What got you into Heavy Metal?

Tough one......

As a kid I listened to "whatever" ...mostly Top 40 stuff. I gravitated towards Queen and really liked the heavier stuff like Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Quiet Riot (like everyone else in 1982-84). I LOVED Prince w/ Purple Rain and his heavier stuff is nearly metal at times, so that was an influence as well. Kiss's Heaven's On Fire hit me when it came out. All along I have heavy contact with some proto-
metal and hard rock 8 Tracks of CCR, BTO, ect that my Dad owns so I have hard music flitting around all the time......

Then! I became a Christian and listened to Amy Grant and MW Smith. That wasn't enough so I got into Whiteheart. That wasn't enough and I remember on a retreat this long haired college guy had all this Christian Metal.....Bride smacked me in the face. So my first true metal that I owned (outside of Queen in 1980) was Bride - Silence Is Madness. I got that for Christmas when I was 15. The rest is history...I remember popping that into my headphones and sort of being transported! White Cross, Deliverance, Vengeance Risings, Betrayal, Seventh Angel, Tourniquet, Mortification, etc....soon followed. As I neared adulthood and became more confident and autonamous in my Christianity I started realizing that the Metal World wasn't just a Satan cess-pool waiting to drag me down. Yes, there are bands that really either do believe and/or do sing about stuff I don't care to listen to but the vast majority of "secular" metal was just great fun stuff. I then saw Iron Maiden's 'Run To The Hills' on Headbangers Ball!!!! Hooked since that point on so called secular metal. Went back and exploredJimi, Led Zepellin, and other early or proto metal and also continued my search for heavier and more brutal modern metal. .

That's my story in a nutshell! I admit to a simultaneous rap phase in the late 80's - but it was actually decent then before "ganstas" came and ruined it. Rap has not been vital to me in nearly two decades...I mellow out to The Cranberries and once in a blue moon go slumming with old friends like Amy Grant, MW Smith, Petra, Prince (but usually only when required to in mixed company). I also enjoy Bluegrass and old country when the mood strikes....



GOOD THREAD!!! INTERESTING READS!!

Alcohol and peer pressure.

I sorta told this story in another thread, but I was in sixth grade when AC/DC released BACK IN BLACK and were suddenly all over the place. I had never paid much attention to music but I was curious what all the other kids were so crazy about so I bought my first-ever cassette tape, which ended up being LET THERE BE ROCK, not BACK IN BLACK (because LET THERE BE ROCK was cheaper at the department store, haha!)

Around that same time (circa late 1981) my parents got cable TV (we were one of the first families on our block to do so) and MTV first went on the air! Needless to say, I got hooked on that REAL fast. They played a lot of good stuff back then... I remember seeing Judas Priest's "Heading Out To The Highway" video the first time I ever watched MTV, I also remember seeing vids by Saxon, Iron Maiden (with DiAnno!), Blue Oyster Cult, the Ramones, etc. on a fairly regular basis.

But basically it was Bon Scott that started it for me. I wore out two cassettes of LET THERE BE ROCK before I finally upgraded it to CD about ten years ago. It's still one of my all time favorite albums.

My dad was a pretty big hard rock fan, he got me started on Black Sabbath and AC/DC... years before I realized it!

Around my teens I was... erm... a... I was a wigger... and then nu-metal knocked me away from that. Well I left my dad's house (personal reasons) and I diden't take anything with me, including my illegally downloaded music. So I started over.

I had a friend I met on a political forum that was into Metallica, Megadeth and Iron Maiden and he sent me a few songs an albums... so my first metal album was Metallica's Black Album.

I listened to the crap out of that album, so much that still today I show little interest in it... and I bought all their other releases. I ended up seeing Dave Mustaine's name in the credits on Kill Em All and used the internet to find out more about him.

I ended up buying the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack and fell in love with Peace Sells, so I bought that album... then Countdown to Extinction. I eventually got Killing Is My Buisness mostly out of curiosity over Mechanix/Four Horsemen, and thats on of my favourite Megadeth albums to this day.

After that I got Ozzy albums, and I was so crazed over Ozzy my mom bought me The Black Box for christmas, and I listened to all those albums non-stop.

Soon after I was looking for a place to download the No Life Til Leather demos, and the top search in Google was no other then the No Life Til Metal website, which to this day is my #1 reference when I go to buy CDs.

Scott's website got me interested in more Black Sabbath, Dio, Anthrax, Bruce Dickinson's solo, Kiss, Ace Frehley, Motorhead, Judas Priest, Armored Saint, Sepultura, Death, Rush, S.O.D., M.O.D.... ect ect ect.

And now i'm here today with all this music!

I saw the music video for Enter Sandman one day and that was all she wrote!!!

back in seventh grade, I listened to a lot of music my dad liked like Queen and The Who. I checked out more bands beyond them, and the music kept getting heavier and heavier. From MC5 to Deep Purple. And then I finally stumbled upon Black Sabbath. Set me off. Then that summer, my neighbor invited me to go to Ozzfest.

I really cant remember the exact thing so to speak, it was just the first time I heard a riff that made me feel good all over, so heavy you could'nt lift it with a forklift. No other form of music other than classical can give me that feeling.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Alcohol and peer pressure.

ROTFLMAO ....So I guess it's pointless to ask if you've ever done drugs or alchohol!

T-Roy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Alcohol and peer pressure.

ROTFLMAO ....So I guess it's pointless to ask if you've ever done drugs or alchohol!

Only if someone told me it was the cool thing to do.

Actually we did sort of have this discussion before and I didn't feel like typing this out again...

Quote :

That's an easy one for me. Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction. Without having the benefit of older siblings to guide me, the only music I listened to was either the classic rock that my parents listened to or whatever was popular on the radio in the 80's. I knew of bands like Aerosmith, Rush, KISS, etc, but never really listened to them. When ...Jungle & Sweet Child became radio hits, I became aware of them, but it wasn't until a guy in high school gave me a copy of the whole album and said "Those songs are ok, but listen to the rest of it". When I first heard songs like "It's So Easy" and "Out Ta Get Me", I never heard music with such attitude and anger (and profanity) and I immediatley knew I needed to hear more. It was also the first time that I knew I couldn't let my parents hear this. This music was for headphone use only! Then I started hanging with other guys that thought the same and they introduced me to a whole new world of music. It's been a downhill slide ever since then and I never got to thank them for it.

Whiskey in the Jar .. owww at the age of 11. This Metallica version of TL song was played at least once a day at radio stations, I liked it, so I went to my neighbour / cousin who was into metal since the early 90s. He lent me Kill 'em All, and the rest is history

The Grunge Revolution honestly. Started with the Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains and started to get into metal and other sorts of rock.

First time I heard TNT by AC/DC, I was hoocked!
Back in the early eighties. Still love that song and of course that band!!

Chairman_Smith wrote:

I ended up buying the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack and fell in love with Peace Sells, so I bought that album...

Haha yeah, good old GTA has got me into a lot of bands I hadn't heard before too, them games are immense.
Yeah GTA Vice City sorta got me into the 80's metal scene a lot.
Scott's site has also got me interested in certain bands a lot more as well.

spectrefate wrote:

.... makes me who I am today.
A prick who loves metal.

I'LL SECOND THAT!

T-Roy wrote:

spectrefate wrote:

.... makes me who I am today.
A prick who loves metal.

I'LL SECOND THAT!

...why I oughta........

I came for the sound of the heavy electric guitars and stayed for the comraderie between metalheads

The Beatles first (Yeah) with Helter Skelter and rock'n'roll song where Paul McCartney was so good! Some of the band I liked at the time were AC/DC,GNR and other like this. After that...KISS yeah! Baby! Let's Rock'N'Roll All Nite! and now I'm Metalhead...

I started off weak with Hall and Oats in '84 then Oingo Boingo in '86. Then around '88 i had a cousin into KISS so that led to me getting their Smashes,Thrashes and Hits cassette and shortly after that Bullet Boys. Then in '89 i remember getting into Ratt, Skid Row and Winger and then Thrash in late '90.

troublezone wrote:

I started off weak with Hall and Oats in '84 then Oingo Boingo in '86.

Nothin' weak about Oingo Boingo! Their "Dead Man's Party" CD is a classic! Not to mention that Danny Elfman went on to score tons of movies and composed the theme song to "The Simpsons!"

For me it all started with Nu Metal. I hated real Metal, but then got into the heavier Nu Metal bands. It took me a while to appreciate the vocal style of Metal, but I eventually progressed from Nu Metal to just about anything Metal.

Funny thing is that I really can't stand Nu Metal now with the exception of a few bands.

one word: ALICE! My friend's dad and my dad all went to Alice (their suggestion of course, our music taste was laughable at the time) We were instantly blown away by of course the stage show, and the seemingly heavy-as-a-metric-ton music!!! A day or 2 after the show, my dad bought me School's Out and Killer, I listened all the way through to both in one shot, went online for more bands...and here we are today, Alice remains one of my favourites along with Sabbath, Dio, Iron Maiden, Brides Of Destruction, Ozzy, White Zombie and Motley Crue

Do you find your name to be a little...how you say...contradicting?

AC/DC. they were the best, is the best and for me - will be the best!

Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, early Metallica, Accept, Helloween, Primal Fear are all icing on the cake!