How'd you get into metal?

[RagePSV]

Back when I was 12 (1989), my friend's dad found an Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind tape laying in his work parking lot and brought it home. My friend had no interest in it and gave it to me. I wore that tape out (still have it though) and have been hooked ever since.

[Dark One]

After having been primarily into hair bands for awhile, I witnessed Metallica's performance at the Monsters of Rock stadium tour in Philadelphia on June 12th, 1988.

Fan for life after that day.

Jason

[Rakosh]

I was 11 yrs old in 6th grade (1982) and Number of the Beast had just come out when I saw the cover plastered on a 7th grader's notebook during the hot bus ride home from school. I thought that was the most evil thing I'd ever seen, so immediately I knew I had to check it out.

It took until the next year when Piece of Mind came out before I was able to convince my parents to let me buy an Iron Maiden cassette (with my own money, no less!). I wore out that cassette listening to it every day on my Walkman knock-off (and especially on Sundays on the way to church).

...there was no turning back after that.

[Ostracised]

I fully blame my cousin. She brought over Quiet Riot's "Condition Critical" and I was hooked. From then on there was lots of hair metal and Maiden, but "Puppets" sealed the deal. After that it has been a constant search to find the fastest, most brutal, most technical, and most unique metal-slanted bands on the planet. I spent countless hours taping WREKAGE on Friday nights, dubbing right over all my parent's old Amway cassettes-it was the easiest and cheapest way to get my fix. $8.99 was a lot of money to a kid in the 80's! Sure, I'll listen to almost anything (Reggae, Salsa, and a lot of Mid-Eastern music's out as well as most newer pop music-Orphaned Land's still cool), but metal's always first.

Now Playing:
"Turned Inside Out"
From Obituary

[rms]

Listened to Metalliac for awhile but was always into Hard Rock and stuff, and then a guy I used to play CS with showed me some bands and it started there...and a friend from HS showed me alot of bands and with online forums.

[RagePSV]

Originally Posted by Ostracised

I fully blame my cousin. She brought over Quiet Riot's "Condition Critical" and I was hooked. From then on there was lots of hair metal and Maiden, but "Puppets" sealed the deal. After that it has been a constant search to find the fastest, most brutal, most technical, and most unique metal-slanted bands on the planet. I spent countless hours taping WREKAGE on Friday nights, dubbing right over all my parent's old Amway cassettes-it was the easiest and cheapest way to get my fix. $8.99 was a lot of money to a kid in the 80's! Sure, I'll listen to almost anything (Reggae, Salsa, and a lot of Mid-Eastern music's out as well as most newer pop music-Orphaned Land's still cool), but metal's always first.

Now Playing:
"Turned Inside Out"
From Obituary

I have quite the WREKAGE tape collection from the early 90's as well!

[rushzil2112]

It was 95 or 96 for me, when I was in sixth grade. I started playing the drums a year earlier. First song I learned on drumset was we will rock you/we are the champions from Queen, but I heard Test for Echo from Rush on the radio and it caught my attention. I bought some of their cds, and it started from there. Then I heard metallica, and that did it for me. In 9th grade, somebody told me to check out Dream Theater. That is all she wrote. After dream theater, was symphony x, iced earth, nevermore, fates warning, and now every damned thing good about all kinds of metal through and through. Just thinking my current fav cds are the new Ihsahn and Opeth, and I wouldn't have even given them the time of day back in high school, damned hating growling/screaming vocals, it sure makes you not like a lot, until you learn to love them and it is all you want sometimes. My mind keeps on opening up to more and more different stuff everyday almost.

[Dolamite S. Biffle]

It was 2000 when I moved school districts and met my friend Jon (the really tall guy that is always with me at PP). He saw that I was listening to Coal Chamber and Drowning Pool at the time and said "try some real metal". I was then hooked on "Vulgar Display of Power" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Pantera and Iced Earth are to this day are my 2 favorite bands.

[DAVETHEMETALGUY]

i was fortunate to have a Heavy Metal radio show on a college radio station in Tuscaloosa (WVUA) back in 1982 is when it started. i used to carry all my vinyl up there cause the guy didnt have what i wanted to hear.
So in 1993, when he left i took over and have been there ever since.
i can remember listening to Venom under my covers with my jam box. I knew right then metal was for me.
I also attended a KISS concert at the tender age of 5 in 1976...then it kinda snowballed, saw Rush open up for Thin Lizzy. damn it was life changing

[Kenneth R.]

I was in 9th grade. (14). My guitar playing friend asked me to help him cover a song for a class presentation. He gave me the Metallica - S&M album to listen to for reference. From there, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Opeth were my introductions to various flavors.

[edgeofthorns]

I believe my first real dose of metal was from the 80's thrash movement. I loved bands such as Testament, Anthrax, Megadeth, and Metallica growing up.

My first "metal" purchases were:

Anthrax - State of Euphoria
Testament - Practice What You Preach

During my college days I fell prey to the "alternative movement", but grew bored with that very quickly. Then I started working a human resources internship at a beer coaster plant in Johnson City, thus I met Fatesfan. He was playing Dream Theater's "Pull Me Under" one day in his office and I overheard it. I instantly fell in love with that song!

From there, Fatesfan introduced me to other bands of progressive and power metal. I've been consistently listening to this type of metal since 2001 or 2002.

~Brian~