Your Personal Metal History

Trollheart · 11-06-2015, 05:48 AM

I just thought I'd start this as a kind of open "experience" thread for people to write about their interest in Metal. How you got into it, who your favourite bands are/were, the subgenres you were drawn to, the ones you weren't, your first gig, any metal musicians you met, albums you bought: anything really that kind of follows your history in appreciating Metal, or even that which set you on a course to stop liking it. Is there anything in the genre that you want to talk about, anything that affects/affected you now or then? Your view of how it's going/gone? Metal musicians who have passed on that you miss?

I might use this as part of Metal Month IV, I might not. But it would be interesting to hear how some of you got into Metal, why, if you're still into it as much or if your tastes have changed, etc etc.

Carpe Mortem · 11-06-2015, 11:54 AM

Roughly...

Ages 9-10 got more into 80s metal because a friend's dad was a huge slayer fan

10-11 got into numetal and gothic metal

11-12 started getting into compilations and grab bag playlists off napster, learning more bands. first taste of doom from a vampire playlist.

12-13 super into gothic metal and extreme metal like CoF

13-14 ****ed with death metal, still into gothic stuff

14-15 got into gothic doom, and some funeral doom

15-16 started exploring more doom, while simultaneously exploring more black metal and extreme stuff. really dug carpathian forest at the time.

16-17 got hot. metalhead guys wanted to talk to me. started listening to their ****ty tough guy metal like devildriver and stuff. did really enjoy some of it. remembered how awesome static-x is and got back into them

17-18 hardly did anything except party and sit on the internet. got into more underground extreme bands, more oriental metal, basically learned every ridiculous subgenre that exists. and drank a lot.

18-19 started craving more slow music, because I smoked a lot more pot. got into the more traditional doom, funeral doom and stuff still. listened to a lot of viking metal at the time as well.

19-20 met current bf, who's super into stoner stuff. got into stoner doom, and more 'guitar nerding' music. started enjoying some of the 80s traditional heavy metal, which I had thought was kid's stuff since I liked it as a kid.

20-21 super into stoner stuff, and trying to gain an appreciation for the forefathers of the bands I love. Still really dug trad doom. liked a lot of power metal, due to partying good time drinking stuff.

21-22 started missing extreme stuff. got into just the sickest most depraved bands I could find. started collecting dead animals.

22-23 somehwat of a hiatus from metal, aside from checking out a few new bands here and there. trying to expand my jazz, rock, flamenco tastes.

23-24 still expanding tastes. metal preferences remain amongst most doom subgenres, traditional heavy metal, black metal, oriental. listened to some of the weird **** you dorks post.

24-25

idfk. what's a genre?

Plankton · 11-06-2015, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carpe Mortem

...and more 'guitar nerding' music.

Terrapin_Station · 11-06-2015, 12:23 PM

I was born in the early 60s and became interested in music at a very young age--before I can remember really, as even as a baby/toddler, I was enchanted with it.

As a young kid, via elders who were musically savvy, I was very much into Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Cream, Iron Butterfly and so on--most of the "proto metal" stuff. Hendrix was my first concert, by the way.

I got into Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the like from their beginnings--again via elders at first, especially one of my uncles and my older sister.

When I was 12, in the mid 70s, I joined my first band, which was hard rock/early metal oriented. I continued to play in bands that had a hard rock/metal edge--though quickly we were incorporating progressive rock and jazz fusion influences, too--through the 80s, although increasingly during the 80s, I was working in a number of other genres as well.

My social circle loved and closely followed the NWOBHM bands and then the early thrash and crossover/hardcore bands.

By the time death metal, black metal, etc. came around, the genre wasn't clicking with me near as much as it had--I was more interested in the funk/groove metal thread, which eventually turned into nu metal--which I still like a lot. I like a lot of the more recent progressive metal artists though, and to an extent I like some technical death metal. Some subgenres started moving too far afield from relatively traditional songcraft for my tastes though--I want stuff that still focuses on harmony, melody, grooving rhythms, etc. Even though I like experimenting with those things, I want stuff that still has some relationship to them. And most stuff with an intentionally lo-fi/diy production aesthetic doesn't really click with me.

I still consider metal and hard rock a couple of my favorite genres, though, and I don't outgrow any music I used to like. But I have really broad tastes. There are 20-30 genres/subgenres I like at least as much, and that's been the case since I was a kid, really.

axstar713 · 11-06-2015, 03:34 PM

I was around 9 when I first got into metal, Speak Of The Devil had just come out and that was huge for me as it exposed me to Black Sabbath songs. I joined the old Columbia House music club where you'd send them a penny and get something like 10 or 12 cassettes or LP's , my favorites were the two Blizzard of Ozz albums and The Number Of The Beast - fast-forward to 1984 and Shout At The Devil came out...I vividly remember watching the Looks That Kill video on MTV for the first time and seeing Mick and Nikki with those BC Rich's - especially Mick's white Warlock - made me want to play guitar. When I found out Motley Crue AND Ozzy were touring together I asked my parents if I could go and thankfully they said yes, my step-dad took me and to this day that was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

I got into Maiden big-time, especially after Powerslave came out. WASP's first album was a big favorite of mine at the time so it was cool to see them open for Maiden on the World Slavery tour - got to see the SiT and Seventh Son tours, also. By junior high I was still listening to the same stuff but one day my friend Geoff passed me in the hall and told me I really needed to hear something and let me borrow his new tape - it was Peace Sells. That album blew me away, just an amazing album and a favorite of mine to this day. Same friend of mine showed me Reign In Blood - I'd heard of Slayer and read about them in Hit Parader or Circus and had seen their albums at the record store, but having grown-up in a Roman Catholic home they were in a whole other league like Venom and it is funny now, but they kind of spooked me. Regardless, I bought Reign In Blood and was blown-away. The cassette version had the entire album on both sides, I remember that was a trip as I'd never seen a tape like that but damn...the band was sick and I ended-up buying everything of theirs I could get my hands on.

By high school and the late 80s I was fully into thrash, I still listened to the other stuff - I was also big into stuff like Rush, Deep Purple, VH, and a lot of classic rock - but thrash was my favorite. I saw a lot of great shows during this time, Slayer with Motorhead and Overkill, Megadeth opening for Dio, Testament, Annihilator, Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and later the Clash of the Titans tour. By the early 90s and especially with the release of Metallica's Black album, I just got burnt-out and disliked the way the scene had changed. I still listened to my old stuff but it wasn't really until the early 2000s I got back into metal full-time. Now, I'm more a fan of death metal and constantly searching for new stuff in hopes that some band will pick up the banner and lead the charge, but for me, there is a lot of good stuff out but not a lot of great stuff like we saw in the 80s.

Chula Vista · 11-07-2015, 02:05 PM

Born 1960. It was Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Deep Purple by the time I was 10. The first Montrose album in 1973 was a game changer. Was heavily into prog when TNWOBHM hit so I never got major into Maiden or Priest, etc.

Loved the heavy hair metal stuff in the 80s because of the amazing guitar players in that genre. Mid late 80s I jumped on the Metallica train and played RTL, MOP, and AJFA to death. The black album was a major letdown and I jumped off the train.

I'll listen to just about anything heavy as **** these days as long as it's musically interesting/proficient and doesn't have cookie monster vocals.

The Batlord · 11-07-2015, 02:18 PM

Loved Limp Bizkit/Linkin Park/whatever when I was in middle school, around early '00s, but then I started listening to Metallica, which led me to Megadeth, who both led me to the Big Four and Iron Maiden, and then I read Sound of the Beast around my sophomore year of high school, and my education has been too much of a roller coaster since.

I was a mindless, hardcore thrash metal fan until my early twenties when I'd listened to one too many Slayer albums and found out that Lamb of God were pretty cool, and then I was into anything as shameful as Killswitch Engage or Trivium, but after a year or so of that I was back into the metal elitist fold and have been listening to thrash, heavy, death, black, etc metal ever since. The only blip on the radar in the past... five years(?) has been my recent conversion to grindcore.

And a couple of years ago I discovered that Manowar was the greatest band ever, so there's that.

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

n I read Sound of the Beast around my sophomore year of high school, and my education has been too much of a roller coaster since.

I wish that was available on Kindle. I've been looking for a "history of heavy metal" type book I could read on my phone. No luck though.

**Frownland** · 11-07-2015, 02:50 PM

I exited the womb to see my father wearing a goat's skull as a mask as he held a boombox playing Metallica. I listened to all of the classic metal bands along with nu and groove metal for my whole childhood. I started getting into the proggier side of metal during my late middle school/early high school years. When I started getting into experimental stuff that wasn't Mr. Bungle (been listening to them my whole life), it leaked into my metal influences with me listening to stuff like Naked City and Fantomas quite a bit. I got into black metal when I was 18 or 19 and that stuck with me. And now I'm here.

The Batlord · 11-07-2015, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I wish that was available on Kindle. I've been looking for a "history of heavy metal" type book I could read on my phone. No luck though.

Too bad that Russian site is dead, but you can find quite a bit of your **** here...

"sounds of the beast" download free. Electronic library. Finding books bookzz

This book will give you your Saxon and Dio obsession alongside Slayer, Celtic Frost, and Morbid Angel.

If you want to know what The Batlord built his original metal taste around, then Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal is your first and last stop. It's literally where I first figured out that there was a place after Slayer to start and stop.

Without it you might not be speaking to me right now.

11-06-2015, 05:48 AM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Your Personal Metal History I just thought I'd start this as a kind of open "experience" thread for people to write about their interest in Metal. How you got into it, who your favourite bands are/were, the subgenres you were drawn to, the ones you weren't, your first gig, any metal musicians you met, albums you bought: anything really that kind of follows your history in appreciating Metal, or even that which set you on a course to stop liking it. Is there anything in the genre that you want to talk about, anything that affects/affected you now or then? Your view of how it's going/gone? Metal musicians who have passed on that you miss? I might use this as part of Metal Month IV, I might not. But it would be interesting to hear how some of you got into Metal, why, if you're still into it as much or if your tastes have changed, etc etc. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-06-2015, 11:54 AM	#2 (permalink)
Carpe Mortem Crusher of tiny Nords Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Ugly Bag of Mostly Water Posts: 1,363	Roughly... Ages 9-10 got more into 80s metal because a friend's dad was a huge slayer fan 10-11 got into numetal and gothic metal 11-12 started getting into compilations and grab bag playlists off napster, learning more bands. first taste of doom from a vampire playlist. 12-13 super into gothic metal and extreme metal like CoF 13-14 **ed with death metal, still into gothic stuff 14-15 got into gothic doom, and some funeral doom 15-16 started exploring more doom, while simultaneously exploring more black metal and extreme stuff. really dug carpathian forest at the time. 16-17 got hot. metalhead guys wanted to talk to me. started listening to their ty tough guy metal like devildriver and stuff. did really enjoy some of it. remembered how awesome static-x is and got back into them 17-18 hardly did anything except party and sit on the internet. got into more underground extreme bands, more oriental metal, basically learned every ridiculous subgenre that exists. and drank a lot. 18-19 started craving more slow music, because I smoked a lot more pot. got into the more traditional doom, funeral doom and stuff still. listened to a lot of viking metal at the time as well. 19-20 met current bf, who's super into stoner stuff. got into stoner doom, and more 'guitar nerding' music. started enjoying some of the 80s traditional heavy metal, which I had thought was kid's stuff since I liked it as a kid. 20-21 super into stoner stuff, and trying to gain an appreciation for the forefathers of the bands I love. Still really dug trad doom. liked a lot of power metal, due to partying good time drinking stuff. 21-22 started missing extreme stuff. got into just the sickest most depraved bands I could find. started collecting dead animals. 22-23 somehwat of a hiatus from metal, aside from checking out a few new bands here and there. trying to expand my jazz, rock, flamenco tastes. 23-24 still expanding tastes. metal preferences remain amongst most doom subgenres, traditional heavy metal, black metal, oriental. listened to some of the weird you dorks post. 24-25 idfk. what's a genre? __________________ [SIG][/SIG] Mirth is King** Be Loving & Open With My Emotions

11-07-2015, 02:05 PM	#6 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	Born 1960. It was Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Deep Purple by the time I was 10. The first Montrose album in 1973 was a game changer. Was heavily into prog when TNWOBHM hit so I never got major into Maiden or Priest, etc. Loved the heavy hair metal stuff in the 80s because of the amazing guitar players in that genre. Mid late 80s I jumped on the Metallica train and played RTL, MOP, and AJFA to death. The black album was a major letdown and I jumped off the train. I'll listen to just about anything heavy as **** these days as long as it's musically interesting/proficient and doesn't have cookie monster vocals. __________________ “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

11-07-2015, 02:50 PM	#9 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	I exited the womb to see my father wearing a goat's skull as a mask as he held a boombox playing Metallica. I listened to all of the classic metal bands along with nu and groove metal for my whole childhood. I started getting into the proggier side of metal during my late middle school/early high school years. When I started getting into experimental stuff that wasn't Mr. Bungle (been listening to them my whole life), it leaked into my metal influences with me listening to stuff like Naked City and Fantomas quite a bit. I got into black metal when I was 18 or 19 and that stuck with me. And now I'm here. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

11-06-2015, 12:23 PM	#4 (permalink)
Terrapin_Station Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2015 Location: NYC Man Posts: 877	I was born in the early 60s and became interested in music at a very young age--before I can remember really, as even as a baby/toddler, I was enchanted with it. As a young kid, via elders who were musically savvy, I was very much into Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Cream, Iron Butterfly and so on--most of the "proto metal" stuff. Hendrix was my first concert, by the way. I got into Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the like from their beginnings--again via elders at first, especially one of my uncles and my older sister. When I was 12, in the mid 70s, I joined my first band, which was hard rock/early metal oriented. I continued to play in bands that had a hard rock/metal edge--though quickly we were incorporating progressive rock and jazz fusion influences, too--through the 80s, although increasingly during the 80s, I was working in a number of other genres as well. My social circle loved and closely followed the NWOBHM bands and then the early thrash and crossover/hardcore bands. By the time death metal, black metal, etc. came around, the genre wasn't clicking with me near as much as it had--I was more interested in the funk/groove metal thread, which eventually turned into nu metal--which I still like a lot. I like a lot of the more recent progressive metal artists though, and to an extent I like some technical death metal. Some subgenres started moving too far afield from relatively traditional songcraft for my tastes though--I want stuff that still focuses on harmony, melody, grooving rhythms, etc. Even though I like experimenting with those things, I want stuff that still has some relationship to them. And most stuff with an intentionally lo-fi/diy production aesthetic doesn't really click with me. I still consider metal and hard rock a couple of my favorite genres, though, and I don't outgrow any music I used to like. But I have really broad tastes. There are 20-30 genres/subgenres I like at least as much, and that's been the case since I was a kid, really.

11-06-2015, 03:34 PM	#5 (permalink)
axstar713 Los Cochinos Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 98	I was around 9 when I first got into metal, Speak Of The Devil had just come out and that was huge for me as it exposed me to Black Sabbath songs. I joined the old Columbia House music club where you'd send them a penny and get something like 10 or 12 cassettes or LP's , my favorites were the two Blizzard of Ozz albums and The Number Of The Beast - fast-forward to 1984 and Shout At The Devil came out...I vividly remember watching the Looks That Kill video on MTV for the first time and seeing Mick and Nikki with those BC Rich's - especially Mick's white Warlock - made me want to play guitar. When I found out Motley Crue AND Ozzy were touring together I asked my parents if I could go and thankfully they said yes, my step-dad took me and to this day that was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. I got into Maiden big-time, especially after Powerslave came out. WASP's first album was a big favorite of mine at the time so it was cool to see them open for Maiden on the World Slavery tour - got to see the SiT and Seventh Son tours, also. By junior high I was still listening to the same stuff but one day my friend Geoff passed me in the hall and told me I really needed to hear something and let me borrow his new tape - it was Peace Sells. That album blew me away, just an amazing album and a favorite of mine to this day. Same friend of mine showed me Reign In Blood - I'd heard of Slayer and read about them in Hit Parader or Circus and had seen their albums at the record store, but having grown-up in a Roman Catholic home they were in a whole other league like Venom and it is funny now, but they kind of spooked me. Regardless, I bought Reign In Blood and was blown-away. The cassette version had the entire album on both sides, I remember that was a trip as I'd never seen a tape like that but damn...the band was sick and I ended-up buying everything of theirs I could get my hands on. By high school and the late 80s I was fully into thrash, I still listened to the other stuff - I was also big into stuff like Rush, Deep Purple, VH, and a lot of classic rock - but thrash was my favorite. I saw a lot of great shows during this time, Slayer with Motorhead and Overkill, Megadeth opening for Dio, Testament, Annihilator, Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and later the Clash of the Titans tour. By the early 90s and especially with the release of Metallica's Black album, I just got burnt-out and disliked the way the scene had changed. I still listened to my old stuff but it wasn't really until the early 2000s I got back into metal full-time. Now, I'm more a fan of death metal and constantly searching for new stuff in hopes that some band will pick up the banner and lead the charge, but for me, there is a lot of good stuff out but not a lot of great stuff like we saw in the 80s.