We're all here for one reason: we love metal!
Well, I was wondering what made all of us find this music genre so attractive?

This isn't a discussion for specific bands or albums.
Here I'm asking: what features in metal songs made you fall in love with the genre?

For me, I was attracted to metal because of:
- the overall addictive, fun energy
- riffs that make me feel like a badass
- epic atmosphere
- lyrics about extreme emotions, topics, and events (mythology, war, religion, death, etc...)

These things got me hooked and I subsequently delved into the depths of metal, learning to appreciate so many more aspects

So, what about you? What made you fall in love with metal, or simply: why is metal so damn hot?

An outlet for anger and expression.

I was an angry and confused teen, not sure where I fit in the world. Metal was (and still is) a great outlet for a lot of those feelings even in my 30s, giving a sense of belonging whilst also inspiring awe at many bands' works (especially Prog).

I find a lot of music to be incredibly one-dimensional, but the best metal has a combination of it all: beauty, darkness, despair and hope.

Written by nonZero on 02.12.2021 at 17:20

An outlet for anger and expression.

I was an angry and confused teen, not sure where I fit in the world. Metal was (and still is) a great outlet for a lot of those feelings even in my 30s, giving a sense of belonging whilst also inspiring awe at many bands' works (especially Prog).

I find a lot of music to be incredibly one-dimensional, but the best metal has a combination of it all: beauty, darkness, despair and hope.

Well put, I can relate to this

Written by nonZero on 02.12.2021 at 17:20

I find a lot of music to be incredibly one-dimensional, but the best metal has a combination of it all: beauty, darkness, despair and hope.

Yeah definitely! Metal can be simple and fun.... but it can also be profound, epic, and beautiful!

What made me fall in love with metal maybe i think that is the emotions because when listen the music so i enjoy this and our emotions are keep up to do love...

I made a suggestion for a group and a moderator "scolded" me for not participating in the forum xDD, He's right. So I came in and saw this interesting post.

Well, I'm in my 50s and I've been through a thousand musical styles: radio formula, electronic, new age, OST, pop, rock, celtic, world music, folk, I never found anything that satisfied me 100% and permanently and around 2004 I stumbled upon 3 bands: Draconian, Nightwish and Dark Sanctuary (I don't like the last album) and I fell down the rabbit hole, each band, each style was a new world to discover.

What did I find in metal? The fullness. The mixture of brutality and passion, the energy, the epic, the growls, the duality of opposite sensations like sadness-joy, hope-despair, etc.

I will keep travelling through this incredible universe

Sorry for my English. I use Deepl, that's why I don't write on the forum.

Personally I listen to ALL musical styles. Rap, elctronic, pop, punk... you name it. The only thing that is truely important for me is progression and variation. I hate listening to the same boring stuff all over again. I must say, that metal is quite unique, when it comes to variants. For instance, everyone will love Kendrick Lamar or rencently Caroline Polachek, but when you worship Dodheimsgard that is a totally different story that tells more about the listener than metal itself. In Metal people can love or hat Metallica while they love or hate Liturgy interchangeably. I just love that component! Metal is diversity!

The energy, the creativity and variety, the technical skills (though I don't care much about this anymore), the breadth of emotions; from romantic to sad to uplifting to ugly to beautiful to hateful to hopeful, sometimes all within a single album or even song... The concepts and themes ranging from personal lyrics to songs about history, mythology, fiction, science; I've learned a lot from studying metal lyrics. The various nationalities and the way musicians impart their heritage on their music, the wide variety of influences from other genres and different cultures, and the use of foreign languages...

As a teen, it was a natural piece of the path towards finding my own identity after a tragic childhood where I had no chance to be part of any sort of community or learn any social skills. It was strengthening and encouraging me to walk my own path, be my own self, and not give a fuck about anyone who had opinions on this. For better or worse.

These days, I listen to a lot of different kinds of music. Still primarily metal (especially since I became a reviewer), but also psytrance, reggae, pop, various kinds of rock, folk music...

But I'll never forget the sense of "Wow, music can sound like THIS?" I got the first time I heard Nightwish's Oceanborn. I never looked back.

I was mindlessly scrolling thru instagram and heard Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" it was the first real metal song i have ever heard and i felt something that i never felt while listening to any other song before. I went on to listen more of Metallica for some days.

Then i found Megadeth and when i heard Peace Sells i realized i was deeply in love with this kind of music and that was also the start of my journey. (which is fairly new)

And to the main reason i like metal. The instrumentals.. i feel every chord played in my heart. The signals are not detected by my brain its registered in my heart.

Some day when I was in the last grad of primary school my uncle shown me Iron Maiden. From then my life changed forever.

Psychopath are the ones love metal and rap.

Written by [user id=172292] on 13.05.2024 at 09:01

Psychopath are the ones love metal and rap.

You're joking right? Lol I'm the farthest you can be to a psychopath.

Written by Guib on 13.05.2024 at 12:50

You're joking right? Lol I'm the farthest you can be to a psychopath.

It's All caps guy. Don't bother engaging with him..

Written by Nejde on 13.05.2024 at 12:59

Written by Guib on 13.05.2024 at 12:50

You're joking right? Lol I'm the farthest you can be to a psychopath.

It's All caps guy. Don't bother engaging with him..

I don't know who that is but I'll take your word for it.

I meant Psychopath listen to metal and rap only, no other music genres, not that I meant all listeners to metal and rap are psychopath.
I meant:
-Psychopath: metal and rap.
-Normal ppl: metal, rap, pop, edm, etc

I think I can smell the banhammer dropping on 37old very soon.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 13.05.2024 at 17:05

I think I can smell the banhammer dropping on 37old very soon.

haha boy dont worry I dont say misogynist. psychopath listening to metal proves my love for metal and metal mighty it is. You like dark too, Ive seen the words of dark in your profile. Were same.

Haven't been on here in quite some time. Was looking something up (about the band Gearea) and one of the search results was a link to something in this website so I decided to peruse the old forum I used to frequent when I was a teen lol

Anyways, what drew me to metal is the music. The complexity and the gutteral growls. That and the melodies and cultural influences intertwined into various songs from bands all over the world. I thought what I listened to before that was hard. Nah that was just shitty radio rock hahahaha

I remember the first time I heard death metal. Was in the car on a road trip with my aunt. We had on the local rock radio station and it was getting pretty late. I guess they had a metal show later on at night that particular night because for the next 2 hours all we heard were these crazy as fuck growls and I was mesmerized. I was taking mental note of the bands they played. And for some reason my aunt didn't change the station lol (she likes rock but didn't listen to death metal or anything).

My first death metal show was Grave and Immolation only a few weeks after I first heard that metal show in the car. Holy shit it was amazing! I was 16. I'm 37 now. Still going to shit tons of concerts and festivals. And now that I'm an adult with a job I can afford to travel to see bands I like and have been doing so for years now. My biggest constraint is getting time off work!

I now have a 5 year old kid and she has already seen a handful of bands with me. And she's also now hooked on the song Master of Puppets and asks me to play it a lot. She likes the metal classics like Ozzy, Priest and Iron Maiden too. It's pretty awesome. She's heard plenty of death and black metal of course and likes some of it too. I think it's goddamn hilarious when we're in the car and some disgusting song by Cannibal Corpse is on for example and she's like, "Louder!" I'm just glad she can't understand any of the lyrics hahahahaha

ETA- the signature I have is some dumb crap I wrote as a teen. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Written by MetallicA on 30.05.2024 at 20:58

I now have a 5 year old kid and she has already seen a handful of bands with me. And she's also now hooked on the song Master of Puppets and asks me to play it a lot. She likes the metal classics like Ozzy, Priest and Iron Maiden too. It's pretty awesome. She's heard plenty of death and black metal of course and likes some of it too. I think it's goddamn hilarious when we're in the car and some disgusting song by Cannibal Corpse is on for example and she's like, "Louder!" I'm just glad she can't understand any of the lyrics hahahahaha

ETA- the signature I have is some dumb crap I wrote as a teen. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ive been in America n seeing kids dancing with For Whom The Bell Tolls music metal on guitar hero. It's really American I understand the culture kids getting used to with and growing up with tough and hard stuff, as the culture of the country. Ive not been much around Europe, only England, english kids are different.

Aside from riffs, fun energy, etc. all the usual stuff, I really love the variety of lyrical content. A stereotypical metal band is all about gore or kicking some ass and chewing bubblegum, but then there at least used to be lots of anti-war and anti-government songs, social and media criticism, humor... you know, more thoughtful stuff. I used to be a huge fan of Megadeth back in my teens. Peace Sells and Rust in Peace were and still are lyric wise on point.

I feel like well written and actually thoughtful rebellious songs are a rarity these days, not just within metal but every genre. It is so much less risky to just do and say whatever everybody else's doing and that makes things boring. These days lyrics seem like an afterthought for most bands.

First started with Grunge and Alt Rock bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden and I always knew the hits from Metallica, Maiden, Sabbath, and the like and that was pretty much what I was drawn to first like most people at the time I think. I got into exploring more as an edgy teenager who liked the dark and gory imagery of bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Deicide, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth and all those bands you find first when you’re looking past the most popular classic acts to next layer but not quite familiar enough to know what’s good in the underground of metal.

What actually got me hooked and has kept me in love with metal is that it has more variety and blends with other genres in a way no other music seems to for me. When you say “metal” you really just mean heavy music, but the heaviness of Paranoid and the heaviness of something like the new Inter Arma (bad example probably but I have it on right now) are not even comparable at all, they’re really miles apart in pretty much every way, but somehow both fall under the umbrella term “metal”.

In addition to that metal conveys emotion to me in a way which pretty no other music does. Unison Life by Brutus is a good example, there’s not much else that can change my mood the way this album does. Then you have bands like Anathema that just make some of the most beautiful and emotional music I’ve ever heard.

Then also of course, the themes that are so cool. Nothing appeals to me more than themes like spirituality, space, the oceans, mythology, Lovecraft, and anything just dark and mysterious in nature.

Bands like The Ocean, Sulfur Aeon, Cult of Fire, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Nile, Amorphis, Cult of Luna, and too many others to count just land with me because even if I don’t love the music at first listen (which most of these I did tbf) the themes are intriguing enough to keep it growing on me.

Then last, I just love the feeling of being sonically obliterated by bands who turn it up to 11 like Meshuggah, Humanity’s Last Breath, Cattle Decapitation, Pig Destroyer and the like. Seeing bands like these in concert are some of the most fun I’ve had with friends.

The last thing I love about this genre is that beneath all the macho bs that is associated with it you usually have a very welcoming and friendly community with people who are open minded to new music and a very devoted fanbase that promote smaller artists and labels a lot, which is just healthy for any kind of art.

Lyrics, music, and the art all around, CD cover, cultural,.. I think metal lyrics is best. I dont know much about rap hip hop but i bet metal lyrics is best lyrics of all music.

I think it's the raw energy, the aggression but mostly the escape. There is no music that compares to rock & metal when you need to travel far from the everyday stuff. I disagree with most about lyrics, metal is not better or worse than any other genre on that front, but the combination with the heavy music & the overall atmosphere and varied themes does bring a little something.

At this point in my life, heavy metal is almost therapeutic. After a hard day's work or when the energy is low, there's nothing like a cold drink and sinking in your couch, headphones on to explore the strange, brutal and sometimes unwelcoming soundscapes of metal. There's something really weird about the relaxing properties of musical assault. It also pairs quite well with physical activities.

Although I rarely feel the thrill of discovery anymore, its still always amazing to find new bands and sometimes different approaches to a beloved genre. I find myself enjoying fusion genres more and more over the years. That doesn't mean I'll keep away from the classic sound though.

All and all, I think what attracted me to metal at first when I was a teen (the occult themes, rebelious & fringe culture, pushing the limits of sound) is simply not what keeps me really interested in it anymore, anyways not entirely. It changed and I think that's alright because metal has so much more to offer to the discerning ear.

Written by Guib on 18.06.2024 at 00:55


After a hard day's work or when the energy is low, there's nothing like a cold drink and sinking in your couch, headphones on to explore the strange, brutal and sometimes unwelcoming soundscapes of metal. There's something really weird about the relaxing properties of musical assault. It also pairs quite well with physical activities.

Couldn't said better.

Lately, I'm active upfront listening to metal as much as possible due to closing down to corporate projects. The relief you get to expose your ears to new tunes is indeed therapeutic. Also, switching to classic albums give you more reasons to rejuvenate and swing back to listen more new releases(discovering new bands as well).

About pairing with physical activities?! I've had numerous encounters where I ended up listening to Municipal Waste, Kreator, Nuclear Assault, Toxic Holocaust, Destruction or our lord in mighty Slayer on site visits. Imagine site head submerging into metal tunes than rather working upon on business strategic solutions is more fun and healthy.

Full moon and clear sky at night

As everything else, it depends in what stage of life we are talking about.

The first metalsong that I couldn't get enough of was Hammerfall's "renagade". Back then, I wasn't even a teen. I guess what drew me in, was the cathyness of the song combined with it's bombastic sound that let me in . Moving forward through the teenage years , I was an anxious one. Metal, being a gengre that deals with heavy themes both in terms of music and lyrics, gave a good outlet for dealing with anxityrelated issues, escpecially heavier kinds of metal.

As an adult I keep circling back to metal music for several reasons:

- It still gives an outlet and ease for heavier problems without the need to go self-destructive. So I agree with those of you who have said they listen to metal for therapeutic reasons.

- It's differsiveness in music. I really appricate how bands like Dragonforce, Archspire, Burzum, Ne oblivicaris, Finntroll, Dream theather, Agallosh, babymetal, Nepalm death and so forth still fits within the umbrella-term of metal. It gives plenty of variarty if you want something new and/ or variety, alternativly more intune with your current state of mind and still what to have some familarity in sound.

- It's atmosphere and emphasis on music over lyrics. Good lyrics are great but if you want to inmerse yourself the music is the key. If I dont understand a thing of what the lyrics is about , it doesnt matter in terms of metalmusic as in contrast to, for example, a pop or hiphop song in a foreign language.

- I can sometime appricate that it's not that popular gengre of music. It's not that I want to be a apart of an elitist club and I fully support people to listen to any kind of music that makes them enjoy themselves. It can even be a bit frustrating when all people around you discard your musictaste as just noise. What I'm getting is the sense of community when you do meet likeminded people in terms of music, for example in concerts and see that the things that people frown upon in terms of style in apperance and musictaste is suddenly accepted and you feel a part of a community you wouldnt feel otherwise. It's kind of like meeting a fellow countryman in your current country when you have lived abroad for several years. It's not that you dont appricate the people in the country you are in , but it's nice to meet someone with simular experience.

Yea definitely the only music featured of dark side is only metal, no other music genres having it. Even I doubt rap is music of darkside.

One minute I was listening to Eminem and Steps as a 12 year old, then suddenly someone I was talking to on AOL told me to listen to Children of Bodom. I did, and it was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Silent Night, Bodom Night - I thought it was going to be about Christmas. My dad came into my room once and said "son, I've heard you've been uh.. listening to Iron Maiden" and then showed me his original vinyls etc. that he'd kept in the attic and since then we've been to tons of metal gigs/festivals together.

I think what helped when I was younger was the collective experience of it; a feeling that I'd found somewhere I fit. I would always be experiencing new things with likeminded friends, even listening to new albums was an event. That element has really changed as I've got older (almost 40 now) and I fell out of love with the genre for a while as the gigs/thrill of discovery dried up. I have also disliked recently how festivals seem to be the same bands playing most years - though that's probably me not looking hard enough.

I can echo a lot of the sentiments here about energy and themes. I find it soothes my mind to listen to a genre that is so full on, that requires so much attention to catch all of the little details - time signature changes, drum fills, guitar leads - etc. I find that many other genres of music are simply "background music" in comparison to this.