There's is a thread asking how people got into metal, this is not what this thread is about. What I want to know is how your music tastes have evolved throughout your life. Here's my musical evolution:

I got my first single when I was 4, my father asked me if I wanted a single (was still on vinyl back then, which does make me feel a bit old), I was over the moon, and immediately grabbed Status Quo's In the Army Now. My first musical memories are of Elvis Presley who my mother listened to all the time and Michael Jackson, my mother had bought the Thriller album on tape and I listened to it all the time. For my 4th birthday, my father asked what I wanted, I asked him for two posters for my bedroom, you've probably guessed, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. My father didn't really want to buy me them, he wanted me to have a toy or something but my mam said that if I wanted the posters then he should get me them (Michael Jackson was still black on the poster, that to makes me feel old). After that my next souvenir was asking for Europe's Final Countdown for Christmas just before my sixth birthday, my mam gave me an old vinyl player so I could listen to it in my room, which I did all the time. I also spent most of my Sundays playing music for my mam, I'd get the vinyls out and play them for hours. My favorites were Elvis, The Stranglers and some of the Beatles stuff. My parents never really listened to rock, my father doesn't listen to much music and my mam is mainly a fan of 70s pop. However, I do remember my father playing the Moody Blues when he was of work, he used to make me and my brother believe that the voices on the tape were aliens talking to us. After that, when I moved to France, I started to listen to pop music, the dance scene from the early 1990s, I had problems settling in because I was different (being English) and wanted to fit in the best posible so listened to music I didn't really like. The fist CD I bought was Bon Jovi's Cross Roads when I was 12. Then I got Michael Jackson's History, I bought it for the CD with his old tracks, the other I hardly ever listened to. When I turned 14, I decided that I would only listen to music I liked and that if I didn't fit in, then it didn't matter. I immediately felt more confortable with myself.

When I was 14, I discovered metal through Korn's Life Is Peachy and Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children, then Antichrist Superstar. A friend made a tape of Korn and Manson for me, I listened to these loads. When I got some money, I bought some bands that I had wanted for a long time. I got the first two Oasis albums, Blurs Parklife and Countrylife, Garbage's Version 2, the Prodigy's Music For the Jilted Generation then Fat of the Land and the one's I was dying to get, Nirvana's Nevermind and In Utero. Until I was nearly 16, I only listened to these albums, I was young still and had to save my pitiful pocket money up to buy any CD I wanted. In the summer of 1998, my father got me a job working for him. With this money I bought heavier albums. Coal Chamber's debut, Korn's first two, Soulfly's debut, Cradle of Filth's Cruelty bought thee orchids...When I was 16, I met my ex-girlfriend who introduced me to punk, for many years I listened to metal (the popular kind, as that's all I knew of, Calais being small and basically non metal) and punk in all it's forms, from classic 70s stuff to Hardcore of the 80s, through Street and Skate punk. Rancid, NOFX, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Exploited...I started to listen to more extreme metal when I started to attend Universtity, at the age of 19.

This period was my favorite, I made loads of discoveries. When I was in high school, I had asked people to lend me Metallica and Slayer alums to see if I would like them. Everybody would lend me Load or Divine Intervention, which I consider even to this day crap. At Uni, I met someone who finally introduced to real Metallica and Slayer and I immediately started listening to old school thrash metal. Remember this was before internet was massively available so it was hard to get hold of bands. In 2002, I discovered scandinavian mellow death metal and bought Arch Enemy, In Flames and Soilwork albums immediately. At this time, I still listened to punk and popular metal, along with some softer rock like, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Silverchair... When at Uni, I formed a death metal band and after six months, the band ended in a way that put me of music for a long time. By this time, I had internet and had discovered hundreds of bands, some good, others rubish. During a period of 18 months, I hardly listened to music (just some stuff like Norah Jones, Nancy Sinatra...) and didn't lift my guitar once. When I started listening to heavy stuff again, I was disspaointed with what was coming out, all the bands I'd loved where now bringing out albums of lesser quality. I decided to start looking at bands for the 70s, bands of who I knew a couple of songs that I appreciated.

For a long time, I didn't listen to much metal at all (appart from the classic thrash bands that I still enjoyed). I discovered albums that I hadn't listened to before. AC/DC, Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Led Zeppelin, Bob Seger, Bad Company. Deep Purple...I listened to a lot of classic rock and hard rock and loved most of it. This is still one of the genre's I listen to the most today. In 2008, I started to listen to metal again but having listened to classic rock and hard rock for a long period, I became more receptif to bands I disliked beofre, like Maiden, Priest, GNR, and a lot of the eighties metal scene. Today, my musical tastes have never been as broad, I've always considered myself pretty ecclectic when it comes to music, but today, I've never been so openminded. When I look back at my musical evolution, I've no regrets. Some bands I used to listen to a lot before may not interest me as much today but they are all part of what I am as a person.

Well this ended up being longer than I'd expected but I thought it would be interesting to see how people's taste evolve over years.

I started listening to music at the age of seven or eight, for starters i listened to bands like backstreet boys mainly pop, at the age of 13 i started listening to Eminem he was my favorite singer, then i got into linkin park, korn, system of a down, my breakthrough into metal was when i first listend to Iron Maiden and Metallica and there was no turning back now i only listen to metal, once you reach the top you never look down

up til i was 11 i can summarize my musical culture in the following sentence: Backstreet Boys were my favorite group. nuff said haahha

When i was 11 i started listening to heavier sonorities such as.... limp bizkit then at 14(mostly in the 2004/2005 winter) i became majorly hooked on linkin park and realized that i preferred pop-rock from all the genres and decided to become a rocker that's exactly what i thought hahaha how cheesy is that, anyway like i said i was a total LP fanboy. and this girl from my class i asked if she had compilation cd's with rock and shit like that and she gave me one with black sabbath's 'forbidden' album, many ballads, some iron maiden songs(2 minutes to midnight included, which is still my favorite track by them), manowar's heart of steel and the crown and the ring, some dream theater songs(from their first 2 albums, including my all time favorite of them Pull Me Under), gave me another one with staind, Rammstein's Mutter album, nickelback, ozzy and red hot chili peppers which made me appreciate nickelback and ozzy and for a while i was majorly hooked on RHCP.

then, that summer, something wicked came my way, lol. my sister had this friend who was a huge slipknot fan and she asked her on behalf of me for some music. she gave me a CD with System of a Down, The 69 Eyes, Slipknot and Hammerfall's first 3 albums. now if the maiden tracks on the other cd made me interested in heavier music, this shit got me completely HOOKED. i remember playing Cossacks - the Art of War and the song Stone Cold from their first album was playing, i thought "hmm this chorus is weird, what are they, like a gang of metalheads trying to sound solemn and epic?", but then i found myself singing along and i became a major Hammerfall fanboy. a few months later i started to download metal albums, mostly from power metal bands but i noticed only HF did it for me, so i thought i should just listen to more varied stuff, this was back in the autumn of 2005 when i registered here, seeing the huge Nightwish hype that was in that time i decided to give them a listen and became a total nightwish fanboy till the 2006 winter when i eventually got a little bored of them. by that time i started watching this friday night metal tv show and they played stuff like Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, i know once they played Heaven and Hell by Sabbath, i thought "when the fuck is this gonna end??" lol, and.... Manowar's Warriors of the World United. it was so cheesy, so over-the-top, so simple, so epic, so heavy, so screaming, i couldn't help but fall in love at first listen.

my interest in Manowar made me more receptive to classic heavy metal and i then started listening to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, i first thought Priest was weird, was using way too many cheesy synth effects on their guitars and their 70s albums weren't heavy enough i did like British Steel though(but like a dickhead i never played the first track, the almighty Breaking The Law which i discovered on VH1 rocks, yet another tv show which shaped my liking of metal), listened to lots of stuff which i recently dug back up like Running Wild(me and another user from this site wanted to collaborate with some pirate-themed lyrics hahaha he was from Costa Rica, Aresius was his username) also (this was all happening in the spring of 2006) i got my first guitar(a shitty acoustic one)- that's why my little "making the sexy girls moist and longing" business is established in 2006 , summer came and i started listening to even more stuff, like Pantera, Blind Guardian, Megadeth, Metallica's first 3 albums, Children of Bodom, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Ensiferum(i still cum in my pants when i hear stuff from their first 2 albums) or Slayer(mostly Seasons in the Abyss and Reign in Blood). in the 2006-2007 winter though i figured i should try something else, so on new year's eve i downloaded and watched the almighty DVD of live DVD's, Rising in the East live in Tokio by Priest. i was stunned shocked and had quite an eargasm, the sound quality, the show, the screaming, the songs, the impossibly catchy choruses, the godly guitar-work at the start of Victim of Changes, at that time i've been listening to Priest for a few months before and after that i became a complete utter fanboy for them.

also this just came to mind, but on the first cd i received from my colleague there was also Priest's Painkiller(the song) and when i first heard it i honestly thought "aah, so there's a screaming guy, and the guitarist does the mid-range vocals near the end, cool, i dig that" hahaahhahahahaaha not little was my surprise when i found out it was only one guy! but then again i also thought Ozzy was singing on Forbidden hahahahahaha

in 2007 i also became a moderate iron maiden fan and discovered another one of my favorite bands(i listened to them a bit before but wasn't too impressed, turns out i wasn't listening to the proper material, a mistake i've made with other bands like In Flames and Immortal and to a degree, Judas Priest), Iced Earth which will forever be (at least) no. 2 on my all-time favorite bands podium. from that moment on it all gets a bit blurry, discovered 3 Inches of Blood through my good friend Arian Totalis, Dark Angel's Darkness Descends(which i still find one of the best thrash albums i've ever heard), gave Death a try once(their last album which i didn't find too bad), and it's pretty blurry, i listened to a huge amount of bands from Catamenia to Ayreon, from Therion's Sirius B to Tenacious D.

up until summer-autumn 2008 i didn't have much more discoveries in the metal field, then i started listening to Amon Amarth and i chanced upon a nwobhm compilation on some guy's DC++(WTF would i have done without DC++ i have no idea, i'd probably be listening to Lil Wayne and Akon now) shared files, and i downloaded Angel Witch's first 2 albums. lo and behold, i was a total sucker for nwobhm, and i wanted to check out more bands so i discovered the mighty Saxon, instantly hooked on their song Princess of the Night.

and a few months ago i thought about listening to bands i'll see or might see at festivals(a brilliant move, i've already started doing it again for next year) so i downloaded a massive amount of wacken bands's discographies(i was only a Saxon and Amon Amarth fan then), which opened up another tide of great metal/rock music from UFO to In Flames and Anthrax.

wow, writing this sure brought back a lot of great memories thanks for opening the topic Francois, i know i wouldn't have had the patience to write this in a PM to you haahahaha

Well hard to start
I grove up whit music, I use to watch to lights at magnetafon when I was 3-4 years old maybe 5
Look at my collection non metal, blues, jazz etrc, my father own such tapes, copies, vinies so since child I heard Elivs, Albert Colins, John Lee Hooker, Pit Anderson, Modey Blues, Muddy Watters, Livi, Raimons Pauls(old 60's staff lol ) , John McGlauglin, Ozzy, Iron Maiden (dont remeber what), Whitsnake, Cecil Taylor and so on so what my father listening I listened to,

Leither age 8-10 there was MTV well Beavis n Butthead was my chose, each friday even I didnt know konverstaion n english beck then I liked them, then Headbangers Ball followed, so evenm I didnt know bands well music was good, but I do remeber MTV video ZZ Top, Ac/Dc ''Big Guns'' , GnR ''You Could Be Mine'' some Pet Shop Boys. well then beck in 1995 I stop listen music till 1997 since I didnt like it anymore,
Then I gropw up and start listen old tapes, vinys etc and latvian hard rock Livi, Rebel, Opus Pro, Credo, Linga and so on

I was outlaw beck then, non in school didnt like me, I was lil smarter, diferent, I sit home look books, old papers, old magasines about sportt music, listen old radio where I catch diferent muisc from diefrent lands and meatr some guys who was into rock, metal ,blues. Thet were outlaws to and one was older R.I.P. bro I get MP for you one day , revenge be done. He' had about 3000 metal records moustly from his elder brother R.I.P so I didnt know names but it was loud n heavy
age 15-18 I was in metal Overkill, X Blocks, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Sadist, Nocturnus etc what was possible get beck then in local pirat market

So VH1, VH1 Classic, Planet Rock Radio(Tank Montana), Total Rock(Crushers Metal Mayhem), MCM2 Top Rock, Top Metal in tuesdays , then age 17-18 i net but moust I start use it at 21 and found MS, MA, Gothmetal.net, doom-metal.com and at age 21 I fell in love whit DOOM, sinec I start know one guy who was doomster to, well then 4 years deep in MA; MS and you know the rest, I sacrifiece some parties, drinkings, fucking(literaly n not literaly) in name of MS, MS and metal, well fuck the real world, long live real world(INTERNET)
You know the rest

Its short story

EDDIT: Whle Im writing , Valentin B alreday post
Well Marcel, Richard, Hanna, Conemetal, Bitter Cold, Dismeal stories be more interesting ... al starts in 70's lol more to read

Written by Valentin B on 22.09.2009 at 22:40

wow, writing this sure brought back a lot of great memories thanks for opening the topic Francois, i know i wouldn't have had the patience to write this in a PM to you haahahaha

No worries , I've been thinking about this topic for a while and your PM this morning made me decide to do so. Interesting stories, I find seeing how people's tastes evolve and grow over the years. Keep the stories coming.

I was (am) raised in a strong christian household. When I was maybe 10 or so my parents started buying me Christian rock cd's. I thought they were alright, but the whole Jesus thing started to get a little repetative, so I began listening to mainstream radio. For the next two years I was hooked on Green Day and Linkin Park. Needless to say they got borring after a while. When I was about 14 a kid in my class at school brought up the name Slipknot. I had heard of Slipknot, but never actually listened to them. I went home and listened to them and it was as if a portal into the world of metal had been opened (Cheezy, I know) Slipknot led to Disturbed and Manson, which led to Children of Bodom and Static-X (still one of my favorites). Around the age of 15 I noticed some of my friends were getting into metal as well. Now probably 70% of my friends are major metal fans. My friends and I now make a point of discovering new bands and sharing interesting findings (this website is a boon). My favorite generes right now are industrial metal, and streight up death metal. For some reason or another I've never been able to get into thrash or grindcore, but black metal (especially blackened death) has been growing on me.

I was about 13 or 14, when finally started listening to modern music...first it came euro dance pop through radio i listened in the begining (i can remember croatian Karma from that period, or italian DJ Gabry Ponte)...then i were slowly meeting "harder" bands, though it was Linkin Park, Greed Day, Blink 182, etc. and besides them spanish ska-punk gods SKA-P...first i ever heard a metal song, it was Fear Of The Dark in the end of my first grade on gymnasium (us high school equivalent)...but it took another two years, meanwhile i was still enjoying "radio pop rock", before Nightwish came, before Ghost Love Score came and i finally sunk into metal...first it was Nightwish, Sonata, Rhapsody, Edguy, so pure power metal...in that time i blamed harsh vocals for being unbearable, but as the time flows i changed my opinion...if i remembered correctly it started with Summoning, this was the first band with not clean vocals i enjoy - it started with Mirdautas Vras or Land Of The Dead...after that i realize i am liking harsh vocals too, when the music is "melodic enough", there it starts folk metal period, later turned into black/folk/pagan period...iam still listening to power metal too, but i am now not closed to practically any metal genre - only i somehow still cant find anything in thrash and not liking all from advantgarde and progressive styles

Everything started when I was 6 years old if I remember correctly. We had a movie called Fantasia. An extremely good and kind of overlooked classic from Disney with not really an especific plot but animations that told stories mixed with one of the most beautiful things my ears at that time ever heard:
Classic Music, I thought I was in heaven, I still get the chills and tears in my eyes everytime I hear the music from that movie... I moved me deeply.

From that point I knew that I wanted to live around music for my entire life. At that time I had a stepbrother [which is still to this days a very close person to me since we growed up for 6 years] and he was 7 years older than me. Ever since I remembered he liked rock and metal so I was this little brother who wanted to do what the big brother did and specially because I wanted to continue my musical journey.
At 7 years old I started listening to bands like Nirvana, Korn, Limp Bizkit, System Of A Down... Since my stepbrother got new music, I discovered new things. I discovered Rhapsody and at that time I thought that the mix between metal and the classical music I so much loved was completely brilliant.
Nowdays I don't like power metal anymore, but I still give some huge credits to Rhapsody for being one of the first metal stuff I heard together with other bands like Rammstein and Mägo de Oz.

My musical journey from 7 years old too 10 was without any changes. The musical decay started with my my step father leaving the house and since my step brother went with him too, I got no music to listen too. I was empty... Between 11-12 years old I didn't listened to music. Now that I think of it, it was a really sad time for me since I never knew what I wanted to do, I never talked to too many people since I never met a child that enjoyed music [any kind of music] as much as I did. I felt like some kids took music for granted while for me it was the main reason for me to live on.

Since I never knew what I wanted to do with my money [apart from some cards games, comics and a little candy] I discovered that I saved a lot [a lot for me at that time] of money and I thought: "This is it, I'm gonna buy cds"
So at 12 years old I went to a cd store with my older sister and searched for something, I saw "Rhapsody - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II - The Dark Secret" . My first album ever [Cd I still have in good conditions].
It's actually a pretty meh-album but when I put my finger on the play buttom, I thought that I was traveling to the old days when I listened to music on a daily basis, loving every second of it.

I moved to Sweden for family reasons, and I knew that the possibilities to buy cds were better here. I was excited. I started again with the bands I knew. Rhapsody and Rammstein... then I discovered Nightwish. I was really into Power and symphonic metal at that time.
When I was 14, I went curious about what my older sister was listening to. She first thought that I wouldn't like it but I insisted, It was my first time listening to Opeth and also the first time I checked out metal a bit more extreme. My musical taste started growing really fast from there.
I got easily into Black metal, at first it was kind of difficult but I was digging the more symphonic stuff like Dimmu Borgir [remember that at that time it was barely months ago I was still ínto power metal].
Day after day I longed for more and more sxtreme or difficult-to-get-into stuff. Not because I wanted to show off people who krieg was I, but because I wanted to try new things every day.

That's how I got into Black and Doom metal between 14-15. And to these days they are still my favorite metal genres ever. There's something behind those genres I find extremely good and essential to my life. I'm 16 [though I'm gonna be 17 soon]... and my evolution from power metal to extreme metal wasn't for a long time ago, but I still see that time as something really old to me, like if down deep inside me I knew that I wanted to listen to other stuff, but never knew what. Now I'm really happy with my results and I know that I'm gonna keep discovering new bands, new genres, new music... Music that like I said before, is the main reason to why I see life as something so precious.

I wrote more than I thought I was gonna do... As side-note. I'm really interested in tattoos, I don't want by body full of them, I don't like that at all. But I totally know what I want...
I'm gonna have a tattoo showing a conductor since my first contact with music that changed my life forever was with this guy... The way he directed the orchestra, the way he moved his arms. When I was 6 years old I was scarred but also amazed by how glorious and mighty he looked. I felt huge respect for this guy who I don't know at all [I know his name though] but also [and more important] huge respect for music.
That image of him directing an orchestra got stuck in my head, representing everything music was and still is to me.

Uh well, I'm not gonna read other guys' posts.

I didn't care about music at all untill I was like 11 or 12, when I started following on tv programs like Top of the Pops. So my first passio was the generic radio pop single, I even started listening to the radio during my homework on the afternoon (still today, I listen to music almost non stop).

My first favorite band was blink 182, as long as my cousin gave me one of their cd. My taste changed slightly and I started liking pop punk (well, mostly blink 182 but I didn't despise Green Day). (I was 13-14 then) Buying a pc was the next step, you know, I had the chance to know a lot of more stuff, yet I didn't have a defined taste and I still listened mostly to radio hits. (Also because I had no internet at first)

In July 2005 I got an awesome present for my name's day: a friend got me into metal making me listening to Kill'em All. I was like shocked, I couldn't stop listening to that. He was right when he had said that my music taste would have changed after hearing that. So I got interested in Metallica, and I was again blown by Master of Puppets.

Another important step was made in April 2006, when a metalhead that lives near my house gave me some cds containing all Pantera and CoB albums, three by Sepultura, a couple by Cradle of Filth, three or four by In Flames and Morbid Angel's Domination + some random songs, many by Slayer, that become one of my favorite bands, together with CoB. So at that point I had a lot of stuff to listen to and since I started recommending stuff to some classmates, I got them to look for other stuff. That way I knew Yngwie Malmsteen, just to make a name. I started downloading a lot of stuff and knowing a lot of different bands and metal genres when I finally got a non stop internet connection. But there was not a lot outside metal.

Last December I started talking to a MSer who is really important to me, since thanks to her, I've started listening to other stuff OUTSIDE metal. We both shared the passion for some metal bands like Opeth and Moonsorrow but I realised there's a whole world that includes jazz, post-rock, hip-hop, electronic music, shoegaze. She made me sign to RateYourMusic, a site that has helped me too. Today I can proudly say that I listen to a lot of stuff. Of course there's a lot of music that I still don't dig (or I never will) like most of noise and some hip hop but at least I try.

Written by Valentin B on 22.09.2009 at 22:40

up til i was 11 i can summarize my musical culture in the following sentence: Backstreet Boys were my favorite group. nuff said haahha

Woot! That's sad. I listened to Backstreet Boys at age 7 or so.


A short summary about me:
Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, listening to dad who's playing guitar & his old cassettes with Brian Adams, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and a lot of Scorpions.
Age 9 to 11 - all the popular shit on the radio.
Age 12 to 14 - Good Charlotte, Blink182 (+ age 13 - Korn, Moonspell, Slipknot, Disturbed, Clawfinger, Saliva).
Age 14 to 15 - Dimmu Borgir, Bloodbath, Aborted, Leaves' Eyes, All-American Rejects, power noise (Haus Arafna) & The Retrosic.
Age 16 to 17 - all the good things. Loads of black metal bands. Teh br00tal stuff.
Age 18+ - A bit of (almost) everything. I'm not scared of NOT listening to metal all the time.


Uff. EDIT: Two years from year 2001 I listened to classical music and lots of Alanis Morisette (it happened to be on my computer back then). I had forgotten about it, lol. That's like... age 10. I didn't have internet back then. :/

EDIT#2: I had a 3 year long period of loving Avril Lavigne's music. Since 2002 till 2005. D I forgot about it either.

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, listening to dad who's playing guitar & his old cassettes with Brian Adams, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and a lot of Scorpions.


Uff. EDIT: Two years from year 2001 I listened to classical music and lots of Alanis Morisette (it happened to be on my computer back then). I had forgotten about it, lol. That's like... age 10. I didn't have internet back then. :/

ehh Scorpions, damn I wish more understood menaing od song ''Winds Of Change'' even how cheasy it was

Okay, here it goes.

My first musical memory is Queen. I can remember mom playing their tape over and over since I was three years old. We still play that same tape in the car whenever we go to my grandma. To this day I still love Queen and consider them to be one of the best Rock bands out there. During my early years I also remember my mother playing Judas Priest, Aerosmith, AC/DC and Pink Floyd. Those bands didn't really stick with me though and it would take years before I re-discovered Judas again and really became a fan.
When I was five I found my mom's KISS records. Those guys where probably the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. I sat there looking at the "Alive" and "Dynasty" covers for hours.

After those years it took a while. I wasn't really much for music, at all. When I was eleven I moved to Stockholm and had to meet a lot of new people and friends. There was some guys there who had just discovered Iron Maiden. These guys soon became my best friends, and still is. One of them showed me the Rock in Rio version of "Fear of the Dark" and the "Aces High" video. This changed my life forever. Suddenly music was something really good, something to spend your time with. Soon we also discovered Metallica and this was around when "St. Anger" was released. And that's probably why I also love Metallica's later years.

I don't know how we came across Children of Bodom. But "Bodom After Midnight" changed our lives, this was something new! Growls? It's kinda good... no, great in fact. "Everytime I Die" became a milestone for me, could music really be this great? We listened to these three bands, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Children of Bodom for years. They where the only ones for us. For me.

Then it came. I was 13. I had just started buying CD:s. My shelf included "Dance of Death", "Metallica" and "Somewhere in Time". A record store had sales on Metallica albums. I really wanted "ReLoad" since it had the amazing "The Unforgiven II". But the day before I had seen a guy on TV claiming that "Master of Puppets" was the best album of all time. What should I do? I thought I would regret it, but I bought Puppetz. Popped it in my Walkman and pressed play. "Battery" as an intro was great, this was some raw and heavy stuff. The next track would change my life forever. Everything I thought I knew about myself would just vanish. The title track - "Master of Puppets" - I still have no words for what I felt or thought during those eight minutes. I think I was all empty. This was the best shit I had heard in my entire life! It still is. No song will ever be this good. I didn't pass track 2 for days. It was "Battery" and then "Master of Puppets". I just knew that there was no better song, so why bother listening further for the moment? This was my Metal moment, when I truly became a Metalhead and understood that nothing in this world is more great than music.

Yeah, there's not much more to tell. I still listened to those three bands 'til I was 15. Then came Norther and In Flames, Metal Storm too. After that I began searching for more bands and I guess I'm still in that same place today. What's important is those years between "Fear of the Dark" and "Master of Puppets". This story doesn't at all explain how I became such a Black and Progressive Metal fan, the interesting part is my overall Metalhead saga.

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears

I feel for you.

Written by Haddonfield on 25.09.2009 at 22:03

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears

I fell for you.

...I'm a barbie girl, in the barbie wooooorld
I was so blond (IRL), stupid and pink then. It's sad for me to remember that time. But oh, I liked her a lot. Listened to her each day. Ew.

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Written by Valentin B on 22.09.2009 at 22:40

up til i was 11 i can summarize my musical culture in the following sentence: Backstreet Boys were my favorite group. nuff said haahha

Woot! That's sad. I listened to Backstreet Boys at age 7 or so.


A short summary about me:
Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, listening to dad who's playing guitar & his old cassettes with Brian Adams, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and a lot of Scorpions.
Age 9 to 11 - all the popular shit on the radio.
Age 12 to 14 - Good Charlotte, Blink182 (+ age 13 - Korn, Moonspell, Slipknot, Disturbed, Clawfinger, Saliva).
Age 14 to 15 - Dimmu Borgir, Bloodbath, Aborted, Leaves' Eyes, All-American Rejects, power noise (Haus Arafna) & The Retrosic.
Age 16 to 17 - all the good things. Loads of black metal bands. Teh br00tal stuff.
Age 18+ - A bit of (almost) everything. I'm not scared of NOT listening to metal all the time.


Uff. EDIT: Two years from year 2001 I listened to classical music and lots of Alanis Morisette (it happened to be on my computer back then). I had forgotten about it, lol. That's like... age 10. I didn't have internet back then. :/

EDIT#2: I had a 3 year long period of loving Avril Lavigne's music. Since 2002 till 2005. D I forgot about it either.

Damn from Black Sabbath and AC/DC at 8 to Good Charlotte till 14 is a HUUUUUGE step back

Yeah, well, it's just GC was one of the first real bands (Backstreet Boys doesn't count) I found out on my own. And hey, I had my crazy teen period!

Written by Ragana on 26.09.2009 at 00:39

Yeah, well, it's just GC was one of the first real bands (Backstreet Boys doesn't count) I found out on my own. And hey, I had my crazy teen period!

In my tean period I never ever listen those bands so called us colege bands. some who was alternative lil was angry to me, I was whit jazz, blues, or true n real metal

What is that animal called "true and real metal", huh?

Written by Ragana on 26.09.2009 at 00:27

I was so blond (IRL), stupid and pink then.

I'm glad things changed for you.

Yeah sooooooooooooooo...

Early school years: Alt. rock music on teh radio (Alanis Morisette) and shitty 80's synth pop/new wave.
Middle school: Queen, Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Zeppelin saved me. Also, at the time I hung onto 80's stuff like The Cure and Joy Division... What I would find out to be post-punk later.
High School: Started out liking Power Metal/Symphonic (Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica, Nightwish), and then got tired of it. Discovered the legendary composer that is Frank Zappa and still worship his ghost. Got into progressive rock/metal towards the end of high school.
Post-high school/college years: Acquired a taste for more "extreme" types of metal (Black and death). Currently, I am getting tired of a lot of stuff I used to like. I've been listening to more jazz, ambient, and avantgarde music. Keeping things fresh.

My nationaly teen pop -> metal: power metal -> thrash metal --> black metal and EPIC stuff ---> Doom/funeral doom/death doom etc & depressive black metal ------> NOW: metalcore/hardcore/thrash/death/brutal death/alternative for FIGHTING & sometimes some good positive LOVE song even pop/alternative/regagge. Hehe, nice evolution, huh?

Notes: I start taking care of music since secondary high school.

Short version: Serbian folk/dance combination -> electronic music -> pop -> rap -> metal (power -> heavy -> folk -> gothic -> prog -> gothic -> symponic).

Long version: I had quite a number of leaps while 'musically evolving'. Ok, as most of people, I started with radio/tv music, a shitty mix of Serbian folk and '90's dance music, commonly known as 'turbo-folk'. I wasn't really into music at the time (elementary school), so I listened what everybody else did.

At the end of the el. school, I got introduced to Prodigy and Scooter by a couple friends, starting an electronic music phase in my life (~age 14), which ended after a years or so, with me figuring out that the most of it was utter crap . Didn't get attached to any of the artists of the genre (well, I still like Prodigy), maybe because I listened mostly to compilations.

Then, there was a short MTV pop phase (Avril, Pink etc), lasting that one summer (was it 2003?). Latter that year, I got into rap/hip-hop (never knew the difference), introduced to me by high school friends. I liked some of it a lot (and I still do, if not a lot, and rarely listen to it), namely Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Atmosphere, some Serbian rap. This period for me ended when rap started moving toward that RNB crap (so pretty quickly ).

Lastly, I got into metal, in a pretty stupid manner. Was at my friend's one day, and he was having a metal phase of his own. He played me the Hammerfall's "Hearts On Fire" video (omg what a crap with all those poorly animated skeletons ), which didn't grab much of my attention. But, a couple days after that, I was listening something in Winamp, and found myself just pressing 'next' over and over again - everything just seemed boring. I went to my friends again, this time with a couple blank CD's and asked him to burn me some of that 'shit' he played me the other day (the irony is that his 'metal phase' ended soon after that) - and he put Hammerfall, Metallica and Blind Guardian on the two discs. Needless to say, I liked it.

Not to say I listened to metal exclusively - there was also R.E.M., Loreena Mckennitt, SOAD, Hevia, Gorillaz...But, soon I learned about Nigthwish, Helloween, Masterplan, which are to this day some of my favorite bands. Then came a Rainbow (and Blackmore's Night), Whitesnake - an '80s tryout, which, except the aforementioned bands left me unsatisfied. At this point I was mainly into power metal, listening the likes of At Vance, Altaria, Iron Savior, Iron Fire (never liked Rhapsody much), Avantasia, Freedom Call, Sonata Arctica etc.
With this pool soon depleted, I went looking for something different, and it came from a college friend - a disc containing Ensiferum, Korpiklaani and Finntroll, thus starting a folk metal phase.

Next in the line was a Within Temptation adoration phase, followed by Yngwie's shredding eargasms, to be replaced with the vocal prowess of Jorn Lande, to be replaced with the genius of Arjen Lucassen. After that I wanted something a bit more heavy, thus finding out of Grave Digger, Kiuas and Sabaton. Another 'gothic phase' followed, this time with bands such as Epica, Xandria, Sirenia, Nemesea and Tristania.
Somewhere before this point my girlfriend pointed out Therion's Gothic Kabbalah to me, but I really came to adore them after coming to possession of their complete discography in lossless format. Searching for something akin I found out of Hollenthon, and still need to listen out Haggard.

At the moment, I cannot point out a single band or genre that dominates from my speakers. Winamp's playlist contains Therion, Rebellion, Sons Of Sessions, Sonata Arctica, Ensiferum, Leaves' Eyes, Crimfall...

Also, despite that apparently every metalhead and his dog are into Iron Maiden, every metalhead is into Opeth, and while every other is into Black Sabbath/Megadeath, I never really got into any of these bands, despite giving them a fair listen (and in IM's case, going to a concert).

Really simple for me as it forks out as a two way branch...

Played the Piano since 4 and violin since 5, so it's all classical music all the way, but only started the appreciate it properly since around 14/15, especially Bach, Vivaldi and Debussy, then later Mozart (I mean properly) while started to get into Blues and Jazz. Totally disregarded pop music in general, partially because I didn't get exposed to it much as I lived in Hong Kong for most part of my life, so the radio does not play much American / Euro pop stuff, rather some god awful canto pop (just realised the genre is getting worse when I went back to HK a couple weeks ago).

Then when I was 18, I so happened to stumble across Evanesence's Bring me to Life and I couldn't stop myself from listening to the band. Half a year later my old room mate introduced me to Within Temptation, which I totally dug into due to the Symphonic elements, while around the same time I decided to check out Ride The Lightning by Metallica as I've heard the name many times from God-knows-where. Couldn't stand the vocals at first, but I really liked the intrumental "Call Of The Ktulu", and eventually this album became one of my all time favourites. After going to univeristy, my ex-girlfriend told me about Nightwish, Apocalyptica and To-Mera. I really liked (still do) with the blend of female vocals, symphonic arrangements and "Power". Apocalyptica was cool too as the first album I listened to was "Cult", so it had some of their own songs and some Metallica covers. To-Mera was the first Progressive Metal band I listened to and I was very blown away by it, though at that time I didn't know anything about that genre, as she also told me about Dream Theater which I found (and still find) incredibly boring.

At the same time my friends and I went out clubbing a lot so I got exposed fully to mainstream pop, house, trance, rap, hip-hop and R&B. So till this day I still check out most of the hit singles out there (= So yes, this is one of the "branches" that I am talking about. Mainstream pop like Madonna, Timbaland and many others gets played a lot in my iTunes

The second branch was of course back to metal again, when I started to look up metal stuff on wikipedia and tried out Lacuna Coil, Epica and then Kamelot. For a while I was content, but then curiosity overcame me and I tried COB and Tarot, then eventually found my way to MS early this year. A whole new world opened up to me, especially with the awards where I discovered band after band (some I liked but some I don't of course). I started with Symphonic and Power due to my leanings towards Kamelot and Nightwish, then Heavy, Melodic Death, Gothic and Prog. More recently I started to like Doom, especially after hearing the latest Forsaken, Isole and Candlemass, then I also started to like Thrash, which I never really liked other than the pre-90's material of Metallica and I have no idea what changed my mind. Of course I am still exploring as I am relatively new to Metal, and I have to say I now enjoy Avantgarde as well as certain Black as well...

There are still plenty that I intend to check out while my horizons continue to expand, but I am almost certain that I won't like goregrind and that sort of thing...

Well...let's see...

My first musical memories are from when I was about four or five; The only bands I remember from then are Toto, Styx, and Les Dudek. I still listen to Toto and Styx regularly. It looked like I'd continue down the classic rock road, but I made a complete turn to listening almost exclusively to the Backstreet Boys from about six to eight. Luckily I escaped that phase and then was back on track listening to classic rock acts such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, etc. Aerosmith was my favorite band at the time. I continued listening to only classic rock until high school.

At the beginning of my sophmore year (I'm a senior now), this one guy kept going on and on about "some crazy ass band called Dragonforce." So I checked them out. Up until that point, the only heavy metal I had listened to was Black Sabbath and Metallica, but that's probably true for many people. So the music of Dragonforce just blew me away. I listened to them for a good while before I became tired of them and decided to find other bands like them. That began my journey into power metal, which is still one of my favorite subgenres. I discovered Hammerfall, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Sonata Arctica and many other bands during that time. I had a brief encounter with nu metal, but I decided that really wasn't for me, and the only band I gained out of that was Disturbed. I then moved on to listen to metalcore acts such as Bullet For My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, and Heaven Shall Burn. After that, I discovered bands like Children of Bodom, Norther, Scar Symmetry, and At The Gates. At the time, I thought the first two were melodic death, but after registering at this forum, I learned they were extreme power (something I don't really understand...). I've found I enjoy progressive acts like Dream Theater, Symphony X, and Seventh Wonder a lot, too.

I moved pretty quickly into listening to really great thrash acts like Kreator, Testament, Exodus, and Sodom. Then I started listening to death metal like Suffocation, Vader, and blackened death such as Behemoth. I've recently found I really enjoy a some black metal, like Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, 1349 and Darkthrone.

All in all, I'm pretty much new to metal. Two years isn't really that long. So I'm always looking for bands to check out, and I'm always willing to listen to someone who can tell me something new.

First of all i never liked any kind of Greek music (there are only some exceptions, mainly rock bands).

Now, when i was a kid i used to listen what my father did: some disco music and some other rock bands as Europe, Deep Purple. I was "listening" to this stuff in a very small age -i couldnt even realize the styles and understand the whole meaning of music.

Then, till my 12 years i wasn't hearing a lot to music till a friend of mine wrote me a CD with many songs he liked a lot. It had all styles in it, from "Kama Sutra" to "Eifel 65" and stuff like that. There was one song between those 17 in the CD that took my attention the most. It was "All the small things" from "Blink 182" a punk rock band. So I searched for them and in the Christmass of 2000 i bought my 3 first rock albums: one from Blink 182, one from U2 and one more from Green Day. After this, year by year i was even more to mainstream punk rock with bands as Offspring, Nirvana and other. Also when Nu Metal began i was also listening to that. Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit etc. 3 years later (at 15) i started listening to old stuff, mainly Scorpions. [i forgot to mention that at 14 a friend of mine gave to listen to a song from Iron Maiden and i found it the stupidest thing i had ever heard!]

At 16,5 another friend of mine wrote me my first metal album. It was including 1 song from Metallica (Master of Puppets), 1 from Judas Priest (Painkiller), 5-6 songs from the latest Iron Maiden album (Dance of Death) and 5-6 Helloween songs: at first nothing impressed me except Painkiller. I loved this song, it's speed in the begining (it was the fastest thing i had ever heard) and also the vocals. As the days passed away i fell in love with the Maiden songs and with one Helloween song: I Want Out. the main riff of this song had stucked in my head for more than a month. Really! The only song i never liked was Master Of Puppets! haha!

I searched all the bands i liked from this CD and bought their albums that had the songs i liked. In the summer of that year i started liking Metallica (only the S&M album).

Finally in the end of 2005 i became friends with a guy that was listening to metal, especially Death. He gave me my 2 first "extreme" (for my standards) metal albums [especially because of the non clean vocals]: Icon from Paradise Lost and Kill them All from Metallica. In the begining of 2006 he gave me one day to listen in his mp3 to Kreator cause me and some other kids was laughing at him because he was fanatic with them. The song was Pleasure To Kill. I didn't like it but i was blown away from it's speed. I liked this thing. 6 months later i got my first Kreator album from him just by curiosity: Coma of Souls. At first i didn't like it that much but it took me only 1-2 weeks to love it. It was my first Extreme metal album.

At the end of this year i was rabidly searching for metal songs (no internet till then) and a friend of mine gave me 80 songs in my mp3 including the album Damage Done from Dark Tranquillity. It the first time that i liked deep growling vocals. [As many other, at my first steps in metal i was saying that i'll never hear those disguisting vocals]!!!

After that everything other came easily. It mustn't have passed a day from then that i have not listened to metal. Only in Vacation with friends maybe... That's all..

Written by Haddonfield on 25.09.2009 at 22:03

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears

I feel for you.

today britney spears may sound silly but her first album was very good for that time. almost everyone liked it...

Written by Deadmeat on 08.10.2009 at 11:22

Written by Haddonfield on 25.09.2009 at 22:03

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears

I feel for you.

today britney spears may sound silly but her first album was very good for that time. almost everyone liked it...

Everyone liking something doesn't make it good, I've depised her from the first ever time I saw the Hit Me Baby One More Time Video. I hate shit music that is spoonfed into the lives of the common human being. She cannot sing, her music has nothing really good about it and she is pretty ugly. However, society is brainwashed to believe that her voice is the best thing since Aretha Franklin, that her music is top quality and that she is the epitomy of feminin beauty. I also hated that daft image of the christian virgin she was herself, she was convincing nobody.

Written by Haddonfield on 08.10.2009 at 11:28

Written by Deadmeat on 08.10.2009 at 11:22

Written by Haddonfield on 25.09.2009 at 22:03

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears

I feel for you.

today britney spears may sound silly but her first album was very good for that time. almost everyone liked it...

Everyone liking something doesn't make it good, I've depised her from the first ever time I saw the Hit Me Baby One More Time Video. I hate shit music that is spoonfed into the lives of the common human being. She cannot sing, her music has nothing really good about it and she is pretty ugly. However, society is brainwashed to believe that her voice is the best thing since Aretha Franklin, that her music is top quality and that she is the epitomy of feminin beauty. I also hated that daft image of the christian virgin she was herself, she was convincing nobody.

i also hate everything this girl has done after her first album. she is the worst example for the new generation. but for the pop standards her 1st album is a very good album. also, nobody said that she has a great voice i guess. she sings with her nose. she will never have a really good voice. for her songs her voice may fit. but generally at least in this forum no one said that britney has a great voice i think.

Written by Deadmeat on 08.10.2009 at 13:05

Written by Haddonfield on 08.10.2009 at 11:28

Written by Deadmeat on 08.10.2009 at 11:22

Written by Haddonfield on 25.09.2009 at 22:03

Written by Ragana on 24.09.2009 at 13:09

Age ... to 8 - Britney Spears

I feel for you.

today britney spears may sound silly but her first album was very good for that time. almost everyone liked it...

Everyone liking something doesn't make it good, I've depised her from the first ever time I saw the Hit Me Baby One More Time Video. I hate shit music that is spoonfed into the lives of the common human being. She cannot sing, her music has nothing really good about it and she is pretty ugly. However, society is brainwashed to believe that her voice is the best thing since Aretha Franklin, that her music is top quality and that she is the epitomy of feminin beauty. I also hated that daft image of the christian virgin she was herself, she was convincing nobody.

i also hate everything this girl has done after her first album. she is the worst example for the new generation. but for the pop standards her 1st album is a very good album. also, nobody said that she has a great voice i guess. she sings with her nose. she will never have a really good voice. for her songs her voice may fit. but generally at least in this forum no one said that britney has a great voice i think.

Yep, not in this forum, but the general public, those who thrive of her music and her photoshoped body.

I grew up around music, my father is very much into music so I grew up around Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Deep Purple etc and also a fair amount of classical music. The first metal stuff I remember is basically all the glam stuff: Motley Crue, Poison etc a lot of 80's stuff such as Dokken, Winger etc. I first got into the more extreme stuff in particular black metal with bands such as Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal etc and have never looked backed really. Aside from metal I also grew up around a large degree of rap music due to mates and the like: Slick Rick, Eazy E, Big Daddy Kane, Wu-Tang Clan etc. All in all I've been around music since I can remember and im still around it daily.

For a while I didn't really listen to any one thing. My dad likes folk music and my mum likes prog, and I listened to - well, no genres, basically whatever I found that was good. Then when I was about ten or eleven, I listened to Faith No More's "Angel Dust" and got completely blown away by it. This is how I first got into metal, and for a while it was mainly alt-metal and nu-metal like Korn, Rage Against the Machine and Tool. I eventually got out of this (I listened to a little album called "Spiderland", and the rest is history), and listened to experimental rock and some post-metal bands for a while (and after metal, this is still probably my favourite style of music). In my "experimental" phase, I listened to a load of my mum's old prog albums, and through these I got hooked on prog-metal. Death and doom are also a couple of styles I've tried recently.