Your introduction to Metal?

[JayKeeley]

It's always interesting to hear how people first got introduced to the music - you know, that one defining moment where you knew there was no turning back!

For me, I remember it well - I was 14, I was on a family holiday, and a cousin let me borrow Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon". I knew immediatley I wanted more...

I'd heard metal before obviously, but it was Ozzy who pushed me over the edge!

How about you guys?

 

[chibitotoro]

For me, it was hearing one of the guys in my dorm last year playing Nightwish's "Over the Hills and Far Away". I've always been a fan of Irish folk music, so the way this song combined that kind of sound with, of course, metal, and Tarja's amazing voice, it blew me away. So over the next few months, I would hear more and more metal coming out of his room, and I would ask him what it was, then I would get it and love it.

 

[Se7enChurches]

for me, it was when i first picked up Metallica's black album, and soon followed it with purchases of Megadeth's Countdown and Iron Maiden's Fear of the Dark. (yes, the year was 1992). these three tapes became the sole things i would listen to for the rest of sixth grade, while the rest of my tapes (except for occasionally Nirvana's Nevermind and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magic) sat and collected dust (the rest were your basic top 40 stuff).

Ryan

 

[lady_space]

Hmmm... I had some spotty hard rock/metal moments for a long while, but the point of no return was the summer I turned 14. It was 1988, and this great new band had just come out called Guns 'N Roses. A friend gave me a Queensrÿche tape, let me start listening to her and her older brothers' stuff like Metallica, Death Angel, Testament, etc., and it was all downhill from there.

Shaye

 

[Darrin]

I was 14 years old, the year was 1988. I'd spent the night over a friend's house who was into all of this evil metal music and though I was mostly just listening to whatever was popular on the radio at the time, i thought he was the coolest guy ever being the rebel he was. He had a tape on his dresser and the cover immediately jumped out at me. It was Iron Maiden's "Somewhere in Time". I put it on and while i thought the opening licks to "The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner" (first song on side 2!) caught my attention, when the song kicked in it kind of lost me, but for some reason I asked if i could borrow it. I got home and there it sat on my own dresser for about a month.

One fateful night as I searched for something to play as I was about to lie down for sleep (a ritual I still do to this day) I decided I would give the Irons another chance. This time, however, the song kicked in and I was enraptured. The galloping rhythm, Bruce's operatic wailing, and then the solo... my life changed at that very moment and I have been a metalhead ever since.

That solo still kicks my ass whenever I hear it.

-Darrin

 

[Darrin]

Oh, and just as a side note. I saw Iron Maiden that year on their "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" tour with my dad. The first and ONLY metal show I have seen and it was the best. My dad has been a fan of Maiden ever since that night as well.

14 years later and I'm about to see the greatest metal festival ever assembled in the known universe along with Edguy and Blind Guardian/Symphony X in FL just days after that. Just incredible. Can't wait to meet up with all you people.

-Darrin

 

[JayDubya]

I went from Alvin & the Chipmunks to the Beatles by age 7 or 8
(1972....LOL) From there, to hearing Hendrix, Deep Purple, from that to Kiss in junior high, to AC/DC around the time Powerage came out, and then I saw the Iron Maiden "Killers" record the day it came out. It's been an easy introduction from pop rock, to hard rock to metal, and it NEVER ends...........

J-Dubya

 

[zinescene]

Mine was listening to KISS-Rock and Roll All Night and Aerosmith-Walk this way/Sweet Emotion as well as Black Sabbath's-Paranoid/Iron Man...

Fort Wayne, IND had a killer AM rock station back in the day that play all kinds of killer stuff.

The Really defining moment for me as far as turning me on to heavier stuff though was ACE OF SPADES and a little known punk band THE NECROS-My sister went to a party in Maumee, OH and brought home thier singles IQ32 and COnquest for Death.

 

[Creeps]

I grew up listening to KISS and Alice Cooper.. by the time the 80s rolled around, I of course was listening to mostly radio and picked up albums from there ... Queen, Joan Jett, Blondie, etc... then one day I bought Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry.. shortly after that followed Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil, Ratt out of the Cellar, Yngwie Malmsteen and those type bands.

When I got into the "hevier stuff" I bought Anthrax Spreading the Disease.. which lead me to Master of Puppets and Peace Sells.. from then on it was all downhill for me... listening to all forms of hard rock/ metal. But those were the turning point albums.

 

[roamer]

I am relatively new to the scene- it was back winter of '99, I was on a co-op work semester and a bit disconnected from my regular trendy scene, and my friend and long term metalhead, holy_diver/scott, sent me some "tolkien speed metal". Being the avid Tolkien fan that I am, I had to give it a fair try. So after listening to Nightfall in Middle Earth about a thousand times, and going through phases of Savatage, Stratovarius, Symphony X, and a few others, I realized at one point that I could never go back. If I heard two things playing that I liked, one metal, and the other almost anything else, then I always chose to listen to the metal and turn the other off.

 

[Blind Wrath]

I remember listening to Metallica's Master of Puppets on a neighbour's house when I was about 13 year old. I was stunned by the music. I don't like any of the stuff Metallica has done after the Black Album, but I still listen to their previous work.

 

[Stormer]

Ok this is going to make me feel old compared to the other posts here. I even forgot what the release year was but, the album that got me into metal was Quiet Riot's "Metal Health"... It was on to Maiden, Metallica and Megadeth after that.

 

[spiralcharlie]

i grew up mostly listening to Rush, Kansas....and most of the prog classic rock stuff....but metal wise, it was Maiden, Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica....then eventually i found Dream Theater....and a lot of death metal stuff....like Carcass, Napalm Death(can go on forever)but i have to say that the progressive stuff is the best....it fits the way i play music totally

 

[Abba]

After getting hooked on KISS (my first album was KISS Alive! when I was six...yep, six), I discovered Sabbath, Van Halen, Aerosmith and AC/DC. Fast forward to age 13 when I saw my first concert (Rush on the Signals tour, followed a couple of months later by Ozzy in early '83) and I was never the same. From Dio, Maiden, and Priest I got into Metallica, Slayer, Raven, Overkill and Voivod in high school.

That's what keeps it fun - discovering new bands/genres. I still love Rush (saw them again last week), but a trip to Dynamo in 1999 opened my eyes to lots of cool Euro bands (as well as getting me completely hooked on saving money to check out European metal festivals. There's simply nothing like them here, which is one of the reasons I'm so excited about having something like ProgPower on these shores.

 

[97reb]

On the radio - Queen - "We Will Rock You", various Kiss stuff on radio. First 8-track Kiss Alive II, First cassette tape - Quiet Riot'S first. After that it was Motley Crue, Ratt, Ozzy. First concert was late '84 Ozzy with Accept as opener. Once I got into Ozzy, I started to go heavier like Metallica. I'd watch HeadBanger's Ball on MTV and check out those bands. When I saw the video Halloween by Helloween, I was blown away!!

 

[vtravi]

My best friend in High School grew up in a very religious house, so one night when he was pissed at his mother he borrowed a "evil" metal album off his friend and blasted it. He turned out to love it. He came to school and told me I have to listen to this. This was Sept. of 1990, I was a freshman. The album was Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

I remember thinking Moonchild was the wierdest thing I had ever heard. But then Infinite Dreams and Can I play with Madness and I turned into a Maiden Freak. I have 67 Maiden cd's (singles and Bootlegs). Seventh son was always the best album ever for me until Blind Guardian's A Night at The Opera. To me this is the greatest thing. I always wanted someone to make a album like this. I know some people think it is too much (John Shaffer) but to me it is amazing. Can't wait to see them.

 

[Se7enChurches]

Originally posted by 97reb
[the fact that he was listening to Uriah Heep]

cool, another Uriah Heep fan...

Ryan

 

[97reb]

You got to respect their tunes. Beyond those that are sometimes on classic rock stations. They're up there for tops in prog rock for me.

 

[Creeps]

Man I'd love to go see Dynamo... or any of the Monsters over there...

I was considering doing the Metal Fest in the sates.

 

[97reb]

I might start planning for The Milwaukee(sp?) Metal Fest next year. It might be too big for me, though. Small to medium size shows are better (1000-5000). Anything beyond that I start to see as a hassle, unless it is really fucking good.