Hey there fellow n00b. Welcome. I'm a recovering veggie or vaguetarian. I just started to eat meat again for health reasons. But only if its organic and free-range and fish only if the species is not going to go extinct. And only once or twice a week. I'm glad to hear you're one of the not-in-your-face kind of veggies too. I hate it when fellow veggies keep shoving their ideals in other people's throats. I have sided with meat-eaters in discussion with those people.
I have heard of none of the bands you listed, so I guess that's a lot of new songs to discover for me