The Metal Age

Disclaimer: Let's hope there isn't another thread about this subject. I searched and couldn't find one. If there is, I apologize.

Growing up, 20 seemed like such an "adult" age. I imagined that I would be married like my parents, not listening to metal, and be raising kids by the time I was 25.

Then 30 came, no kids, but married, and I was still collecting CDs, listening to metal daily, reading fantasy books and comics, etc. I felt as though I wasn't becoming the "adult" I was supposed to be. Alot of my friends were raising kids and had moved on to different interests other than metal.

Now I'm 33 and I don't see myself changing my interests anytime soon. I will always listen to 80's cheese metal and thrash, and always read comics and cheesy fantasy novels.

I know some of you are in your 40's and I'd like your opinions on this.

Is our generation just that different than our parents' or are there not that many of us that still are metalheads in our 30's and 40's? Are we a rare breed?

Also, do you see yourself still listening to metal music when you're 60?

Hopefully, this makes sense.

I'm married, I have two kids, I turned 37 this year and I'm still as metal as I ever was, but I do think that "metal lifers" like us are indeed a rare breed. My hair may be shorter and my belly may be bigger but the music still keeps me young!

I have noticed this phenomenon often...A lot of the guys who were my "metal buddies" when I was in high school/college have either moved on to other music styles (i.e. country music, Dave Matthews Band, GACK!) or they just listen to their old favorites from "back in the day" and don't really care about new metal bands, or even new albums by the old bands that are still active. I've tried to turn them on to some of the "newer" thrash/power metal bands out there but they don't seem interested in keeping their ears to the ground anymore. They seem to think the "glory days" are over and that nothing that's coming out these days can compare, so they don't even bother to listen. I don't get it!

Thankfully I can still yap with metal brothers and sisters on this message board and others who DO still "get it"

I'm 20 and my taste kinda fell back from Megadeth, Anthrax, Metallica and Slayer to Black Sabbath, Kiss, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.... but I love every band i've just listed.

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Also, do you see yourself still listening to metal music when you're 60?

Yes, I see this and beyond!

FatFreddy - That's my exact experience....all these guys I work with are stuck in a 70's/80's time warp and anything that came out after they turned 18-19-20 is "new fangled" or modern....They have ZERO interest in expanding...I feel sorry for them in a way. I stand on my Enlightened Metal Mountain looking down upon them in pity, contempt and disgust! SO, I've given up trying to convert the masses....I just keep to myself and let them think "He's in league with Lucifer!!"

It might be better this way anyhow. Their presence en mass could bastardize and ruin what I consider an excellent metal scene right now. The European boys know what rocks! If nothing else they will always keep Metal alive while our fellow USA lemmings chase after one moving pile of fecal material after the other.......

scottmitchell74 wrote:

If nothing else they will always keep Metal alive while our fellow USA lemmings chase after one moving pile of fecal material after the other.......

I like that. It's almost poetic.

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Thankfully I can still yap with metal brothers and sisters on this message board and others who DO still "get it"

It may sound sappy, but that's why I love coming here and to the CMR because besides my 7 year old and this one anomolous dude at work (who still only has a strange, relaxed, aloof interest) I have exactly NOBODY to talk metal with. My 7 year old, God bless her, seems to genuinely like Metal but who knows what peer pressure will do to her. As of yet she has not discovered the nonsense that passes for popular music. I hope to keep it that way on some level. I want her to make informed decisions for herself so I know at some point she'll take notice of local radio, but maybe by then she'll have metal in her blood enough to enjoy it for life.....

scottmitchell74 wrote:

FatFreddy - That's my exact experience....all these guys I work with are stuck in a 70's/80's time warp and anything that came out after they turned 18-19-20 is "new fangled" or modern....They have ZERO interest in expanding...I feel sorry for them in a way...

Me too! The "lemmings" as you put it (good one!) don't know what they're missing....

I must've spent three years trying to turn one of my friends on to Iced Earth some time ago because I KNEW they'd be right up his alley, but he never seemed interested till "Glorious Burden" came out. Once he heard that, the light finally went on and now he's a diehard, he's collected all their CDs. I was like "F**kin' FINALLY! Maybe NOW you'll listen to me once in a while?"

I turn 37 in December....I hav been a metal head since high school...there as an embarassing period in the early 90's where I deemed metal uncool and dened it...but not for long...

like Freddy said my hair may be shorter an my belly bigger..

my 9 yr old son is a metal lover as well...his fave bands: KISS, ALICE COOPER, ICED EARTH, KING DIAMOND TWISTED SISTER...but he loves it all from cheese to thrash...

I mean he wore a vintage KEEL shirt to school today!!

But I am sure I'll listen to metal until they roll me in the ground..

I think true metalheads are metal for life.I've noticed that the older I get,the heavier my music gets.Sounds kinda crazy but its true.I love coming here and chatting with you guys.You're the only people who understand me.
I will definitely be jammin til death

I'm mid-30's, happily married with twins on the way, yet I see no signs of slowing down or changing my tastes in music anytime soon. Music, heavy or melodic, makes me happy. Not listening to Motorhead or the Beatles would make me un-happy. Why would I do that? There are plenty of other things in the world that makes me un-happy that I have no control over.

"Metal is forever!!!!"-Primal Fear

I came to the conclusion at 30 that I was a "metal lifer" and that there was no point in doing anything other than be proud of it. Most of my metal buddies left it when the grunge thing took.

I'm engaged to a wonderful woman, who at least is understanding of all the music, and we want to have children right away. I would hope that I can pass on to them a love of metal; or at least the ability to love musically whatever they love regardless of what is "in".

I think of the fifty+ type guy with the grey hair/beard with glasses who has the new concert shirt pulled over the top of whatever he was wearing that you always see at every show . He is usually having the most fun. I've always said that twenty/thirty years from now I want to be that guy.

jstate wrote:

I think of the fifty+ type guy with the grey hair/beard with glasses who has the new concert shirt pulled over the top of whatever he was wearing that you always see at every show . He is usually having the most fun. I've always said that twenty/thirty years from now I want to be that guy.

Amen brother!! I can't wait till my kids are old enough to go to concerts. I wanna take'em to a Metallica show so I can be be the fifty-ish guy with a bald spot, grey beard and a beer belly, wearing a vintage AND JUSTICE FOR ALL tour shirt and yelling out the names of songs that Metallica haven't played live in twenty years at the top of my lungs... I can already hear my kids saying to their friends "Who, that guy? No, that's not my Dad. I've never seen him before in my life."

I have taken my son to several concerts aleady...his first at the age of 6 was DEF LEPPARD..

Since then: JOURNEY,DEF LEPPARD (again), ALICE COOPER, WEDNESDAY 13, JOAN JETT...

going to try and get us tix to KING DIAMOND & KREATOR in March..I'm just worried he won't get to see anything as it's a no seats venue...and I'd have to gethim up front....

Maybe security would show pity and let him sit on the stage edge....

The last two posts? Awesome!!! I have the same dream FatFreddy!! My 7 year old fell in love with Dio a couple years ago and has been hounding me to go see him. I've told her when she's 10 (hoping lil' gramps is still rocking) we'll go. I'm hoping she's still interested by then!

Shiney wrote:

Maybe security would show pity and let him sit on the stage edge....

...or sit on one of the bones of King's cross.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

The last two posts? Awesome!!! I have the same dream FatFreddy!! My 7 year old fell in love with Dio a couple years ago and has been hounding me to go see him. I've told her when she's 10 (hoping lil' gramps is still rocking) we'll go. I'm hoping she's still interested by then!

I hope she's still interested by then, and that ol'Ronnie is still performing (not to mention still ALIVE, haha)

I'm only 13 years old but I have something to say.

You're not thinking that your the adult that you're suposed to be but I don't imagine myself growing up without this music. Some people are like: ''Yeah, when I was young and stupid I was listening to Metal but now I'm an adult...'' What the f*ck are you saying!?!?! Shut your f*cking mouth and just tell everyone that this music was your and is still your (Not talking about you Spectrefate)! I can't imagine me in 10 years and saying that.

I'll be 50 years old next year, so listen up! I already formed my thoughts around this concerning another hobby a long time ago (Sports gaming). When I was a teen our older brothers looked at that hobby as a "phase" that we were gonna grow out of; but it never happened for any of the guys that were really into it. I've known many guys who went to their graves in their 80's still playing "that stupid kids game"(those were the APBA players: my generation plays Strat-o-matic). I think it's the same with metal. The phenomenon occuring here is that I think what people do as teenagers is assumed to be a function of being a teenager; when in fact it actually proves to be a hobby that's common to each particular generation that they tend to stay interested in throughout life. It's the casual fans (I won't call them poseurs but...) that "grow out of it".

I love classic rock, but I can't stand classic rock radio. I'm always learning about bands that I missed the first time around, and my interests have expanded in many directions, both toward the past and the future. Most of the stuff that I listened to in the 70's has been lovingly and respectfully "retired"; things just get played out for me eventually. But I fill the space with music that is new to me, if not actually new per se.
I admit since 2000 I have been having trouble keeping a grasp on newer music; a sort of "metal fatigue" I guess. I find it very disturbing, but part of it has to do with the fact that I have heard so much music, and sometimes get a "been there, done that" feeling from some newer bands. Many newer power metal bands that I recognize as kick ass in principle do tend to bore me, I seem to need some kind of proggy twist or something for it to hold my interest these days.
But yes, most of the people here will be listening to metal in the old folks home, I have no doubt about that at all. If we're not deaf by then, that is.

i'm married, own my own home, own my own business, own a few vehicles, pay all my taxes & bills, & bust my butt every day to keep it all up. that makes me as grown up & adult as my parents ever were. any hobbies or entertrainment interests i may have has nothing to do with my being an adult.

also, my 15 year old nephew is now a father, so spawning children has nothing to do with adulthood either.

Shiney wrote:

Maybe security would show pity and let him sit on the stage edge....

Or some poor father is going to have some sore shoulders the next morning.

I started to listen to mellower stuff in the 90s because it was all I could really find. I live in a small town here in southern NM and I really thought that metal had died.

Once I discovered the magic of the internet, I quickly got back up to speed. The internet has revolutionized the power and scope of the underground scene. METAL!!

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Once I discovered the magic of the internet, I
quickly got back up to speed. The internet has revolutionized the power
and scope of the underground scene. METAL!!

Good point and very true....I'm always way late to technologies and trends, but finding No Life Til Metal about 3 years ago and then Tri-Rock about 2 -2.25 years ago and then the CMR and Ult's Ultimatum board right on 2 years ago have caught me way up on metal.

I was stuck in an early-mid 90's Time Warp right until Fall of 2005. Literally the only Metal I bought up to that point were bands I knew from the 80's / 90's and about 1/2 dozen I'd learned about on the radio. On Tri-Rock in Sept./Oct. 2005 I heard Masterplan, Rob Rock and Astral Doors. That was my intro into a whole new world. I've since boughts hundreds of CD probably quadrupling my collection and I've had a metal Renaissance! I had never left Metal, I just listened to those same couple dozen bands forever.....

Good posts y'all. And I can relate to this. I grew up with many metalhead friends, but today I'm the only one left. I have a friend with a vinyl collection that nearly overgoes my CD collection. But he hasn't bought a new album during the last decade, almost. I have another good frind that tirned me onto Sabbat and other cool bands during the late 80's. He didnæt even know that Sabbat are now reformed. He doesn't pay attention to his favorite bands, like Annihilator and Running Wild any more.

hell i just wished i could het a girlfriend let alone get married. in fact someone i had my eye on is no longer single i discover once i came back from spain

i need advice in talking to girls. i alread have a new target lol