Bad first impressions of a band?

(i originally posted this on the Christian Metal Realm,. but its an interesting enough topic that it can go here as well)

Let me explain what i mean by the thread title. The first Stryper album i bought was In God We Trust. I liked some of the heavier songs, but for the most part i found it mediocre and too light even by hair metal standards. However, later i picked up Yellow and Black Attack and Soldiers Under Command, which were much heavier and better and sold me entirely on stryper. Ive even since warmed up to IGWT (save for "Its Up 2 U"). Has something similar ever happened to you?

back in '81 when Def Leppard's Hign-N-Dry came out, I thought they were an AC/DC ripoff band. It took me about 6 months to pull my head out and appreciate it (I was just 13 or 14 so you get more of a free pass as far as stupidity goes).

The Black Album was my introduction to Metallica. I liked it, but it didn't prepare me for the awesomeness that would follow when I discovered "Ride the Lightning."

So, not a BAD first impression, but not one that did justice to the band when it comes to their first 4.

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

The Black Album was my introduction to Metallica. I liked it, but it didn't prepare me for the awesomeness that would follow when I discovered "Ride the Lightning."

So, not a BAD first impression, but not one that did justice to the band when it comes to their first 4.

Same experience here. The Black Album was just so huge when it came out, that's all I heard.

Lots of bands are that way for me. I first hear them & don't get it. That's why I play an album repeatedly, sometimes in a row, sometimes spaced out over time. I often "get it" a little later on. One perfect example was iwrestledabearonce. First listen, I was like WTF are they trying to do with this nonsense?

They are now one of my favorite bands.

mc666 wrote:

One perfect example was iwrestledabearonce. First listen, I was like WTF are they trying to do with this nonsense?

They are now one of my favorite bands.

I wish I had your patience Monty, I tried to get through this band several times but never "got" them like you.

GrandNational wrote:

mc666 wrote:

One perfect example was iwrestledabearonce. First listen, I was like WTF are they trying to do with this nonsense?

They are now one of my favorite bands.

I wish I had your patience Monty, I tried to get through this band several times but never "got" them like you.

Well it helps if you are into deathcore & love female vocals, both clean & extreme. Their ambient, progressive, techno type stuff is easier to swallow when there are elements that you can dig. You end up enjoying the entire package.

Most of those albums which grown to be my favorites were the ones I didn't get at first. For instance, Queensryche's RFO, Leatherowlf's Street Ready (took like 12 spins combined with their Leatherowlf II - this one also fits), WASP's The Crimson Idol and many others. Usually if I like something from the start, I quickly get bored of it after. But music that didn't kick me initally has something like layers that keep you coming back, listen to it over and over and find new little elements you haven't heard before.

I keard the Holy Rite album and was like   Then I saw them in concert and it changed my appreciation of the band. A little history......4/5 of Holy Rite (minus the singer who went on to Final Axe and later Titanic) changed thier name to Iron Wrath and have a tune on Regency's "Underground Metal 2" release,

BearOnUnicycle wrote:

Most of those albums which grown to be my favorites were the ones I didn't get at first. For instance, Queensryche's RFO, Leatherowlf's Street Ready (took like 12 spins combined with their Leatherowlf II - this one also fits), WASP's The Crimson Idol and many others. Usually if I like something from the start, I quickly get bored of it after. But music that didn't kick me initally has something like layers that keep you coming back, listen to it over and over and find new little elements you haven't heard before.

Excellent point. I can name several albums that I loved immediately and played over and over, but got bored with and never listen to now. By contrast, I can name several albums that I didn't "get" at first, but which have become some of my favorites.


Interestingly, the first few times I heard Iron Maiden, they didn't do much for me. But I kept listening, and now they are my very favorite metal band.

Grand Funk Railroad.
All I had ever heard was "we're an American band" (and I still hate that song), and "I'm your captain". I decided that they sucked early in my teen years.... Later as an adult, I was discussing good music with a roofer I was helping, and he introduced me to the rest of their sound......been a fan ever since.

The first time I heard Manowar, they were on MTV's Headbangers Ball to pimp the premiere of their first ever video. So of course they're in their Conan outfits and they're talking about how they're the loudest, hardest, heaviest band in the universe, the video was gonna melt your face, blah blah blah and my naïve 16 year old self bought their line of BS hook and sinker, I sez "Wow!" and prepared for total annihilation.

Then the video played ... and it was "Blow Your Speakers," which is not only Manowar's worst song, but one of the worst songs in the history of recorded music, accompanied by an equally stupid video.

It was YEARS before I gave Manowar another chance. I don't think I got on board till they released Louder Than Hell in '96. I own quite a few of their CDs nowadays but I've never been more than a casual fan at best.

White Lion

When Wait and When The Children Cry were radio hits I thought "ehh". Eventually I heard the rest of Pride (and it probably was Lady Of The Valley that did it for me) and became a fan. Then when I heard Fight To Survive I became a big fan. Funny that in my opinion their two weakest songs in their whole catalogue were also their biggest hits. Hey whatever sells.

Fat Freddy wrote:

The first time I heard Manowar, they were on MTV's Headbangers Ball to pimp the premiere of their first ever video. So of course they're in their Conan outfits and they're talking about how they're the loudest, hardest, heaviest band in the universe, the video was gonna melt your face, blah blah blah and my naïve 16 year old self bought their line of BS hook and sinker, I sez "Wow!" and prepared for total annihilation.

Then the video played ... and it was "Blow Your Speakers," which is not only Manowar's worst song, but one of the worst songs in the history of recorded music, accompanied by an equally stupid video.

It was YEARS before I gave Manowar another chance. I don't think I got on board till they released Louder Than Hell in '96. I own quite a few of their CDs nowadays but I've never been more than a casual fan at best.

I discovered Manowar from that same HBB episode with the "Blow Your Speakers" video, & Z-Rock played "Defender" alot, so I thought they sucked. It wasn't until I got to college & my room mate had all their old CDs-Hail to England, Battle Hymns, etc that I could appreciate them in all their cheesy poser-crushing glory. But still, Speakers ain't the only thing that song blows

First Rainbow song I ever heard was Since You've been Gone. Not the worst song ever but hardly representative of the greatness that preceded it.

My Rainbow introduction was 'Street of Dreams'.................   it would be years before I discovered the Dio era.....

bgsully wrote:

Grand Funk Railroad.
All I had ever heard was "we're an American band" (and I still hate that song), and "I'm your captain". I decided that they sucked early in my teen years.... Later as an adult, I was discussing good music with a roofer I was helping, and he introduced me to the rest of their sound......been a fan ever since.

This! and then apply it to Ultimatum, or Porcupine Tree, who I didn't get at first, but are now one of my favorite bands. Others that I would mention are Live, U2, and INXS. Ironically, INXS never clicked with me until I heard Elegantly Wasted. Now I am a fan for life. U2 are still growing on me but I still think that Bono is an overrated douche' even if they do write good songs, just nothing mind-blowing.

Not metal, but Dylan was a p*ssy to me while I was growing up. Now he's a god in my eyes. Same with Neil Young.

Moving on to metal, well, rock, Rush was one that didn't click right away. Of course, I hadn't heard 2112 or Moving Pictures. In fact, most of what I first heard were the synth albums, if you want to call them that. I hated it. But then I heard 2112, and a beautiful chapter in my life began...

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

The Black Album was my introduction to Metallica. I liked it, but it didn't prepare me for the awesomeness that would follow when I discovered "Ride the Lightning."

So, not a BAD first impression, but not one that did justice to the band when it comes to their first 4.

Yes, same with me as well.




The first AC/DC album I got was "For Those About To Rock......". I never felt it was a bad record, but from there I went to The Razor's Edge, TNT, Dirty Deeds, Back in Black.........


Also my first Def Leppard album was Hysteria, which didn't impress me much, but then I got Pyromania and High N Dry it was a different ball game.

Whitesnake. First song I heard was Here I Go Again. Hated it. Still hate it. Then I heard Still of the Night. I was all yeeeaaaaaah  . Then I bought the album.

My first exposure to Slaughter was the ballad Fly to the Angels, which didn't leave a great impression on me. As such, I never got into them and shrugged them off as "posers". Odd since I was such a big Vinnie Vincent Invasion fan. However, I saw Slaughter on the 1999 Rock Never Stops tour and and they were great! I became a fan at that point and went back and purchased all their albums. I've since seen them another two of three times and met them once.

My first exposure to Machine Head was the video for "From This Day", which I absolutely loved at the time, being very heavily into Nu Metal, so it didn't hurt at the time. But say that I would've heard it today as the first machine Head song... prolly wouldn't have stuck around with them for as long as I have.

Keep in mind that I'm only 20 when you read the following examples. When you don't grow up with the bands you listen to and discover them in retrospective only, you get surprised often.

Krokus... Heard my father playing them a few times, but mostly some "newer era" stuff like Hellraiser. Then I got introduced to Headhunter and On Vice At A Time and it blew my mind!

Gotthard... Goodness, I can't stand 'Homerun' anymore. This one got played over and over again by my family. And then I listened to their first few masterpieces. Glad that they do hard rock again.

Scorpions... Wind Of Change was for a looong time the only song I knew by them. Hate that one. Really. Hated the band as well, until I discovered that they make good rock as well. Although I still don't like Klaus Meine. He has a rather weak/faint voice, imo...

Ozzy... Hahaha, before I started to listen to Black Sabbath, I only knew Ozzy's "Dreamer". So I had absolutely wrong associations when I thought of him.

"Blow Your Speakers" the worst Manowar song? Wow.

I love Manowar, and that one is not among my favorites, but every album just about is about half awesome metal anthems and half terrible ballads. I would say most of those ballads fall in the worse-than-"Blow Your Speakers" category.

Happened to me with Ghost, now I love them. I didn't like how they sounded on the first album, when I first heard it. It just sounded out dated to me and I didn't get the vocals. It didn't take me til almost a year later when I saw some live videos online, then it sank in and now I can't stop listening to them.