My childhood was dominated by pop music and I didn’t have a clue that metal existed. The heaviest music either of my parents listened to was Neil Diamond. It wasn’t until I was 17 that I heard the band that eventually lead me into the world of metal. That band was The Rasmus (I still vividly remember the day that In The Shadows was number one here!).

I started checking out other Finnish rock/metal bands and through that I became obsessed with HIM.

It was around that time that Dad started telling me about how he used to listen to Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin when he was a teenager. He stopped listening to it because Mum didn’t like it. It was also then I decided to never date someone who didn’t like my music.

Through other HIM fans, I discovered a ton of (not so great) “melodic death metal” bands… In Flames being pretty much the only one I still listen to without cringing. From there I started finding new bands on my own… including decent melodeath bands :P

Your story is much cooler than mine. :(

I got into punk at an early age, which (while artful) is almost the antithesis of music from a theoretical viewpoint. At the same time, I was receiving rigorous training in classical music, so I had these two ideas clashing – the youthful need to follow a trend, a cultural movement, and an attitude – and the understanding that truly good *music* must have depth, variation, and a measure of unpredictability.
Artists like King Crimson, Opeth, Dark Suns, Mahavishnu, Miles Davis even…they all opened my eyes to how drastically separated the two realities are – msuical talent, and cultural appeal. I still love stuff like Type O, Skinny Puppy, The Cure, and Birthday Party (which would be considered horrible by some standards) but truly pivotal music for me in the last decade comes most often in the form of jazz, although I will add Virgin Black, Katatonia, Meshuggah, and Chthonic to credit for their amazing talent and conceptual vision.
But I forgot the core question you asked which is how I really got into metal – I have my dad to thank for it, and his amazing LP collection. My earliest days were filled with Led Zeppelin, Aqualung, and King Crimson.

I remember doing your survey a while back, saying that I didn’t comment unless I had something to say. Well, finally there’s something I want to share.

I was never really into popular music – I play double bass and I used to play to myself, but apart from the radio and the stuff I played in orchestra, my music world wasn’t very wide. When I was 13, I joined a forum, and a few people there were really into with Pink Floyd. After a bit of convincing, I went on to listen to every Pink Floyd album in existence, and got caught up on Nick Mason’s one liner in One of These Days. I’d idolise Roger Waters (the bassist) and attempt to emulate his work. Didn’t work out very well, since I’m not Peter Steele. But the ‘death growling’ that Nick Mason did in that song (his drum stick also flew out of his hand when he performed it at Pompeii and he managed to keep the beat while getting another; I was mesmerised) grew on me, and finally I asked the very same forum what I should listen to next. They suggested bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zep.

That was sort of the transition between rock and metal that I was looking for. After listening to those bands to death, I discovered Metallica after my friend sent me ‘Sad But True,’ a song which I am still obsessed with to this day. Another friend of mine saw me listening to it on MSN, and said that he had three ‘Ms’ of metal; Maiden, Megadeth and Metallica. He later annotated that and added ‘Manowar’ after he saw me listening to Pleasure Slave. (That was because of you, Steff.)

We had a talk about how they’d broken their own records for really fucking loud music, and I realised that I really needed to actually go to a metal show. I was terrified at first, but I did go to see some local acts and it just blew my mind. And my ear drums. At that stage I also tried out some symphonic metal bands with beautiful female vocalists; Nightwish and Within Temptation come to mind. I bought some of the popular albums by more ‘classic’ metal bands, and that year was the first birthday where people gave me music. My favourite is a bunch of Slayer tapes. Not that they’re convenient to play.

But yeah, basically the internet got me into metal. Now, I try to listen to more local bands, my favourite right now being Be’lakor – named after a Warhammer Chaos daemon, which is awesome since I love Warhammer, and they’re from Melbourne too. I’m getting into more ‘Viking metal’ even though I never used to understand how people listened to such ridiculous bullshit. Back to the whole life shaping thing, I’ve still got to go back to Pink Floyd. Never have I seen such beautiful pictures. Just can’t explain it. Nothing can compare. Can’t wait for this week’s Mixtape! A lot of the bands and artists you mentioned influenced my taste in music too.

Nick Cave’s voice is amazing. I doubt that there is a sexier sound on the planet.

Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill was the first CD I ever bought, and it remains one of my favorite albums of all time.

So, as with you, it all started with the Spice Girls. Spice was the very first album I ever owned and it made me think being a girl was the best thing ever. I went crazy. I had t-shirts, posters, all the albums, the movie, pencils, everything you can think of. My friends and I used to dress up and record video of us being Spice Girls and I was always Posh (you know, in all black).

Then when I was 13 I saw my first Goth and started looking into that. At that time bands like Nine Inch Nails, Orgy, and Rob Zombie were being played on MTV and when I saw them I wanted to be all about that. I remember Orgy’s “Blue Monday” cover really making me want to dig deeper. Then one night, I heard Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl” on the radio during a show called “Static Noise.” Then I would stay up all night listening to everything they played. I know I heard some metal at that time but wasn’t as into it as things like Garbage and Bush.

Then in high school I found real Goth music and “This Corrosion” by Sister’s of Mercy changed my perspective again. At this time I was also casually listening to some Cradle, but still wasn’t into metal. I got super involved in the Deathrock genre and still love it.

Then I heard Cradle of Filth’s Cruelty and the Beast album and my love of metal was cemented. It was about Elizabeth Bathory (I was already a long time fan at this point) and vampires and blood… my little Gothy heart couldn’t resist. Then, my boyfriend started introducing me to bands like Blind Guardian and Iced Earth and Arch Enemy. At this point, metal started making up about 30% of the music I listened to.

In the past couple years, I’ve really stepped whole heartedly into the dark side and listen to a much larger variety of metal. It all kind of started when I heard newer Moonspell who were previously more gothic than metal. Then I found bands like Funeral and Draconian who appealed to my gothic sensibilities. Now, I listen to a lot more death metal with Arch Enemy probably being my favorite of that genre.

I have to agree with you that the Spice Girls made me have a love of female musicians so I think that is what drew me to Arch Enemy in the first place. Astarte is also a favorite of mine. Can’t help it. I’m a sucker for chick death metal. :)

I also meant to mention: I love steampunk mods of all kinds of stuff. This one is AMAZING. Wish I had the time and equipment to make such awesome things myself.

@Nellie. Ah, but one thing I didn’t mention above – mostly because my post was long enough already – was the huge impact The Rasmus (yes, “In the Shadows”) had on my discovering Scandinavian music. I have all their albums and their live DVD (which isn’t that good, actually) and I think Lauri is up there with my husband and Nick Cave as one of the most beautiful men on earth.

@Emaline What an awesome comment, miss! I am always in awe of people who play instruments, especially strings – I think they’re the most beautiful of all instruments.

Pink Floyd. Sigh. They were my dad’s favorite band. He has every LP they ever released. I never understood a word they said but I FELT that music right in my heart, you know?

Your next step is to get ye to a metal festival :)

I love how so many of us have the internet to thank for broadening our musical tastes.

@v – The Birthday Party. Eeee – they are TERRIBLE, but somehow, they’re terrible with such STYLE.

I know what you mean about the two different worlds of music – black metal and punk and bands like Venom (who I LOVE) all fit into that category of shite that is good for completely different reasons.

I saw the Misfits a couple of years ago and it was one of the most fun shows I remember. My first ever stage dive, woo! (And people caught me).

Apparently, Jazz and metal fusion is the next big thing coming out of the US at the moment. I think one of the main bands is called “The Shining”, or that might be the album …?

@nessbow: I’m glad you agree! More people should agree!

Every time I hear Jagged Little Pill I remember what it was like to realise I could be strong :)

@Eurphoria: I wanted to be a goth so, so bad, but I just couldn’t pull it off. I think I needed to wear makeup. I just didn’t feel “authentic”.

It was funny, probably because I didn’t really have any friends, I never formed my own “Spice Girls” although if someone had invited me, I would have been there! However, I had an enterprising spirit even back then. I made my sister and three of her friends into an all-girl four-piece, called “Zest”. I wrote them some songs (keep in mind I can’t play an instrument or sing – but they weren’t actually half bad. I can probably still remember some of the lyrics). And I was to be their manager. I choreographed them routines, made up CD covers, and drew up a contract for them to sign. I had dreams, big dreams. :)

I love steampunk mods too – have you see Jake Von Slatts steampunk campervan? CDH and I want to make one too, for adventures across Europe.

Campervan?! I’ll have to look it up. Everything that guy does is genius.

I’ll be honest with you though. Being a goth is really nice when it’s just you and your three friends in a small town. We would sit around and read Lovecraft and Poe and listen to chamber music and Bauhaus with our black eyeliner and platform boots. Then when you get involved in a big scene (like Tampa, FL) you realize that your Gothic Utopia is a pipe dream. Most US goths are horrible people with no understanding of macabre culture and they don’t really read. Hence why I would also like to move to Europe at some point. ;)

It’s surprising just how many people have Spice Girl to Metallica stories (I being one of them!)

I too, had horrible primary and high school experiences, and my existence consisted of coming home every day, locking myself in my room and playing loud music. For the most part it was terrible boyband and girlband pop, but I also discovered my dad’s music collection early on.

He gave me for each birthday, an album, and my first at age four was Stevie Ray Vaughn Couldn’t Stand the Weather. In 1988 I remember putting on the record , and him teaching me to use the diamond head on a record player. Non surprisingly, a year later I had both destroyed the record and the player! In December of 1988 I still remember the day he came home to tell me Stevie Ray had been killed in a helicopter crash. I still listen to Stevie and Double Trouble to this day.

I’m not sure of the exact years of the following albums, but next in the series was Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick (to which I memorised all the words from both 20 minute tracks!), Joe Satriani’s EPIC Flying in a Blue Dream and Surfing with the Alien, Hewey Lewis and the News Back to the Future Soundtrack, Deep Purple MachineHead, Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here and the Rolling Stones Black and Blue and Tattoo You. By that time, I was about 9 and desperately into Michael Jackson, and I clearly recall begging him for both the Bad Cassette, which I got for my following birthday.

Having grown up with more than electic tastes, when I visited my dad in the weekends I went through his record collection of Blue Oyster Cult, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, Yes, Elton John, The Who, The Alman Brothers, Jeff Beck, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Van Halen and the rest of the Pink Floyd back catalogue. It became the soundtrack to rest of my teenage years and the beginning of my university years. Although, I never found heavy metal through him, I found the rock and blues roots that founded them all.

Similar to you, I was in the midst of the Black Album era as a teenager, and vividly remember the Metallica Enter Sandman/Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit years, where they stayed solidly on heavy radio play. In 1999, possibly due to several heavy years of Spice Girl infatuation, I resurfaced via my love for Led Zeppelin and listened more and more to the rock, who had by then, picked up on the S&M Symphony with Metallica. No Leaf Clover really got me, and I don’t even think at the time I really even knew that it was the same band that had penned Enter Sandman and One, which I had heard plenty by then.

And then, I suppose my taste of Metallica lay dormant until I needed them again. Two years ago, taking on the biggest intellectual challenge of my life, I needed the heavy music to accompany it, and it was then that I retrospectively discovered their 80′s back catalogue.

Like you, and many readers I’m sure, we are stronger and more colourful individuals for the strength the music brings us.

Thanks Steff, for rubbing Metallica off onto me, subtly I suppose. But I do remember in 2004, seeing you take off with the biggest grin I can remember to see them live. And even then, my pride seeing you on the rail (that aweseome photo that made it to the newspaper) of you TOTALLY FEARLESS banging heads with the rest of them made me realise how much they helped you when you needed them too.

So I look forward, will all my heart to the tour/assault they’re about to amass on us here in October/November.

Love ya Steffy! x

@Euphoria – it was like that in NZ too. If you lived in a city, you could find other gothy people, but everyone knew everyone, and the goth / metal / punk / fetish scenes basically consist of the same core 30 people. If you lived in a small town, like me, you were the ONLY one, so you made up what you thought a goth or a punk or a metalhead was. Folks from the sticks have a hard time inserting themselves into the local scene because they didn’t go to high school with all the “cool” goth kids. It’s weird.

Which was why is was so AMAZING to see what it’s like in Europe. Blew me away. You have to go!

“We are stronger and more colourful individuals for the strength the music brings us.”

Never has a truer word been spoken.

Love ya too, and I LOVED your story! It would be awesome if we can see them together, but even if not, you are going to experience that grin for yourself \m/

7 hours I waited in that sodden mosh pit, and it was worth every. single. agonising. second. I will try and find that photo to put up.

Indeed you should! I’d love to see it again! :-)

I wrote a blog about it today, inspired by this entry.

http://thewitchghetto.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-i-got-into-metal.html

[...] given much commentary this week, as you can find it all on thursday’s post “How I Got Into Metal“, but here are, in rough chronological order, some of the songs that have had the most [...]

I think I owe most of my music taste to my dad. He struggled to buy each Beatles LP back in the 60s as soon as they became available here in Argentina. He also discovered some less known bands like The Byrds. By the time I was born he was into Queen, who played in Buenos Aires when I was a baby. Legend says I watched the concert with him on TV. So I grew up listening to his music. During my teenage years the Beatles were my favourite band. I was an outcast in high school and there was no internet back then so my exposure to music was limited to the radio. And yes, there are 2 Spice Girls cds lying around somewhere in the house still. But I wasn’t happy with that. I needed music I could relate to.
Then I ran across a Bon Jovi cd and got into it and when I read that one of their influences was Kiss I gave them a try. I got really blown away with their music. I was finishing high school by that time and the following year in university I met a guy who had a Kiss picture on his folder. We became friends and started sharing cds. None of us had internet at home so there was no way we could download anything. Then one day he brought me 2 cds: Visions from Stratovarius and Angels Fall First from Nightwish. In Argentina we use the expression “me voló la peluca” (literally: it blew my wig away) for situations like that. I started to search for more bands like those in the university internet lab and got to download a few songs and samples. I found Rhapsody like that. Then when I finally got internet at home I could widen my horizons a bit more. I ran across Blind Guardian and fell immediately in love with them. The rest is history.