can make shivers run down my spine and the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Because metal makes my heart race and takes my breath away like nothing else….well, with one exception ;-)…Because metal is cathartic, metal artists “scream so I don’t have to” in the words of another poster. Because metal fans are a family and metal is almost a universal language; metal scenes flourish in North America, South America, Asia, and much of Europe…and even places like India and the Middle East are starting to spawn metal bands. What other type of music can say that? Because metal can be fun, furious, thoughtful, mind-expanding, brutal and beautiful. Because metal is in my soul; as someone else said, I didn’t choose metal, metal chose me. Because I am metal, and always will be.

Horns High!!!

I love Metal well…….because its not the norm. It not on FM radio. (real metal anyway).

I love Metal for the Brotherhood of it, something i didnt see or really appreciate until I got sent to Europe. Americans arent very popular in some parts of Europe, but me and a couple of good buddies have been to countless festivals and shows over the years and we’ve had the chance to meet countless cool fucking dudes with the same Ideals, same love, passsion and Knowledg eof Metal. My favorite part of any show we go to is standing in line talking to other fans before the show. Ive made some great friends from it, and some Ill never forget.

Metal is worldwide. Something I knew- but it took me seeing it to believe it. Its in your damn blood I think. Its not something that once you turn a certain age you just turn it off and say “meh Im not going to listen to this anymore” If anything my thirst to hear new shit has gotten deeper with age.

I love Metal because its empowering. It got me through rough formative years in highschool and some even worse times in real life. Metal got me standing up for myself, taking care of myself. it gave me the Do or die attitude, or the Take no shit attitude if you will. But it also taught me to respect others.

I love Metal..Period.

I am 28 and I first was exposed to my metal by White Lion and Stryper. I had an older sister that mostly listened to Madonna and Culture Club, but like many teenagers of the 80′s she got into some of the glam rock/hair metal bands by their power balads which I still love more than their “more rocking” songs. I got into Metallica later, but mostly the Black Albulm and yes Load and Reload. I kind of tried the redneck thing for a while, but still constantly wanted to hear more electric guitar distortion ala AC/DC and the so on. I kind of had a slow introduction into the underground by hearing stuff I abhore now like Korn and Rage Against the Machine. I also found out about P.O.D. from reading metal magazines and liked how they were Christians, so Iistened to their music and found out some punk and hardcore bands through them. This was around 99. I started investigating more bands and ended getting the first Songs from the Penalty Box CD, because it had a bunch of punk and ska bands on it that I loved, but found these really great bands that I love to this day. For istance, Living Sacrifice, Strongarm, early Zao and Liberate Te Ex Infernis and Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest. Yes, metallic hardcore was what influenced me to fight about Nile, Behemoth and other more underground bands, but I still love the early metallic hardcore bands. I do still listen to many Christian bands, but I don’t really care what anyone has to say as long as the music is good. It is just a bonus when I agree with them.

Wow, this is a bit far down the list (as I just got home)..

I recently got into metal.. seriously. I have been listening to different styles of rock for about 15 years, including some music that is a bit metal, like Nine Inch Nails, and other industrial music, but never found the riff based music as interesting until 2007. I was having a crappy day at work and I had some Strapping Young Lad with me (there is a funny reason why I had it with me.. partially I thought it would strike me somehow), and I laughed at how serious the music was, but the intensity of this got me thinking. In rock I had always been attracted to a few things – intensity, monster sounds, strange sounds, and almost mathematic connection with the instruments, and these things I found in bands like The Church, Genesis, Tea Party, and other somewhat progressive bands.

After the Strapping Young Lad spark, I grabbed Meshuggah (hearing it was a bit like a crazy Tool band) and that was it.. done.. and then I found hundreds more. Besides these reasons, I write music and had this obsession with writing half speed rock songs that became intense as heck.

So yea.. there’s nothing like intense raging metal.

Tbh, it think It started with Gorillaz and Whetus. When ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ came out i loved it. I loved Gorillaz’ rockier stuff as well. Then I started listening to Linkin Park and Muse as well, loving their heavier songs even more. The thing is, at the time I was even looking for ‘heavier’ (compared to pop) music, i just knew that I liked it when I heard it on the radio. I think my first proper experience of a metal song was ‘enter the sandman’. My mate had a mix CD with loads of songs on so i borrowed it and listened to ‘enter sandman’ on my cheap 256mb mp3 player non-stop for 2 weeks. A while after that, I noticed a couple of people talking about System of a Down (BYOB in particular) so i thought i’d give it a listen. I didn’t know about itunes etc back then so I just limewired BYOB and Chop Suey. I haven’t looked back. I went from SOAD, to LOG (only for a while though as they were too heavy for me at that point) then onto Dragonforce, Killswitch, Machine Head, Trivium and back to LOG. Suprisingly, I only ‘properly’ started listening to Metal about 2 years ago. Since then, I’ve been exposed to pretty much every form of metal and many other genres of music which i never would have done if I hadn’t had my mind opened by SOAD etc.

It started when I was eleven, stealing my older brothers cd’s and putting them in my cd’player -with the volum as low as possible sticking my ears to the speakers so my brother couldn’t hear. Didn’t know what it was, but it sounded dangerous and mean. And I fuckin loved it. My mom thought it was one of those “periods” that would pass. When it didn’t she got seriously worried. Couple of years later a lot of shit happened, and music was the only thing I knew wouldnt leave or let me down. And living in a christian place with 800 people surrouned by huge mountains and norwegian fjords, being a blonde girl, and being the only one of those 800 people listening to awesome music -just made me love it more. My 8 grade teacher threatened to flunk me in music because I wrote about Slipknot and Metallica, now -six years later another teacher is mad at me for comparing Opeth with Wagner and Ulver with Wergeland.

I try to explain “outsiders” the feeling and mood you get at a live show, or the connection you get with the guy across the street wearing your fav bands t-shirt, or the feeling when the two seconds of one song makes you actually lose your fucking breath. Most of them don’t get it. So I do think that people that listen to metal don’t just like it, they love it, and would probably marry it they could. I know I would. Cuz I can honestly say that I’ve gotten more butterflies in my tummie from a band, or a song than any guy. -And I’m pretty damn shure those bands or songs has gotten me closer to an o(ea)rgasm than any guy ever will.

Escapism

I was a teen during the 80s in a rural area. Metal was so aggressive and alive compared to the heavily controlled area I lived in. Add to that the fact that it was the bible belt and I was constantly being told to be a “properly submissive woman”, I found metal was a natural fit for my rebellious attitude toward my heavy-handed parents and their ilk. And I still enjoy it today.

I’ve recently been able to call myself an adult having turned 20, though I’m in college, and the teenage element is still somewhat a factor, and thusly, I find metal as a good outlet for my frustration, but not only such. I listen to it when I’m frustrated, true, but also when I’m in a good mood and on top of the world, when I’m high, when I’m full out pissed off, when I’m sad (nothing cures the blues like some sweet, sweet Morbid Angel), when I’m bored, etc, etc, etc. I just love the heavy as fuck jams, and the tasty, rippin’ solos. :P

I’m 18 and I’ve been looking into different genres of music since I had a concept of what they were. I’ve gotten bored with lots of music but metal has stuck in one form or another for years now. Metal is the only genre with the energy that I want/need.

Age: 47, and 33 years of metal in my ears

Why I like metal : I dont know…

Yes, but why ? : Because Amon Amarth play metal…

That’s all ? : yes, there is no other admittable reason

Do you like another style of music : yes, metal !!!

I listen to the metal for two reasons. One for the technicality of it all. I am an aspiring drum player and the style of drumming or guitars, vocals, etc in metal is incredible. It’s people actually playing their instruments (for the most part) and in some cases you can really feel that emotion in a song.

The other reason I still listen to it is that it got me through a hard time in my life. In the world of a dysfunctional family while you as a person can’t get a word in edgewise because your parents continue to fight really fucks you up as a person. Listening to metal and some of the lyrical themes behind songs helped me express myself, granted it was passionate anger, but it was still great to feel something. It was something new and obscure in my life and I couldn’t get enough of it. I still can’t now almost 8 years later. The metal is a way of life not just a music preference.

i got into metal after it grew on me when i was about 14. i’m 17 now. i mostly listened to garbage on the radio until i was about 13. i started looking for something that connected to me on a deeper emotional level when i got sick of all the monotony. since then, i barely listen to the radio except for pop radio stations in spanish. my brother was the one who showed me that there was better music out there. he was always into rock and metal. for him, it all started with video game soundtracks. we began watching headbanger’s ball when it came back in 2003 and even though we’re not into all the music videos they play, we still watch it religiously. i remember when i was in 5th grade, my mom was concerned over the heaviness of the linkin park songs i listened to. today, she hopes that i outgrow my metal phase, but i am determined not to. i love melodic death metal and hope i only expand my taste in metal as i get older. metal is the only music genre i truly enjoy listening to all the time. i have a lot of anger and it helps me let out some steam.

its crazy that my dad was the first to put me on to metal. i can remember hearing master of puppets and thinking HOLY SHIT!!! i think i was about 6 lol and im 23 now.i love metal because its pure, unrelenting energy.the kind that cant be touched or seen.the type that makes your body move and makes you feel invincible when those guitars are punching and the drums are kicking.as a musician, i can appreciate the dedication and hardwork these people put into their craft, and ive got nothing but respect and admiration for them.

Like somebody said, I didn’t choose metal, metal chose me. I really wasn’t the type for extreme music (just really shy etc) when I first heard it, but still there was something in there that couldnt let go of me. After that I became outgoing, adventurous etc so partly metal made me what I am.
Did ask myself why though, because I am pretty positive.
What I love in metal is the powerfulness. It just has so much life force in it.
Also like the true values, like honour, brotherhood and loyalty.
I’m blessed for being among those who feel it.

Metal saved my life and sanity,started with G&R an metallica then slayer an sacred reich, you can never get bored with metal there are too many styles and metal is always outdoing its self,everytime I ask ‘who’s going to top this band?’ I get a mind blowing answer from superjoint ritual to lamb of god to job for a cowboy.. I live for metal music. Thank you to all who have chosen the metal making music path!!

I’m a senior in college now, and I started listening to metal relatively recently – about half a year ago. Before that, I listened to mostly hip-hop, but I’ve always listened to a pretty wide variety of stuff. Pink Floyd, Amon Tobin, Mingus, etc.

Probably the two biggest reasons I started listening to metal was because my friends throughout college listened to metal. For a few years I just thought they had terrible music taste, but later on in college, as I started picking up on music theory and playing some piano/guitar myself, I started to understand *how* to listen to metal. I mean, I started off listening to hip-hop, so when I listened to music I mostly paid attention to rhythm + lyrics, and didn’t really know how to listen for chords, riffs, solos, that sort of thing. Once I understood how to listen for those, I started being able to understand metal better.

So, obviously, one of the biggest reasons to enjoy metal: technical skill. Mastery of the instrument, and all that.

Another big reason to listen to metal is that it’s outsider music. Nobody who feels at home in ‘normal’ society listens to metal, or at least not as a kind of ‘home.’ Metal is music for the disenfranchised, the disillusioned, and the generally misfitting. As much as most metalheads will jump on me for this, one of the major reasons I like metal is for the same reason I like hip-hop: because it’s music for outsiders.

Interestingly, there’s a really interesting difference between hip-hop and metal that I’ve wanted to do some thinking on: while hip-hop and metal are both outsider music, hip-hop tends to know it’s enemy… while metal doesn’t. I mean, sure, a lot of hip-hop songs are about boogers or bling or partying or whatever, but when hip-hop gets political it gets downright *political:* whether it’s the white man, capitalism in general, another rapper, the mayor of new york city, or whatever, when hip-hop picks a fight it’s picking a goddamn fight. Metal music is also aggressive, but it tends to be aggressive… in general? Most metal, that I’ve listened to anyways, is aggressive and angry, but at no target in particular. I mean, look at anything by Metallica – nothing, not even the old stuff, is half as topical as Rage Against the Machine or Public Enemy. Doesn’t make it bad music or anything, just something interesting I’ve noticed.

The third thing I like about metal is that it really plumbs the depths of, well, depression and anger. No other genre explores the sounds of depression, frustration, and anger as deeply as metal does. Well, maybe some classical music does. I mean, yeah, other genres have some pretty sad songs, but I’ve never heard another genre that gets as downright /doomy/ as metal does.

Anyways those are just some ‘quick’ thoughts on reasons why I like metal! Hope you found them interesting, definitely let me know what you think too.