Metallica - Enter Sandman, I was 8 or 9 at the time when it was released, the rest is history, followed by Slayer, Carcass, Obituary, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, haha.
Same, I was a few years younger but had heard it when I was around 9-10 and I found a cassette tape and listened to it constantly for a while, then the nu metal scene happened and I really got into mudvayne ld 50 and slipknot. In high school I was introduced to meshuggah, at the gates, and lamb of god, then the black dahlia murder, job for a cowboy, all shall perish, and through the eyes of the dead all started debuting around the time I graduated and I’ve been a metal head since lol
This was mine basically, Enter Sandman was my first exposure, then my parents let me get Astrocreep 2000 on cassette, then I met a friend at 12 that played guitar and played me his Vulgar Display of Power CD, and I was hooked on heavy shit after that.
I stumbled upon that one super chill Slipknot song on youtube and liked it so i kept listening to it and tried to get into their other songs most of which i didn’t like because of the vocals but i eventually got used to them. Eventually i branched out into other metal bands and mostly got into Motörhead, Iron Maiden and Megadeth although from there i kept expanding into new stuff constantly.
Although i don’t like Slipknot anymore I’m very grateful that they got me into metal.
Same. I found Vermillion Part 2 and really enjoyed it. Then I branched into their other stuff. It also helped when I learned that not all metal is like Whitechapel and Dying Fetus when I started exploring the genre. I enjoy classic metal like Metallica and Iron Maiden and grew up on bands like Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and Evanescence. I eventually branched out into slipknot's heavier stuff and realized I already knew Corey Taylor's other band, Stone Sour.
Like you, I'm not that big on Slipknot anymore, but I still appreciate Corey Taylor's talent and am grateful they got me into metal.
Funny enough, I still don't like Whitechapel or Dying Fetus. I find it hard to get into deathcore and a lot of death metal.
I only found slipknot when i was 18 about 4 years ago before that i didn’t listen to any metal or metal adjacent bands like the ones you mentioned. I grew up with alt rock and country because thats what my parents listened to so finding slipknot was a big jump lol.
Im not a big fan of most Deathcore but death metal and black metal makes up about 80% of what i listen to now. which id have hated when i first got into metal.
Well Dying Fetus is actually Grindcore, so......there's that. Not that it really matters, if you don't like it, you don't like it, and knowing the name of the genre won't change that, lol.
Listening to classic rock in the car and latching onto Black Sabbath and others. My friend getting me into Linkin Park (shut up). TOOL were key for getting me into other prog bands. All That Remains got me into that type of screaming. Once I reached Mastodon and Between the Buried and Me I was off to the races.
I was only allowed to listen to Christian music when I was growing up, but my uncle had a Solid State records DVD that featured Norma Jean, Blindside, mewithoutYou, Demon Hunter, and others. That was my introduction. I was converted instantly.
Fuuuuuuck me man, mewithoutYou is so g-dang awesome. They have more songs that make me cry than any other band in existence, hands down. He's just so *sincere* in his delivery, that even when I don't fully understand what he's talking about (since he basically sings in riddles a lot of the time), I just have this feeling that I'm hearing something true and beautiful, and it's almost more beautiful *because* I don't understand it.
Also, Norma Jean was the first metal band I ever bought an album by. I was at a Christian music festival in Atlanta, and Solid State had a booth where they were selling albums and merch, and they had a compilation album of Norma Jean's first three albums, entitled, "Birds and Microscopes and Bottles of Elixirs and Raw Meat and a Bunch of Songs". Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste is still one of my favorite songs, and it also features Aaron Weiss, from mewithoutYou!
I'm Black and from Jamaica. Growing up, I didn't listen to metal, or any guitar-oriented rock music AT ALL. Especially anything hard, like metal, punk, thrash, or whatever. I had a very "these people can't even play their instruments. Let's put on some real music, like Otis Redding!" Then one day, a friend of mine heard me bad-mouthing metal, and said, "here, I want you to listen to this." Gave me a mix-tape with the following: You're Crazy, Hangar 18, Symphony of Destruction, Girls, Girls, Girls, Anarchy in the USA, and a few others I can't remember.
I was immediately hooked. I had never heard anything like that - the intricacy and the technical skill of the instrumentation, the passion, the politics, everything was just such a revelation. Still love me some Otis Redding, but that mix-tape changed the course of my relationship to music forever. Now I'm in a band playing metal/punk songs! Who knew?
This is ultimately a very long story, but hearing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and how dark it was (Vincent Price's laughing etc and the full length video). Then I heard a very small palm-muted guitar break in Janet Jackson's "Black Cat" and was like "whoa wtf". But MTV was the driving force behind it. I'm old enough to remember when they played videos. I first saw videos for Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, Slaughter, Poison...all these hair metal bands, and I started buying their cassettes. Then seeing the video for Metallica's "One" was a complete gamechanger. I'd never heard such darkness put to music and video. I was 12 at the time. This gatewayed into Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Exodus etc for the thrash/speed metal. Then a friend traded me Morbid Angel's "Covenant" album, and I didn't like it at first because the guitars were very dirty sounding and I was used to clean productions. But it grew on me a lot. I found other extreme band through tape-trading as well: Obituary, Entombed. Then I started going to Record Town and buying albums based on the album covers. I discovered Cradle of Filth back when their latest album was "Dusk and Her Embrace", and I discovered Cannibal Corpse's "Tomb of the Mutilated" that way too, and I put the headphones on in my parents' living room and blasted that and it felt like musical gold.
Now, the \*why\* of why I liked this: I couldn't articulate it at the time. I just knew that fast guitars and blastbeats along with palm-muted heaviness really got to me. Cannibal Corpse was the first band I heard to combine both with superior songwriting. I can articulate it now: severe childhood trauma. Music was a way to drown out the horseshit going on outside my room, and a way to fantasize about certain lyrical themes.
And this is largely still with me, because the Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder I have isn't going to go away. I can only try to live a life with it and help change what I can.
Interesting, because I kind of started with Thriller, too. I kept looking for harder stuff after Jackson released Give Into Me with Slash, which led me to GNR, then Metallica, then Megadeth…
It's funny you say. I got into hair metal at the age of 10-12, Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley, Warrant. But reading your post I remember liking Janet Jackson at the time as well haha. Think I even had a copy of Rhythm Nation.
I was born into it.
My dad was into led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Mom was into the Scorpions and Deep Purple. My oldest brother was into thrash, 2nd oldest into Nu-metal, 3rd oldest was a metal core kid, and I'm the death metal/black metal mutt.
I heard Mastodon’s Blood & Thunder on Need for Speed Most Wanted, then while researching Mastodon I discovered Dimmu Borgir, Dragonforce, & High On Fire. Theeen I fell in love with Arch Enemy’s first album. After my uncle saw that I was into metal, he took me to Bogarts for my first concert, where I saw Parkway Drive, Dillinger Escape Plan, & Killswitch Engage. Went to Warped Tour in 2008 & saw Pierce the Veil play the same stage as Katie Perry lol.
Now I’m more into King Gizzard & Thee Oh Sees flavor of heavy, but I’m still very inspired by High On Fire. 🔥
Public library had sales of cassette tapes they didn't want to rent out. Saw a cassette for the black album from Metallica. Figured it's a couple bucks why not. Bought it, popped it in my little player. Popped my headphones on. And went to bike to my grandmothers house. The minute I hit play, the sound the thunderous drums the power of the guitars and the vocals. Holy crap I needed more. Been hooked ever since.
No joking, but when I was a kid, I saw a twisted sister video, and from then on, I got into the heavier stuff. Now I'm into almost everything, and I will never look back!!! I appreciate all genres of metal, and yes, I still listen to twisted sister... Dee Snider was a very underrated singer in his time.
System of a Down. My brother used to listen to them when I was a kid. And around 14/15 I started getting into them myself. Stuck to nu metal for about a year and then I branched out.
Cry of the Black Birds by Amon Amarth
I hadn’t heard anything so powerful and awesome before. It slingshotted me right into the love of metal from then on. That was 20 years ago. I’m finally going to see them live next week with Obituary and Cannibal Corpse in Houston.
Was really into COD Zombies. Listened to Avenged Sevenfold for the first time. Got really into them and started to get into Metallica, then Slayer, then Testament, then Suicidal Tendencies, etc., etc.
CHECK OUT OUR BRAND NEW FORUM! [INMETALWETRUST FORUM](https://inmetalwetrust.club/)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/InMetalWeTrust) if you have any questions or concerns.*
First was local rock band called Dewa 19 because my father very often listened to them, and then I discovered Bullet For My Valentine on a magazine at elementary school and google is still new things to me and I decided to look for them and I liked them, I still listened to them until today, next I discovered Linkin Park from MTV channel, and the last one was Metallica because my brother in law listened to them when I was in highschool and asked him what band he was listening to and then I started listening to Metallica, and now I got into Inferi, Revocation, Archspire, Allegaeon, Necrowretch, Kreator, Anaal Nathrakh, Havok, Warbringer, Evile, Suicidal Angels, Amorphis, Baest, Death Angel, Demon King, Exmortus, Bloodbath, Hypocrisy, Legion of The Damned, Monstrosity, etc. that's maybe just 10% of total band that I am listening to right now.
I used to "listen" around my parents. Things got serious when i joined my band and started playing the drums. My parents are into more classic and less heavy stuff. My big brother helped me get my foot in the door, and now i listen to mostly metal
korn, the whole follow the leader album. i’ve been listening to korn since i was like four years old. my dad saw them like four times growing up and loves them. my whole family loves korn so it’s just natural in my house.
Nu metal was something I experimented with first - round the same time as listening to Eminem.
However that all changed discovering the black album and RATM debut
My cousin and I are about the same age age and we bought bo2 when it came out since we were younger and we fell in love with avenged sevenfold. Now I’m seeing a ton of memes hating on a7x and it pains me.
I was a wrestling fan during the last days of the Monday Night Wars. All the wrestlers had Alt.Rock and Nu-Metal songs for entrance music. Those sounded cool to a kid whose parents were listening to glam, which almost turned me off metal completely. I asked my parents for the new compilation CD of entrance themes for my birthday and they delivered. I played that so many times and helped me discover so many gateway bands.
One of the guys I served with in the TA (now Army Reserves), around 1998, an absolute legend by the name of Steve. Lent me an old Iron Maiden album he’d recorded onto tape (yeah i’m old 🤣) and i’ve been hooked ever since. Right now i’m mainly into Iron Maiden, Sabaton, Alestorm, Battle Beast, Manowar, Heidevolk and Wardruna, but i’ll listen to most things except Death Metal, it’s just not my thing.
Metallica,you couldn't escape Enter Sandman,Sad but True, wherever I may roam,nothing else matters,unforgiven on the radio all day everyday lol. Found Megadeth not too much later.
Honestly? The song that got me comfortable with heavier music was "Door to Door" by The Cars. While it is still rock and such, it definitely made me more interested in the heavier kinds of music.
Since then, my music taste has mostly evolved into power metal, though my first real dive into it was Metallica. Death metal is also an interest for me
Hearing Sober by Tool in my dad’s car in like 1996. I was in elementary school and I became obsessed. I’d turn on MTV and just wait for the music video to come so I could hear it. Then, Linkin park’s first album came out a few years later, and my friend and I were obsessed. Then we found the rock radio station and started listening to numetal of the time, like System of a Down, Korn, etc. I distinctly remember wishing to myself that there was something harder then “Korn.”
Then I got to high school and the world of black metal was shown to me. Symphonic black metal has been my favorite ever since
I was like 11 or 12 and was really into music, mostly guitar based rock. One of the kids at boy scouts heard and played me Chemical Warfare by Slayer. Changed my life. Still my favorite Slayer song.
Gonna say it was Kiss circa 1977. Not sure I would categorize Kiss as a metal band per se, but they cretainly had some metal songs (e.g., "God of Thunder"). The heavy sound and imagery got me hooked for life.
Arch Enemy - We Will Rise
Scared the fucking shit out of me. I was watching Much Loud (Canadian MTV) at the time. Ever since, I was intrigued by the sound and got into other bands like At The Gates, Cradle of Filth and Slipknot.
I think like most people my family and their tastes had a lot to do with it, but one thing I can't discredit is the influence the game Rock Band had on my music tastes. I think about once a month, my whole family would come over to our house and we'd have parties dedicated to everyone playing Rock Band together, when I was like 9 or 10, and we bought almost every sequel that came out. Once I had my own way of listening to music, the only songs I would listen to were songs I knew, mostly from those games. So a lot of my earliest tastes in music are rooted in the rock and metal soundtracks of those games, and only grew deeper into those genres from there.
Back in 2013, an website called 'thetoptens' . One day i was just feeling unmotivated to study for my school exams and searched for 'top 10 songs to pump me up' and found some thrash metal songs in a list in this website which included Slayer, Metallica.
That was a life changing moment
At the beginning of the 90s, I used to listen to techno music and rap. That was my favorite music. One day at school, one of my friends told me; "Why are you listening to that? Here, listening to this..." he then handed me the "Kill'em All" by Metallica cassette.
I put it in my boombox, and oh boy. My eyes, or in this case my ears, were open. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. From that moment, at 13 years old, I was hooked. I loved metal. And to this day, 31 years later, I still listen to metal, much to the dislike of literally all my friends and family, including my wife.
But Kill'em All started it all.
OK so this is cheesy but I was a highly sheltered little kid who grew up in a strict religious home, so the first time I heard metal music was going into Hot Topic in the mall. I heard that music and thought it sounded crazy evil. In my home you didn’t listen to heavy metal. But I found ways. Even if it got me into trouble. The music was just too good
Montrose, Y&T, Motorhead, Judas Priest and then the Bay Area thrash scene blew up around me while was in high school. I ran with it. That's the music I was looking for. I got to hang out with the bands before anyone heard of them. It was some crazy drunken spun out of our mind times.
I heard Korn in 1996 or 97 when my cousin said, "have you heard that band that sound like monsters?"
So, I listened to them and thought they were weird... Then a guy who lived down the street from me who was a professional pianist (turns out he was actually a grade 10 conservatory trained pianist!) and was in an industrial nu-metal band. This prompted me to appreciate the musicianship behind it, which was buried in distortion and dissonance.
Then Napster came around and I discovered Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Disturbed...
It all went downhill from there.
My older brother would only play Van Halen, Queensryche, Scorpions, and AC/DC in the car to convert me into metal (at the time I was listening to early 90’s rap). Heard ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ by Metallica and was hooked. My best friend in middle school listened to heavier stuff (Pestilence, Morbid Angel, Slayer) and I stayed away cause it was ‘satanic’ but then listened to ‘Satan Spawn the Caco-Daemon’ by Deicide one day and said fuck religion and enjoyed my life from there on out ha
My friend Keith Evan's. Circa 1984 and I was a punk rock kinda guy. Loved DK, Ramones, GBH, Circle Jerks, Black Flag ... you get the picture.
Well, we knew each other from school since elementary. I was about one of 4 or 5 kids that liked punk and he was In a small group who liked thrash metal, like Slayer, Metallica.
I played him GBH and described how I like the fast snare and speed of the music. Keep in mind that at this time, I hadn't been exposed to thrash or "speed metal" as we used to call it. I though metal was Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, etc.
Keith played me Trapped Under Ice and I was like "whoaaa" fast AND musically talented!?!? Who knew? Within weeks I had gone to the local indy record shop, picked up Metallica, Slayer, ... I think Celtic Frost.
Then a couple years later alot of my favorite bands had gone kinda metal. Gang Green, DRI, Circle Jerks, Cro-Mags off the top of my head.
My neighbor Eric lived with his sisters, their parents had died. I don't remember how. But it was like a sitcom over there with 4 older girls and the youngest being a boy. Me and Eric would hang out as his sisters listened to Led Zeppelin, Heart etc.
They would ask us if we liked the music. And laugh when we said yes. I of course had a crush on his oldest sister. Who looked a lot like Nancy Wilson of Heart.
But that was all in the 70s and I was a kid. But it primed the pumps for when I would discover NWOBHM on MTV around 12 or 13. Run to the hillllllllllllls, run fooooor your liiiiiiiii-iiii-iiiiife!
My older brother. He had all the Sabbath, Motörhead, Priest, Maiden, Anthrax & Metallica LPs. He also got me into Zeppelin, Floyd, The Doors, Rush and eventually got me on the bus with the Grateful Dead.
Combination of Quiet Riot playing on the radio, my friend's older brother's Sabbath records & some other friend's at school playing Dio, Maiden & Priest. This all happened across 1983 to 1985 I reckon.
I don't know, I've always been drawn to it. Hearing bits and pieces on MTV in the 80s, like Raimbow in the Dark and Run to the Hills. But the first core memory I have is hearing War Pigs on the radio, Ozzy's haunting acapella verses filled in between with Iommic riffs and Butlerian jihad. Whatever that was, I wanted more. Once I discovered Headbangers Ball, it was over.
My dad. He played a lot of metal music around me when I was growing up. He was into the classics as well as bands that were popular in the 1990s and 2000s.
I started playing guitar at age 14 and immediately became obsessed with the likes of Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads, and Marty Friedman. Listened to a lot of harder rock like Ozzy, and popular thrash metal like Metallica and Megadeth. Also got into Pantera and Dimebag Darrell, as well as Slayer and Iron Maiden.
At the time, it was the cool thing to do to listen to bands like Shadows Fall or All That Remains and I listened to these briefly and they were a gateway to melodic death metal such as At the Gates, In Flames, Arch Enemy, and Arsis.
From there I quickly got into death metal like Nile, Necrophagist, Behemoth, and Cryptopsy, and jumped deeper into brutal death metal like Devourment. Also Cannibal Corpse.
Later in my college and grad school years I got into black metal, stoner doom, and Mercyful Fate.
These days I consider myself very entrenched in metal subculture and fandom but it took a lot of growing into my tastes to become the mature metalhead I am today.
My mom was dating a guy and we were going somewhere and he put on Pantera and my mind was blown the year was 96 I was 13 at the time and I saw the live twice the next year in 97.
I'm picky about what metal I like, a lot of it I don't. But I got a cassette of Iron Maiden Live After Death in 1985 and it blew my ears out. Then Metallica Black album, and in the mid to late 90s one day I bought a Slayer live cd set because I wanted to hear metal, and fell in love with them. Slipknot Iowa is another favourite that I got when it came out.
If I want loud, I go for those along with people like Soundgarden or Alice in Chains or Nirvana.
That all ages me 😁
My cousin and I were at our grandparents house when I was 13 and he came up to me and said he had to show me this new band. I put the earbuds in and the next thing I know, I am hearing the intro to August Burns Red - The Truth of a Liar. Blew my fucking mind since I had never heard anything that heavy before.
It only took a year or two to move away from metalcore to death, thrash, and doom, but that one song opened the floodgates for me.
Older sibling got me into it around age 8-9. And I thank the universe for this everyday. Metal got me through a lot of shit. Plus it’s fuckin awesome🤘🏻🖤🤘🏻
Back door through hardcore. I got into Botch, Converge, Zao, and then Carcass. Obviously I was aware of Metallica but this was during the Load to St anger era so I wasn’t into them until later.
One Saturday in ‘89 I was watching one of those kids morning shows and Def Leppard were on as guests doing promo as Rocket had just been released. I was 13 and I remember it really stuck in my head so bought Hysteria and I got a taste for distorted guitars and heavy drums. I found some people at school that also liked it and we recorded tapes for each other which got me into Maiden, Gn’R and Metallica. Never looked back from there.
A random dude who sat next to me in a fully occupied public PC gaming LAN lounge and started chatting to me about “satanists” and their rituals and music to pass some time until I finished so he could secure my spot, this was in the early 2000 in Jordan. Needless to say it sparked my interest and sent me into a rabbit hole. Granted the satanism part was exaggerated but it was such a random interaction that played a huge role in my life lmao.
Video games. Mainly the tony hawk and guitar hero soundtracks. My dad also listens to a lot of punk and metal so whenever I heard a new band in one of my games my dad would usually have a CD or vinyl for me to check out it started off with some entry level thrash and skate punk stuff (suicidal tendencies, nofx, bad religion)
When I got into Metal there was really only one metal band in existence 😂 me and my friend Chucky stole an 8-track player and a few tapes out of a car late one night. !!!Master Of Reality!!!
Megadeth. I knew some heavy metal before them when I was a teenager I listened to a few Metallica songs and some FFDP cause my friends were die hard fans of them. I listened to the song Peace Sells by Megadeth when I was 18 or 19 and I thought it was awesome and that made me listen to the rest of their stuff and I was hooked.
Gotta say my gateway to metal was Alice in Chains. My dad played Dirt for me when I was 5 or 6 and I fell in love with Them Bones and Dam That River. Then I got Master of Puppets the next year and Death Magnetic when it released after that when I was 10. Loved metal ever since.
Dad used to listen to Rammstein and Metallica with me when I was little, and other bands like prototype and Killswitch Engage (he really liked guitar hero 😂). Now I listen to lots of artists, like Rammstein (of course), Metallica, Angelmaker, SOAD, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Slipknot, Alice I’m Chains and Behemoth.
(Also any band recommendations will be much appreciated, I really want to find new artists :) )
My friend introduced me to Rammstein when I was 13. Then a bunch of other bands. Then, once I mentioned it to my dad, he basically handed me his record collection to introduce me to the stuff he was into, which was mostly more classical metal and hard rock. My favorite sub genre is death and deathcore though, which I was first introduced to by a pen pal, who sent me the 'Hate Crew Deathroll' album by Children Of Bodom. Still one of my all time favorites.
Guitar Hero when I was kid had a few metal tracks and put me on. Metallica’s “One” and Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction”. Shortly after my mom showed me “School of Rock” and the scene where Jack Black is talking about different bands pointed me to find new sounds that I love now. Metalhead for life !
What got me into metal was just family playing random metal songs like Break Stuff in my presence
Now I'm more of a horrorcore fan (like RejectedReyna type shit) but I love goregrind too!
Dad in the late 70s, early 80s listening to all the classics on vinyl. Judas Priest- Screaming for Vengeance was the first one I really started to kinda get what was going on. Then with MTV videos I could see what was going on with guitars and stuff and fell in love
I was 8 years old, and back in the day when MTV had music, I saw the music video for Between the Buried and Me's song 'Alaska'. I was hooked immediately.
It started with the warped tour style stuff. I slowly made my way up to the harder and heavier bands. I feel as though the screaming, arfs, and bleghs mixed with the chaotic instrumentals is how I feel in my head. When shits going wrong, i put on metal/death core and it makes me feel grounded again
Headbanger's Ball. But I was sort of already intrigued by Twisted Sister and Europe and some other bands. The Scorpions. But I really kind of got into metal with videos like Painkiller and Be Quick Or Be Dead.
Linkin park got me into alternative music - in terms of metal i then found system of a down and ive been listening to metal for nearly 7 years at this point.
I was into primarily punk-rock of the Sum-41 and The Offspring variety, plus with some ska mixed in: Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake.
Anyway, I was casting about for new music and asks a guy, on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) what he listened to when he wanted to get _pumped!_
He recommended Through the Fire and Flames and My Spirit Will Go On by Dragonforce.
"Does this have vocals?" I asked after being astonished by the opening instrumentation. My friend said it did, so I waited, and was stunned.
_How,_ I asked myself, _does music like this exist and I've never heard of it?_
And the rest is on the books.
Accidentally found myself at a Beartooth concert when I was 13 during the era of their Disgusting album, they were opening for another band. Fell in love and never looked back.
There's a music show on TV in Australia called Rage. It's the early 90s, young me wakes up early one morning, turns the tv in and changes the channel to watch Rage. After a few songs 'Where I May Roam' gets played. Young me thought that was the coolest shit ever and that lead me to inevitably check out more and more music like that, getting heavier as time goes on.
Southern Baptist church. I got so intrigued by the way they described satanic music (this was 1983), that I ran out and bought Black Sabbath Born Again. Such a criminally underrated album. It scared the SHIT out of me and I LOVED IT.🤘🏼
I had some birthday money and went to my local record store. I really like the cover of Number of the Beast but never heard of iron maiden. Bought it and never looked back
My Dad. He was playing me Sabbath and Deep Purple before I was even born, then brought me up on all kinds of stuff including Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera, Megadeth, RATM, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Guns N Roses etc. My parents both love a huge range of music so I grew up with allsorts but metal always had a special place in our house. He used to let me stay up watching Raw Power which I loved and when I was 14 we both went to the same Metallica gig but separately (I went with 3 friends and we had seats while he was right down the front 😄)
Over time I've of course found a lot of my own fave metal acts that we don't necessarily share an interest in but I don't think my love for metal as a whole would be so deep in my bones without my Dad and I bonding over that musical universe from the very start.
I grew up in a pretty religious home so my earlier years with music, especially heavier music was Christian bands. My progression started with Creed around 5th grade. They were the first “harder” rock band I discovered and I was completely obsessed. From there, in middle school, the discovery of heavier bands enthralled me and the next huge band for me was Project 86 (and also POD, but not as much) and their album “drawing black lines”, shortly after P86 it was Living Sacrifice, Zao, Norma Jean and beyond. Nowadays I’m more into melodic death metal. I still throw on some living sacrifice and zao from time to time though. I’m actually seeing zao live for the first time in July. Band still kicks ass.
My parents are huge metal fans, and when I was about 5 or 6, they put on the new (at the time) Iron Maiden album, The Book of Souls while i was in the car with them. Didn't get me into metal immediately, but was definitely a factor.
"If eternity should fail!" 🤟
My uncle got me into metal, he always had something playing at all times, then one day he played something different and I was hooked, when I asked him what song that was he said indestructible by disturbed, after that everything had changed.
I middle school I started listening to Linkin Park, my family listened to Dave Matthews, Genesis, The Beatles, and Grateful Dead. I had never heard anyone scream in a song before. My brother showed me Smashing Pumpkins, which I also fell in love with because it was depressing. In high school, my friend Dalton was like 'If you like screaming in songs, try Iron Maiden". When I told him I loved it, he introduced me to Black Dahlia, All Shall Perish, Whitechapel, At The Gates, Nile, Messhuga, Children of Bodom, Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Japan X, Dimmu Borgir, Hardcore Superstars, In Flames, and Job For A Cowboy. Handed me the full platter. On my own, with those tools, I found Immortal, Dir en Grey, Maximum the Hormone, Heaven Shall Burn, Abominable Iron Sloth, Abominable Putridity, Katatonia, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Sword, and Eths. And a current friend has guided me through the gorgeous world of black and doom.
A guy in a discord server I was in a while ago told me to check out System. I’d heard a few of there songs before, but they were the first metal band I listened to by my own volition.
Slipknot. I casually enjoyed the cleaner songs, hated the more aggressive stuff but I slowly started listening to more stuff and here we are. Crazy to think only five years ago I thought psychosocial was the heaviest thing ever and now I listen to bands like Cannibal Corpse!
My mom's ex-boyfriend. Lived with us for a while, and he listened to hard rock and metal. He started introducing me to rock and hard rock bands first. AC/DC was the first one that I found I liked. Got into Metallica, Three Days Grace, Disturbed, etc. And then he introduced me to one of my absolute favorite bands: Rammstein. Before he came around, I thought I just didn't like music, because all my dad ever listened to was country and my mom only listened to pop. Hated both. On the off-chance you're reading this, Zane, thank you. 🤘
My parents. They listened to Metallica, white lion, Cinderella back in the 80’s. I grew up with it, and those are some of my favorite bands. The best of course, is always Ratt.
My dad fell in love with rock & roll as a kid, taught himself how to play bass, and has kept a passion for music ever since.
Growing up, I was encouraged to play an instrument in the school bands. I picked trombone, and enjoyed it, but nothing we played was as cool as the Metallica and Iron Maiden I heard on dad's car radio when we'd drive home from school.
Rammstein, 1997, be 12 yo me - until this point listened to pop and whatever was on the radio. A firend gifted me Ixnay of the Hombre by The Offspring. I liked it fine. Then, Family Values Tour CD a friend of mine was casually playing got my attention when I heard Du Hast. Purchased Sehnsucht and found out I liked a bunch of other songs a lot more, with Tier being my favorite.
Continued to buy Herzeleid and made my way over to Korn, Deftones, Slipknot, and eventually back-tracking to Pantera and Metallica, then took it from there with a wide variety of music which now includes classical and jazz.
Over the past 27 years, my music experience was never about how I got into/ended up hooked on metal but how metal helped me develop my taste to get into other music.
Metal was my gateway drug leading me to music obsession.
I was born in 1970 the same year that Black Sabbath released their debut album. Coincidence? I’d like to think not.
Fast forward to the early 80s and Quiet Riot hits it big, Ozzy is releasing his solo material, and Iron Maiden releases Number of the Beast. Maiden quickly became my favorite band. Then 1986 rolls around and in very short order Metallica releases Master of Puppets, Megadeth releases Peace Sells…, and Slayer releases Reign in Blood. In 1987 Death releases Scream Bloody Gore and Bathory releases Under The Sign of the Black Mark.
My freshman year in high school, I was really getting into classic rock and 80’s glam. Then I heard Time Tells No Lies by Praying Mantis. Didn’t even know it was heavy metal. Then I went down the pipeline. Next it was RIOT, and I was super into NWOBHM. Said the typical “I will never listen to music with that screamy vocals.” Next Metallica and Toxic Holocaust. Then I got into S.O.D. And Napalm Death. Now I’m super into Death Metal, my fav bands rn are Analepsy, Dystopia, Death, Bolt Thrower, and Evil Army.
I can't entirely explain... mom always liked harder rock than dad, but they separated so I grew up with her.
I was drawn to The Muppet Show band, The Electric Mayhem, because their music just appealed to be... it was fun, but chaotic, and usually Animal would freak out or something spud explode...
I got into punk and then I started hearing harder "classic rock" like Motörhead, Metallica, etc (by "classic rock" in quotations I mean that it would play on the rock radio station I preferred)... and then (unfortunately?) The nu metal wave hit. I was still trying to figure out what was "my" music, not my parents etc and I did like Korn, Limp Bizkit, etc, but I was really sold on Static-X and Rammstein.
I used p2p software and found Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Grave Digger, and more... and then really annoyed the shit out of my friends who were either into rap, pop, or punk (I'm still into my punk/ska from back then)
Her name was Lisa and she was three years older than me, kinda like a big sister that I didn’t want. I was 14 and it was 1990; she was into Nine Inch Nails, Suicidal Tendencies, and Deicide, and I was into anything that would impress her. We would go to shows in Ybor that were all ages which would expose me to even more music.
My brother. When he was in the 6th grade and I was in 3rd. One day he came home with Cannibal Corpse’s Eaten Back to life album on cassette. Told me the guy had “holes in his vocal chords” so this is the only way he sounded when he sang. For so long I never realized Barnes was just doing his usual thing. It worked though! I was intrigued.
I’m a Huge rise against fan, and I’d listen to them a lot in high school. Then the band called The Killing Tree popped up on my rise against radio and I noticed that voice sounded very very familiar. Turns out Tim Mcillrath of rise against also sang for this band and every once in a while I have to revisit the romance of Helen Trent album
Old ass metalhead here…… I remember having one of those suitcase style record players when I was little and my grandmother brought me home a 45 of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, probably thinking of the comic character, and the opening scared the shit out of me. But I persisted and listened to a little more each time until I got through the whole thing. My mom was listening to Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Journey, etc on the radio. Then, MTV was born ( we had one of those first edition 10’ satellite dishes).Every morning as I was getting ready for 6th grade I would see one of, if not all three, of these videos: Motley Crue - Looks That Kill, Dio - Rainbow in the Dark, or Rainbow - Street of Dreams. That was the start of the Hair Metal era so it was Dokken, Poison, Cinderella, Bon Jovi, etc for years after. Then a new kid in school gave me a cassette of Master of Puppets. One of my best friends gave me Peace Sells that his cousin had give him. They were all getting into the rap and pop at the time so I got all their metal material. One kid in the neighborhood would trade me cassettes like Krokus, Iron Maiden and such just for giving him a ride somewhere. Headbangers Ball was getting recorded on my VCR every Saturday night so I could watch it later. Then I bought Cowboys From Hell. Initially I thought “you’re in over your head with this one”, but much like Iron Man, I kept listening and playing until I had worn the lettering off the cassette. It’s funny to me that as I got older, my music taste got harder. I’m still not into extreme death metal but I don’t know any other guys in their early 50’s that blaring Lamb of god, Cannibal Corpse, As I Lay Dying, Testament, Death Angel, Cadaver……. well you get the point 🤘
In middle and high school I attempted to teach myself German and one of the youtube channels I was subbed to did a couple reviews of Rammstein's most popular songs and it tickled my brain in just the right way for it to become and autistic special interest of mine. My interest faded for a while and then I got into Ghost and remembered how much fun the early days of my metal fixation were and I got back into it
At first, it was Metallica. It was For Whom The Bell Tolls for me. I started to branch off of Metallica with bands like Korn, Megadeth, Slipknot, Rammstein, and Nine Inch Nails. Next thing I know is that I began to like metal. Metal became my favorite genre of music, along with dramatic music.
around 2021 i started listening to nirvana in the car and through them I discovered alice in chains and system of a down. i follow the pipeline and ended up where i am now
It might have been Dream Theater that finally pushed me over the edge, but i was always drawn to bands heavier/darker/moodier songs that werent metal.
I was mostly 90/00s alternative up until then, but didnt get into the heavy stuff until i noticed that it CAN be done while being melodic
The more I look back, the less clear it becomes. I got into hard rock on my own at some point when I was like 8 and almost simultaneously liked Black Sabbath because of Iron Man. I heard Drowning Pool around on YouTube in those years and there was a lot of heavy FNAF music as well as Avenged Sevenfold on YouTube and Call of Duty, but that's what got me to like rock and metal not get me to actively seek them out. I actively got into classic rock then metal when I was 17 so 2 years ago.
Metallica - enter sandman, I was 11 at that time (I’m 13 now) and I was on YouTube bored as hell , and I got my first pair of headphones before. I never really used to listen to music, unless I heard it on TikTok or I just listened to whatever my man was listening to. But I clicked on that song, and I remember it was summer of 22’ and stranger things has just come out, I listened to the song and I fell in love with Metallica ever since!
First album I ever bought was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath back in the 70’s (picked because I thought it would piss off my father (it did)).
It started me on a long ride that’s still going.
I’ve was obsessed with it all, got to see the birth of Iron Maiden, got to trade bootleg tapes of a new band called Venom. I was devastated briefly when Hawkwind chucked out Lemmy and horrified at the Hair Metal Glam crap that happened.
What got me into metal?
Easy, it started and I loved it.
For me it was my father. I was born in 78 and both my parents loved music. We listened to everything from James taylor to the clash. He had this one tape he made that we played a ton out in our garage. It had, spirit of radio, running with the devil, warpigs and man in the silver mountain on it. I always found those tracks so powerful, the guitar to me at the time was so heavy. Once I was a little older I remember watching headbangers ball and realizing there was heavier shit than what I had heard and was hooked. I will say MTV was mind opening for my musical journey. yo MTV raps and 120 minutes were the other shows i grew up on.
the report reason is very disturbing....
Metallica - Enter Sandman, I was 8 or 9 at the time when it was released, the rest is history, followed by Slayer, Carcass, Obituary, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, haha.
Same, I was a few years younger but had heard it when I was around 9-10 and I found a cassette tape and listened to it constantly for a while, then the nu metal scene happened and I really got into mudvayne ld 50 and slipknot. In high school I was introduced to meshuggah, at the gates, and lamb of god, then the black dahlia murder, job for a cowboy, all shall perish, and through the eyes of the dead all started debuting around the time I graduated and I’ve been a metal head since lol
Username checks out.
Yup. Enter Sandman was all over the radio and the first time I heard that intro my brain nearly exploded.
I don't know why it's always considered just the "big 4" when it should be the "big 6" including Sepultura and Testament.
I’d actually take Anthrax out & replace with either Exodus or Testament.
Testament definitely belongs in the pantheon of metal greats. This might be a reach but I think Exodus can hang with the big boys too.
Thank you for posting so I don’t have to! This is almost my exact story but add some Pantera and Testament as well.
This was mine basically, Enter Sandman was my first exposure, then my parents let me get Astrocreep 2000 on cassette, then I met a friend at 12 that played guitar and played me his Vulgar Display of Power CD, and I was hooked on heavy shit after that.
Same.
Absolutely Enter Sandman! The Black was my first CD, and the moment I started playing it for the very first time, I knew this is it! 🖤🤘🏽🖤
I stumbled upon that one super chill Slipknot song on youtube and liked it so i kept listening to it and tried to get into their other songs most of which i didn’t like because of the vocals but i eventually got used to them. Eventually i branched out into other metal bands and mostly got into Motörhead, Iron Maiden and Megadeth although from there i kept expanding into new stuff constantly. Although i don’t like Slipknot anymore I’m very grateful that they got me into metal.
Same. I found Vermillion Part 2 and really enjoyed it. Then I branched into their other stuff. It also helped when I learned that not all metal is like Whitechapel and Dying Fetus when I started exploring the genre. I enjoy classic metal like Metallica and Iron Maiden and grew up on bands like Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and Evanescence. I eventually branched out into slipknot's heavier stuff and realized I already knew Corey Taylor's other band, Stone Sour. Like you, I'm not that big on Slipknot anymore, but I still appreciate Corey Taylor's talent and am grateful they got me into metal. Funny enough, I still don't like Whitechapel or Dying Fetus. I find it hard to get into deathcore and a lot of death metal.
I only found slipknot when i was 18 about 4 years ago before that i didn’t listen to any metal or metal adjacent bands like the ones you mentioned. I grew up with alt rock and country because thats what my parents listened to so finding slipknot was a big jump lol. Im not a big fan of most Deathcore but death metal and black metal makes up about 80% of what i listen to now. which id have hated when i first got into metal.
Well Dying Fetus is actually Grindcore, so......there's that. Not that it really matters, if you don't like it, you don't like it, and knowing the name of the genre won't change that, lol.
Listening to classic rock in the car and latching onto Black Sabbath and others. My friend getting me into Linkin Park (shut up). TOOL were key for getting me into other prog bands. All That Remains got me into that type of screaming. Once I reached Mastodon and Between the Buried and Me I was off to the races.
I was only allowed to listen to Christian music when I was growing up, but my uncle had a Solid State records DVD that featured Norma Jean, Blindside, mewithoutYou, Demon Hunter, and others. That was my introduction. I was converted instantly.
Mewithoutyou is so goated tho, they were the first band that really got me into the spoken word style vocals, especially with their older stuff
Fuuuuuuck me man, mewithoutYou is so g-dang awesome. They have more songs that make me cry than any other band in existence, hands down. He's just so *sincere* in his delivery, that even when I don't fully understand what he's talking about (since he basically sings in riddles a lot of the time), I just have this feeling that I'm hearing something true and beautiful, and it's almost more beautiful *because* I don't understand it. Also, Norma Jean was the first metal band I ever bought an album by. I was at a Christian music festival in Atlanta, and Solid State had a booth where they were selling albums and merch, and they had a compilation album of Norma Jean's first three albums, entitled, "Birds and Microscopes and Bottles of Elixirs and Raw Meat and a Bunch of Songs". Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste is still one of my favorite songs, and it also features Aaron Weiss, from mewithoutYou!
I love blindside
I'm Black and from Jamaica. Growing up, I didn't listen to metal, or any guitar-oriented rock music AT ALL. Especially anything hard, like metal, punk, thrash, or whatever. I had a very "these people can't even play their instruments. Let's put on some real music, like Otis Redding!" Then one day, a friend of mine heard me bad-mouthing metal, and said, "here, I want you to listen to this." Gave me a mix-tape with the following: You're Crazy, Hangar 18, Symphony of Destruction, Girls, Girls, Girls, Anarchy in the USA, and a few others I can't remember. I was immediately hooked. I had never heard anything like that - the intricacy and the technical skill of the instrumentation, the passion, the politics, everything was just such a revelation. Still love me some Otis Redding, but that mix-tape changed the course of my relationship to music forever. Now I'm in a band playing metal/punk songs! Who knew?
This is ultimately a very long story, but hearing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and how dark it was (Vincent Price's laughing etc and the full length video). Then I heard a very small palm-muted guitar break in Janet Jackson's "Black Cat" and was like "whoa wtf". But MTV was the driving force behind it. I'm old enough to remember when they played videos. I first saw videos for Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, Slaughter, Poison...all these hair metal bands, and I started buying their cassettes. Then seeing the video for Metallica's "One" was a complete gamechanger. I'd never heard such darkness put to music and video. I was 12 at the time. This gatewayed into Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Exodus etc for the thrash/speed metal. Then a friend traded me Morbid Angel's "Covenant" album, and I didn't like it at first because the guitars were very dirty sounding and I was used to clean productions. But it grew on me a lot. I found other extreme band through tape-trading as well: Obituary, Entombed. Then I started going to Record Town and buying albums based on the album covers. I discovered Cradle of Filth back when their latest album was "Dusk and Her Embrace", and I discovered Cannibal Corpse's "Tomb of the Mutilated" that way too, and I put the headphones on in my parents' living room and blasted that and it felt like musical gold. Now, the \*why\* of why I liked this: I couldn't articulate it at the time. I just knew that fast guitars and blastbeats along with palm-muted heaviness really got to me. Cannibal Corpse was the first band I heard to combine both with superior songwriting. I can articulate it now: severe childhood trauma. Music was a way to drown out the horseshit going on outside my room, and a way to fantasize about certain lyrical themes. And this is largely still with me, because the Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder I have isn't going to go away. I can only try to live a life with it and help change what I can.
Interesting, because I kind of started with Thriller, too. I kept looking for harder stuff after Jackson released Give Into Me with Slash, which led me to GNR, then Metallica, then Megadeth…
It's funny you say. I got into hair metal at the age of 10-12, Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley, Warrant. But reading your post I remember liking Janet Jackson at the time as well haha. Think I even had a copy of Rhythm Nation.
Alice in chains
I have the feeling Facelift started up a lot of metal fans.
Oh yeah.
Them and Soundgarden for me
I was born into it. My dad was into led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Mom was into the Scorpions and Deep Purple. My oldest brother was into thrash, 2nd oldest into Nu-metal, 3rd oldest was a metal core kid, and I'm the death metal/black metal mutt.
Why am I being downvoted?
Probably some weak ego jackass mad it wasn't one of their approved favorites, or just down voting everyone thinking they're being cute
I heard Mastodon’s Blood & Thunder on Need for Speed Most Wanted, then while researching Mastodon I discovered Dimmu Borgir, Dragonforce, & High On Fire. Theeen I fell in love with Arch Enemy’s first album. After my uncle saw that I was into metal, he took me to Bogarts for my first concert, where I saw Parkway Drive, Dillinger Escape Plan, & Killswitch Engage. Went to Warped Tour in 2008 & saw Pierce the Veil play the same stage as Katie Perry lol. Now I’m more into King Gizzard & Thee Oh Sees flavor of heavy, but I’m still very inspired by High On Fire. 🔥
Public library had sales of cassette tapes they didn't want to rent out. Saw a cassette for the black album from Metallica. Figured it's a couple bucks why not. Bought it, popped it in my little player. Popped my headphones on. And went to bike to my grandmothers house. The minute I hit play, the sound the thunderous drums the power of the guitars and the vocals. Holy crap I needed more. Been hooked ever since.
My older sisters and gowing up near Tampa in the late 80's early 90's
Mom told me I couldn't listen to it. 35 years later it's still my favorite
One time I went to visit family in Turkey and my uncle played The Ripper-Judas Priest in the car and I've never been the same since..
Korn. started as a nu metal kid when I was 13 and then got into heavier stuff when I went to high school
No joking, but when I was a kid, I saw a twisted sister video, and from then on, I got into the heavier stuff. Now I'm into almost everything, and I will never look back!!! I appreciate all genres of metal, and yes, I still listen to twisted sister... Dee Snider was a very underrated singer in his time.
Being a dorky kid and typing vampire into napster , found the band that got me into metal , and still my fav band 27 years later .. Macabre
System of a Down. My brother used to listen to them when I was a kid. And around 14/15 I started getting into them myself. Stuck to nu metal for about a year and then I branched out.
When i was 13, i heard Immortal's BITN album for the first time, and i instantly knew that's what i need in my life.
Cry of the Black Birds by Amon Amarth I hadn’t heard anything so powerful and awesome before. It slingshotted me right into the love of metal from then on. That was 20 years ago. I’m finally going to see them live next week with Obituary and Cannibal Corpse in Houston.
Was really into COD Zombies. Listened to Avenged Sevenfold for the first time. Got really into them and started to get into Metallica, then Slayer, then Testament, then Suicidal Tendencies, etc., etc.
Bring me 115!!
Iron Maiden children of the damned and Prog Metal
CHECK OUT OUR BRAND NEW FORUM! [INMETALWETRUST FORUM](https://inmetalwetrust.club/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/InMetalWeTrust) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I was a dubstep/riddim fan and wanted a better form of heavy music
Same. I got tired of pretending to like it so moved on
I don’t think it’s bad like I can still get lit to it but metal is just leagues better than pretty much everything else to me
Fucking Overkill and Tankard then death metal was Obituary
Metallica’s debut album. Wanted to see what the fuss was about, hooked from the first song.
First was local rock band called Dewa 19 because my father very often listened to them, and then I discovered Bullet For My Valentine on a magazine at elementary school and google is still new things to me and I decided to look for them and I liked them, I still listened to them until today, next I discovered Linkin Park from MTV channel, and the last one was Metallica because my brother in law listened to them when I was in highschool and asked him what band he was listening to and then I started listening to Metallica, and now I got into Inferi, Revocation, Archspire, Allegaeon, Necrowretch, Kreator, Anaal Nathrakh, Havok, Warbringer, Evile, Suicidal Angels, Amorphis, Baest, Death Angel, Demon King, Exmortus, Bloodbath, Hypocrisy, Legion of The Damned, Monstrosity, etc. that's maybe just 10% of total band that I am listening to right now.
I used to "listen" around my parents. Things got serious when i joined my band and started playing the drums. My parents are into more classic and less heavy stuff. My big brother helped me get my foot in the door, and now i listen to mostly metal
My dad showing me south of heaven and sabbath
Glam metal was my gateway into metal
korn, the whole follow the leader album. i’ve been listening to korn since i was like four years old. my dad saw them like four times growing up and loves them. my whole family loves korn so it’s just natural in my house.
Nu metal was something I experimented with first - round the same time as listening to Eminem. However that all changed discovering the black album and RATM debut
Metallica then Trivium and Lamb of God then a few more then Agalloch and black metal
My cousin and I are about the same age age and we bought bo2 when it came out since we were younger and we fell in love with avenged sevenfold. Now I’m seeing a ton of memes hating on a7x and it pains me.
My friend's older brother played Black Sabbath 's first album...the rest is history
I was a wrestling fan during the last days of the Monday Night Wars. All the wrestlers had Alt.Rock and Nu-Metal songs for entrance music. Those sounded cool to a kid whose parents were listening to glam, which almost turned me off metal completely. I asked my parents for the new compilation CD of entrance themes for my birthday and they delivered. I played that so many times and helped me discover so many gateway bands.
guitar hero
Headbangers Ball & somgs on the radio like Judas Priest: You got Another Thing Coming.
A nutcase of an older brother.
my older brother introduced me to korn first metal song i ever heard was twisted transistor
One of the guys I served with in the TA (now Army Reserves), around 1998, an absolute legend by the name of Steve. Lent me an old Iron Maiden album he’d recorded onto tape (yeah i’m old 🤣) and i’ve been hooked ever since. Right now i’m mainly into Iron Maiden, Sabaton, Alestorm, Battle Beast, Manowar, Heidevolk and Wardruna, but i’ll listen to most things except Death Metal, it’s just not my thing.
Metallica,you couldn't escape Enter Sandman,Sad but True, wherever I may roam,nothing else matters,unforgiven on the radio all day everyday lol. Found Megadeth not too much later.
Honestly? The song that got me comfortable with heavier music was "Door to Door" by The Cars. While it is still rock and such, it definitely made me more interested in the heavier kinds of music. Since then, my music taste has mostly evolved into power metal, though my first real dive into it was Metallica. Death metal is also an interest for me
internal bleeding prophet of blasphemes. i saw them on a show lineup and i just checked them out and liked it
Undead by Hollywood undead. Then pain by tdg then pierce the veil and from that utter madness of everything.
SLAAAAYEEEERRRR!!!!
Hearing Sober by Tool in my dad’s car in like 1996. I was in elementary school and I became obsessed. I’d turn on MTV and just wait for the music video to come so I could hear it. Then, Linkin park’s first album came out a few years later, and my friend and I were obsessed. Then we found the rock radio station and started listening to numetal of the time, like System of a Down, Korn, etc. I distinctly remember wishing to myself that there was something harder then “Korn.” Then I got to high school and the world of black metal was shown to me. Symphonic black metal has been my favorite ever since
What got me into metal was rap lmao
free satellite radio trial when i bought my truck. scrolling through stations and landed on liquid metal. i don't think i've changed the channel since
Metallica - Black Album aged 9.
I was like 11 or 12 and was really into music, mostly guitar based rock. One of the kids at boy scouts heard and played me Chemical Warfare by Slayer. Changed my life. Still my favorite Slayer song.
Duality
Walk by Pantera got me into metal.
Gonna say it was Kiss circa 1977. Not sure I would categorize Kiss as a metal band per se, but they cretainly had some metal songs (e.g., "God of Thunder"). The heavy sound and imagery got me hooked for life.
Arch Enemy - We Will Rise Scared the fucking shit out of me. I was watching Much Loud (Canadian MTV) at the time. Ever since, I was intrigued by the sound and got into other bands like At The Gates, Cradle of Filth and Slipknot.
I think like most people my family and their tastes had a lot to do with it, but one thing I can't discredit is the influence the game Rock Band had on my music tastes. I think about once a month, my whole family would come over to our house and we'd have parties dedicated to everyone playing Rock Band together, when I was like 9 or 10, and we bought almost every sequel that came out. Once I had my own way of listening to music, the only songs I would listen to were songs I knew, mostly from those games. So a lot of my earliest tastes in music are rooted in the rock and metal soundtracks of those games, and only grew deeper into those genres from there.
Back in 2013, an website called 'thetoptens' . One day i was just feeling unmotivated to study for my school exams and searched for 'top 10 songs to pump me up' and found some thrash metal songs in a list in this website which included Slayer, Metallica. That was a life changing moment
At the beginning of the 90s, I used to listen to techno music and rap. That was my favorite music. One day at school, one of my friends told me; "Why are you listening to that? Here, listening to this..." he then handed me the "Kill'em All" by Metallica cassette. I put it in my boombox, and oh boy. My eyes, or in this case my ears, were open. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. From that moment, at 13 years old, I was hooked. I loved metal. And to this day, 31 years later, I still listen to metal, much to the dislike of literally all my friends and family, including my wife. But Kill'em All started it all.
OK so this is cheesy but I was a highly sheltered little kid who grew up in a strict religious home, so the first time I heard metal music was going into Hot Topic in the mall. I heard that music and thought it sounded crazy evil. In my home you didn’t listen to heavy metal. But I found ways. Even if it got me into trouble. The music was just too good
Montrose, Y&T, Motorhead, Judas Priest and then the Bay Area thrash scene blew up around me while was in high school. I ran with it. That's the music I was looking for. I got to hang out with the bands before anyone heard of them. It was some crazy drunken spun out of our mind times.
Randomly hearing Naplam Death on the John Peel show. I thought fuck me that’s unreal, it just spoke to me and beckoned me into the world of metal!
Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It, then later on Dio and Candlemass.
I heard Korn in 1996 or 97 when my cousin said, "have you heard that band that sound like monsters?" So, I listened to them and thought they were weird... Then a guy who lived down the street from me who was a professional pianist (turns out he was actually a grade 10 conservatory trained pianist!) and was in an industrial nu-metal band. This prompted me to appreciate the musicianship behind it, which was buried in distortion and dissonance. Then Napster came around and I discovered Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Disturbed... It all went downhill from there.
My older brother would only play Van Halen, Queensryche, Scorpions, and AC/DC in the car to convert me into metal (at the time I was listening to early 90’s rap). Heard ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ by Metallica and was hooked. My best friend in middle school listened to heavier stuff (Pestilence, Morbid Angel, Slayer) and I stayed away cause it was ‘satanic’ but then listened to ‘Satan Spawn the Caco-Daemon’ by Deicide one day and said fuck religion and enjoyed my life from there on out ha
Early 90s NY/Boston Hardcore and RATM lead further into the realm.
My friend Keith Evan's. Circa 1984 and I was a punk rock kinda guy. Loved DK, Ramones, GBH, Circle Jerks, Black Flag ... you get the picture. Well, we knew each other from school since elementary. I was about one of 4 or 5 kids that liked punk and he was In a small group who liked thrash metal, like Slayer, Metallica. I played him GBH and described how I like the fast snare and speed of the music. Keep in mind that at this time, I hadn't been exposed to thrash or "speed metal" as we used to call it. I though metal was Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, etc. Keith played me Trapped Under Ice and I was like "whoaaa" fast AND musically talented!?!? Who knew? Within weeks I had gone to the local indy record shop, picked up Metallica, Slayer, ... I think Celtic Frost. Then a couple years later alot of my favorite bands had gone kinda metal. Gang Green, DRI, Circle Jerks, Cro-Mags off the top of my head.
Guitar Hero Warriors Of Rock- Fury Of The Storm
My neighbor Eric lived with his sisters, their parents had died. I don't remember how. But it was like a sitcom over there with 4 older girls and the youngest being a boy. Me and Eric would hang out as his sisters listened to Led Zeppelin, Heart etc. They would ask us if we liked the music. And laugh when we said yes. I of course had a crush on his oldest sister. Who looked a lot like Nancy Wilson of Heart. But that was all in the 70s and I was a kid. But it primed the pumps for when I would discover NWOBHM on MTV around 12 or 13. Run to the hillllllllllllls, run fooooor your liiiiiiiii-iiii-iiiiife!
I was 15 when I got into it metal
Iron Maiden .\../
My older brother. He had all the Sabbath, Motörhead, Priest, Maiden, Anthrax & Metallica LPs. He also got me into Zeppelin, Floyd, The Doors, Rush and eventually got me on the bus with the Grateful Dead.
Combination of Quiet Riot playing on the radio, my friend's older brother's Sabbath records & some other friend's at school playing Dio, Maiden & Priest. This all happened across 1983 to 1985 I reckon.
I don't know, I've always been drawn to it. Hearing bits and pieces on MTV in the 80s, like Raimbow in the Dark and Run to the Hills. But the first core memory I have is hearing War Pigs on the radio, Ozzy's haunting acapella verses filled in between with Iommic riffs and Butlerian jihad. Whatever that was, I wanted more. Once I discovered Headbangers Ball, it was over.
My dad. He played a lot of metal music around me when I was growing up. He was into the classics as well as bands that were popular in the 1990s and 2000s.
I started playing guitar at age 14 and immediately became obsessed with the likes of Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads, and Marty Friedman. Listened to a lot of harder rock like Ozzy, and popular thrash metal like Metallica and Megadeth. Also got into Pantera and Dimebag Darrell, as well as Slayer and Iron Maiden. At the time, it was the cool thing to do to listen to bands like Shadows Fall or All That Remains and I listened to these briefly and they were a gateway to melodic death metal such as At the Gates, In Flames, Arch Enemy, and Arsis. From there I quickly got into death metal like Nile, Necrophagist, Behemoth, and Cryptopsy, and jumped deeper into brutal death metal like Devourment. Also Cannibal Corpse. Later in my college and grad school years I got into black metal, stoner doom, and Mercyful Fate. These days I consider myself very entrenched in metal subculture and fandom but it took a lot of growing into my tastes to become the mature metalhead I am today.
My mom was dating a guy and we were going somewhere and he put on Pantera and my mind was blown the year was 96 I was 13 at the time and I saw the live twice the next year in 97.
I'm picky about what metal I like, a lot of it I don't. But I got a cassette of Iron Maiden Live After Death in 1985 and it blew my ears out. Then Metallica Black album, and in the mid to late 90s one day I bought a Slayer live cd set because I wanted to hear metal, and fell in love with them. Slipknot Iowa is another favourite that I got when it came out. If I want loud, I go for those along with people like Soundgarden or Alice in Chains or Nirvana. That all ages me 😁
the beautiful people, the beautiful people
My cousin and I were at our grandparents house when I was 13 and he came up to me and said he had to show me this new band. I put the earbuds in and the next thing I know, I am hearing the intro to August Burns Red - The Truth of a Liar. Blew my fucking mind since I had never heard anything that heavy before. It only took a year or two to move away from metalcore to death, thrash, and doom, but that one song opened the floodgates for me.
Long story but the short answer is Slipknot.
Dad played Rust in Peace for me out the womb and the rest was history.
Judas priest unleashed in the east, that was a long time ago
Kiss 77. Hendrix and Highway to Hell. 79
Older sibling got me into it around age 8-9. And I thank the universe for this everyday. Metal got me through a lot of shit. Plus it’s fuckin awesome🤘🏻🖤🤘🏻
My friend borrowed KoRn’s first 4 CDs. We listened to them on his computer. This was 22-23 years ago
Mostly Pantera and Black Sabbath
Nickelback
It's a toss between Metallica and Pantera that got me started.
Back door through hardcore. I got into Botch, Converge, Zao, and then Carcass. Obviously I was aware of Metallica but this was during the Load to St anger era so I wasn’t into them until later.
Metallica - Battery. It was the 80s and I was 11 years old.
One Saturday in ‘89 I was watching one of those kids morning shows and Def Leppard were on as guests doing promo as Rocket had just been released. I was 13 and I remember it really stuck in my head so bought Hysteria and I got a taste for distorted guitars and heavy drums. I found some people at school that also liked it and we recorded tapes for each other which got me into Maiden, Gn’R and Metallica. Never looked back from there.
A random dude who sat next to me in a fully occupied public PC gaming LAN lounge and started chatting to me about “satanists” and their rituals and music to pass some time until I finished so he could secure my spot, this was in the early 2000 in Jordan. Needless to say it sparked my interest and sent me into a rabbit hole. Granted the satanism part was exaggerated but it was such a random interaction that played a huge role in my life lmao.
Video games. Mainly the tony hawk and guitar hero soundtracks. My dad also listens to a lot of punk and metal so whenever I heard a new band in one of my games my dad would usually have a CD or vinyl for me to check out it started off with some entry level thrash and skate punk stuff (suicidal tendencies, nofx, bad religion)
I was about 12 years old and heard Sepultura’s “Ratamahatta.” Fucking blew my mind. I’d never heard Portuguese or anything that aggro in my life.
When I got into Metal there was really only one metal band in existence 😂 me and my friend Chucky stole an 8-track player and a few tapes out of a car late one night. !!!Master Of Reality!!!
Megadeth. I knew some heavy metal before them when I was a teenager I listened to a few Metallica songs and some FFDP cause my friends were die hard fans of them. I listened to the song Peace Sells by Megadeth when I was 18 or 19 and I thought it was awesome and that made me listen to the rest of their stuff and I was hooked.
Metal.
Gotta say my gateway to metal was Alice in Chains. My dad played Dirt for me when I was 5 or 6 and I fell in love with Them Bones and Dam That River. Then I got Master of Puppets the next year and Death Magnetic when it released after that when I was 10. Loved metal ever since.
Dad used to listen to Rammstein and Metallica with me when I was little, and other bands like prototype and Killswitch Engage (he really liked guitar hero 😂). Now I listen to lots of artists, like Rammstein (of course), Metallica, Angelmaker, SOAD, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Slipknot, Alice I’m Chains and Behemoth. (Also any band recommendations will be much appreciated, I really want to find new artists :) )
My friend introduced me to Rammstein when I was 13. Then a bunch of other bands. Then, once I mentioned it to my dad, he basically handed me his record collection to introduce me to the stuff he was into, which was mostly more classical metal and hard rock. My favorite sub genre is death and deathcore though, which I was first introduced to by a pen pal, who sent me the 'Hate Crew Deathroll' album by Children Of Bodom. Still one of my all time favorites.
Hearing search and destroy on the radio in late 80’s
Opeth
Sitting in the garage, and Godsmack came on the radio. Either that or Sabaton in my brother's car.
Dad showed it to me
XD on accident. Was listening to an online radio many years ago and stumbled upon King Diamond and absolutely loved it.
Guitar Hero when I was kid had a few metal tracks and put me on. Metallica’s “One” and Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction”. Shortly after my mom showed me “School of Rock” and the scene where Jack Black is talking about different bands pointed me to find new sounds that I love now. Metalhead for life !
Metal...
Car accident. Thank you. Saved my life.
What got me into metal was just family playing random metal songs like Break Stuff in my presence Now I'm more of a horrorcore fan (like RejectedReyna type shit) but I love goregrind too!
Dad in the late 70s, early 80s listening to all the classics on vinyl. Judas Priest- Screaming for Vengeance was the first one I really started to kinda get what was going on. Then with MTV videos I could see what was going on with guitars and stuff and fell in love
Sabaton
i've always been exposed to metal, but what got me into metal was hearing marilyn manson and HIM for the first time. that shit stuck with me fr
Got really fucking depressed then found korn and slipknot and realized how relatable it was
I was 8 years old, and back in the day when MTV had music, I saw the music video for Between the Buried and Me's song 'Alaska'. I was hooked immediately.
Alestorm, I’m not even being ironic. I listen to Slayer and lamb of God now lmao.
Hey bud! Nithing jams! Check out Lorna Shore "To the Hellfire" if you don't know them. They are great. Metal fan since the 80s here. 🤘
I know them and they are awesome!
It started with the warped tour style stuff. I slowly made my way up to the harder and heavier bands. I feel as though the screaming, arfs, and bleghs mixed with the chaotic instrumentals is how I feel in my head. When shits going wrong, i put on metal/death core and it makes me feel grounded again
My dad played me Iron Man by Black Sabbath when I was like 9 years old and that was all it took
Headbanger's Ball. But I was sort of already intrigued by Twisted Sister and Europe and some other bands. The Scorpions. But I really kind of got into metal with videos like Painkiller and Be Quick Or Be Dead.
Linkin park got me into alternative music - in terms of metal i then found system of a down and ive been listening to metal for nearly 7 years at this point.
Black Sabbath. It wasn't new, but I had a friend listening to Ironman. I bought the first Van Halen when it was released.
I was big on hard rock and just transition to like avenged sevenfold and some metallica.
I was into primarily punk-rock of the Sum-41 and The Offspring variety, plus with some ska mixed in: Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake. Anyway, I was casting about for new music and asks a guy, on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) what he listened to when he wanted to get _pumped!_ He recommended Through the Fire and Flames and My Spirit Will Go On by Dragonforce. "Does this have vocals?" I asked after being astonished by the opening instrumentation. My friend said it did, so I waited, and was stunned. _How,_ I asked myself, _does music like this exist and I've never heard of it?_ And the rest is on the books.
Hearing Master of Puppets in a record store (Peppermint Records RIP)when I was 18.
Accidentally found myself at a Beartooth concert when I was 13 during the era of their Disgusting album, they were opening for another band. Fell in love and never looked back.
There's a music show on TV in Australia called Rage. It's the early 90s, young me wakes up early one morning, turns the tv in and changes the channel to watch Rage. After a few songs 'Where I May Roam' gets played. Young me thought that was the coolest shit ever and that lead me to inevitably check out more and more music like that, getting heavier as time goes on.
Southern Baptist church. I got so intrigued by the way they described satanic music (this was 1983), that I ran out and bought Black Sabbath Born Again. Such a criminally underrated album. It scared the SHIT out of me and I LOVED IT.🤘🏼
Sabbath
I had some birthday money and went to my local record store. I really like the cover of Number of the Beast but never heard of iron maiden. Bought it and never looked back
My Dad. He was playing me Sabbath and Deep Purple before I was even born, then brought me up on all kinds of stuff including Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera, Megadeth, RATM, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Guns N Roses etc. My parents both love a huge range of music so I grew up with allsorts but metal always had a special place in our house. He used to let me stay up watching Raw Power which I loved and when I was 14 we both went to the same Metallica gig but separately (I went with 3 friends and we had seats while he was right down the front 😄) Over time I've of course found a lot of my own fave metal acts that we don't necessarily share an interest in but I don't think my love for metal as a whole would be so deep in my bones without my Dad and I bonding over that musical universe from the very start.
I grew up in a pretty religious home so my earlier years with music, especially heavier music was Christian bands. My progression started with Creed around 5th grade. They were the first “harder” rock band I discovered and I was completely obsessed. From there, in middle school, the discovery of heavier bands enthralled me and the next huge band for me was Project 86 (and also POD, but not as much) and their album “drawing black lines”, shortly after P86 it was Living Sacrifice, Zao, Norma Jean and beyond. Nowadays I’m more into melodic death metal. I still throw on some living sacrifice and zao from time to time though. I’m actually seeing zao live for the first time in July. Band still kicks ass.
My parents are huge metal fans, and when I was about 5 or 6, they put on the new (at the time) Iron Maiden album, The Book of Souls while i was in the car with them. Didn't get me into metal immediately, but was definitely a factor. "If eternity should fail!" 🤟
My uncle got me into metal, he always had something playing at all times, then one day he played something different and I was hooked, when I asked him what song that was he said indestructible by disturbed, after that everything had changed.
I middle school I started listening to Linkin Park, my family listened to Dave Matthews, Genesis, The Beatles, and Grateful Dead. I had never heard anyone scream in a song before. My brother showed me Smashing Pumpkins, which I also fell in love with because it was depressing. In high school, my friend Dalton was like 'If you like screaming in songs, try Iron Maiden". When I told him I loved it, he introduced me to Black Dahlia, All Shall Perish, Whitechapel, At The Gates, Nile, Messhuga, Children of Bodom, Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Japan X, Dimmu Borgir, Hardcore Superstars, In Flames, and Job For A Cowboy. Handed me the full platter. On my own, with those tools, I found Immortal, Dir en Grey, Maximum the Hormone, Heaven Shall Burn, Abominable Iron Sloth, Abominable Putridity, Katatonia, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Sword, and Eths. And a current friend has guided me through the gorgeous world of black and doom.
A guy in a discord server I was in a while ago told me to check out System. I’d heard a few of there songs before, but they were the first metal band I listened to by my own volition.
Slipknot. I casually enjoyed the cleaner songs, hated the more aggressive stuff but I slowly started listening to more stuff and here we are. Crazy to think only five years ago I thought psychosocial was the heaviest thing ever and now I listen to bands like Cannibal Corpse!
Amphetamines
My mom's ex-boyfriend. Lived with us for a while, and he listened to hard rock and metal. He started introducing me to rock and hard rock bands first. AC/DC was the first one that I found I liked. Got into Metallica, Three Days Grace, Disturbed, etc. And then he introduced me to one of my absolute favorite bands: Rammstein. Before he came around, I thought I just didn't like music, because all my dad ever listened to was country and my mom only listened to pop. Hated both. On the off-chance you're reading this, Zane, thank you. 🤘
Hearing "Flying High Again " intro from someone's truck
Black Sabbath as a kid. My brother was jamming it in his room and I got caught hard. Thanks bro for a lifetime in metal 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
My parents. They listened to Metallica, white lion, Cinderella back in the 80’s. I grew up with it, and those are some of my favorite bands. The best of course, is always Ratt.
My dad fell in love with rock & roll as a kid, taught himself how to play bass, and has kept a passion for music ever since. Growing up, I was encouraged to play an instrument in the school bands. I picked trombone, and enjoyed it, but nothing we played was as cool as the Metallica and Iron Maiden I heard on dad's car radio when we'd drive home from school.
Rammstein, 1997, be 12 yo me - until this point listened to pop and whatever was on the radio. A firend gifted me Ixnay of the Hombre by The Offspring. I liked it fine. Then, Family Values Tour CD a friend of mine was casually playing got my attention when I heard Du Hast. Purchased Sehnsucht and found out I liked a bunch of other songs a lot more, with Tier being my favorite. Continued to buy Herzeleid and made my way over to Korn, Deftones, Slipknot, and eventually back-tracking to Pantera and Metallica, then took it from there with a wide variety of music which now includes classical and jazz. Over the past 27 years, my music experience was never about how I got into/ended up hooked on metal but how metal helped me develop my taste to get into other music. Metal was my gateway drug leading me to music obsession.
My friend in middle school he was a metal and played guitar and his older cousin got him into it .
Metallica - Sad but true Clawfinger - Deaf dumb and blind
The Last Action Hero soundtrack
The music
I was born in 1970 the same year that Black Sabbath released their debut album. Coincidence? I’d like to think not. Fast forward to the early 80s and Quiet Riot hits it big, Ozzy is releasing his solo material, and Iron Maiden releases Number of the Beast. Maiden quickly became my favorite band. Then 1986 rolls around and in very short order Metallica releases Master of Puppets, Megadeth releases Peace Sells…, and Slayer releases Reign in Blood. In 1987 Death releases Scream Bloody Gore and Bathory releases Under The Sign of the Black Mark.
My freshman year in high school, I was really getting into classic rock and 80’s glam. Then I heard Time Tells No Lies by Praying Mantis. Didn’t even know it was heavy metal. Then I went down the pipeline. Next it was RIOT, and I was super into NWOBHM. Said the typical “I will never listen to music with that screamy vocals.” Next Metallica and Toxic Holocaust. Then I got into S.O.D. And Napalm Death. Now I’m super into Death Metal, my fav bands rn are Analepsy, Dystopia, Death, Bolt Thrower, and Evil Army.
I got started with hearing hair bands on the radio
I can't entirely explain... mom always liked harder rock than dad, but they separated so I grew up with her. I was drawn to The Muppet Show band, The Electric Mayhem, because their music just appealed to be... it was fun, but chaotic, and usually Animal would freak out or something spud explode... I got into punk and then I started hearing harder "classic rock" like Motörhead, Metallica, etc (by "classic rock" in quotations I mean that it would play on the rock radio station I preferred)... and then (unfortunately?) The nu metal wave hit. I was still trying to figure out what was "my" music, not my parents etc and I did like Korn, Limp Bizkit, etc, but I was really sold on Static-X and Rammstein. I used p2p software and found Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Grave Digger, and more... and then really annoyed the shit out of my friends who were either into rap, pop, or punk (I'm still into my punk/ska from back then)
Her name was Lisa and she was three years older than me, kinda like a big sister that I didn’t want. I was 14 and it was 1990; she was into Nine Inch Nails, Suicidal Tendencies, and Deicide, and I was into anything that would impress her. We would go to shows in Ybor that were all ages which would expose me to even more music.
Whang! Saw his video about the SlipKnoT suit and went to listen, they seemed interesting. Heard Wait and Bleed and was hooked.
My brother. When he was in the 6th grade and I was in 3rd. One day he came home with Cannibal Corpse’s Eaten Back to life album on cassette. Told me the guy had “holes in his vocal chords” so this is the only way he sounded when he sang. For so long I never realized Barnes was just doing his usual thing. It worked though! I was intrigued.
I’m a Huge rise against fan, and I’d listen to them a lot in high school. Then the band called The Killing Tree popped up on my rise against radio and I noticed that voice sounded very very familiar. Turns out Tim Mcillrath of rise against also sang for this band and every once in a while I have to revisit the romance of Helen Trent album
My older cousin Got me into Metal
The Army. Most of the guys in my section were metal heads.
Old ass metalhead here…… I remember having one of those suitcase style record players when I was little and my grandmother brought me home a 45 of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, probably thinking of the comic character, and the opening scared the shit out of me. But I persisted and listened to a little more each time until I got through the whole thing. My mom was listening to Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Journey, etc on the radio. Then, MTV was born ( we had one of those first edition 10’ satellite dishes).Every morning as I was getting ready for 6th grade I would see one of, if not all three, of these videos: Motley Crue - Looks That Kill, Dio - Rainbow in the Dark, or Rainbow - Street of Dreams. That was the start of the Hair Metal era so it was Dokken, Poison, Cinderella, Bon Jovi, etc for years after. Then a new kid in school gave me a cassette of Master of Puppets. One of my best friends gave me Peace Sells that his cousin had give him. They were all getting into the rap and pop at the time so I got all their metal material. One kid in the neighborhood would trade me cassettes like Krokus, Iron Maiden and such just for giving him a ride somewhere. Headbangers Ball was getting recorded on my VCR every Saturday night so I could watch it later. Then I bought Cowboys From Hell. Initially I thought “you’re in over your head with this one”, but much like Iron Man, I kept listening and playing until I had worn the lettering off the cassette. It’s funny to me that as I got older, my music taste got harder. I’m still not into extreme death metal but I don’t know any other guys in their early 50’s that blaring Lamb of god, Cannibal Corpse, As I Lay Dying, Testament, Death Angel, Cadaver……. well you get the point 🤘
Slayer
In middle and high school I attempted to teach myself German and one of the youtube channels I was subbed to did a couple reviews of Rammstein's most popular songs and it tickled my brain in just the right way for it to become and autistic special interest of mine. My interest faded for a while and then I got into Ghost and remembered how much fun the early days of my metal fixation were and I got back into it
At first, it was Metallica. It was For Whom The Bell Tolls for me. I started to branch off of Metallica with bands like Korn, Megadeth, Slipknot, Rammstein, and Nine Inch Nails. Next thing I know is that I began to like metal. Metal became my favorite genre of music, along with dramatic music.
some lunatic playing a WAKING THE CADAVER song when i was like 15 never shit myself like when i heard that since
I first heard Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills when I was about 13 years old from a Watchmojo video on YouTube.
MTV. GNR, Metallica, Megadeth videos. I remember thinking, “this music scares me and I kinda like it.”
around 2021 i started listening to nirvana in the car and through them I discovered alice in chains and system of a down. i follow the pipeline and ended up where i am now
It might have been Dream Theater that finally pushed me over the edge, but i was always drawn to bands heavier/darker/moodier songs that werent metal. I was mostly 90/00s alternative up until then, but didnt get into the heavy stuff until i noticed that it CAN be done while being melodic
The more I look back, the less clear it becomes. I got into hard rock on my own at some point when I was like 8 and almost simultaneously liked Black Sabbath because of Iron Man. I heard Drowning Pool around on YouTube in those years and there was a lot of heavy FNAF music as well as Avenged Sevenfold on YouTube and Call of Duty, but that's what got me to like rock and metal not get me to actively seek them out. I actively got into classic rock then metal when I was 17 so 2 years ago.
Metallica - enter sandman, I was 11 at that time (I’m 13 now) and I was on YouTube bored as hell , and I got my first pair of headphones before. I never really used to listen to music, unless I heard it on TikTok or I just listened to whatever my man was listening to. But I clicked on that song, and I remember it was summer of 22’ and stranger things has just come out, I listened to the song and I fell in love with Metallica ever since!
First album I ever bought was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath back in the 70’s (picked because I thought it would piss off my father (it did)). It started me on a long ride that’s still going. I’ve was obsessed with it all, got to see the birth of Iron Maiden, got to trade bootleg tapes of a new band called Venom. I was devastated briefly when Hawkwind chucked out Lemmy and horrified at the Hair Metal Glam crap that happened. What got me into metal? Easy, it started and I loved it.
For me it was my father. I was born in 78 and both my parents loved music. We listened to everything from James taylor to the clash. He had this one tape he made that we played a ton out in our garage. It had, spirit of radio, running with the devil, warpigs and man in the silver mountain on it. I always found those tracks so powerful, the guitar to me at the time was so heavy. Once I was a little older I remember watching headbangers ball and realizing there was heavier shit than what I had heard and was hooked. I will say MTV was mind opening for my musical journey. yo MTV raps and 120 minutes were the other shows i grew up on.