10 Levels of Getting Into Metal 

So how did YOU get into Metal? What was the thing, song, or moment that got you into this kind of music? Grab my II II II II presets here: tinyurl.com/jojoplaysmusic Get the ÜLTRA HEAVY amp sim II II II II here: ottoaudio.net and use the code JOJO50 for 50% off at checkout

Crazy that Drowning Pool's "Bodies" still is a thing. I remember listening to that song 20 years ago. Rest in peace!

It really is crazy how it starts with “damn this sounds cool, I like it”, then we become haughty elitists with very particular tastes and parameters regarding what makes our taste “the best”, then we mature and come full circle back to “damn this sounds cool, I like it”

I started with Black Sabbath, then I went through all the same steps and now I'm at level 11... Back playing Black Sabbath

Got my first exposure in the womb. Mom is an old-school punker and my dad is an old-school punker/metalhead. Needless to say, it was hard to be rebellious in my teenage years.

Started with nü, soad, korn, linkin park, then returned many years later to metalcore and alt metal genres which is what i most enjoy playing on bass and listening ‘til this day. Always revisiting older bands and getting to discover new ones, like this one from deicide from the vid 👌

I got into metal through Evanescence -> Within Temptation -> Nightwish -> All kinds of symphonic metal -> power & folk -> the rest Before that I only listened to classical music as a child so that makes sense

I kind of had a weird introduction to metal. I don't remember it perfectly, but I remember that I used to think it was "too heavy for me" before I got into high school. I went through a super depressed phase in high school though because I was really self conscious and stressed out. I didn't really have any favorite bands, just kinda listened to a lot of video game and anime soundtracks. Then, probably because of my history listening to a lot of music from Japanese video games and anime, these really obscure Japanese bands started to show up in my youtube feed. First some lighter stuff, then heavier as I started to try out more bands. First groups like BAND-MAID, Nemophila, Versailles, and others. They were a gateway to heavier bands like Unlucky Morpheus, The Gazette, Deviloof, etc. The atmosphere, the sound of the instruments, the aggressive vocals, it all really resonated with my angsty, depressed teenage self. Fast forward a few years, and I've sort of branched out to all kinds of metal. From classics like Metallica, Pantera, and Slayer to more niche stuff like Entombed, Nile, and Gojira. However, I'll still always have a special place in my heart for all of those Japanese metal bands that introduced me to my favorite genre of music.

I am a millennial, and for me it was Mega Man. I had no idea that these songs were basically metal in chiptune, but I loved that stuff. I often stood for a while between the boss doors just to listen some more. As a kid, I thought metal was some "evil" and "bad taste" stuff judging by the album covers. One morning in the year 2000 I was watching MTV and they played some Iron Maiden songs in a row because they were about to release Brave New World -- and I was instantly obsessed! Who would say that the band with the monster in the album covers was almost Mega Man with actual instruments!! One step at a time I learned to enjoy (almost) every style of metal, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to explore this universe so much growing up with (dial-up) internet.

Not going to lie how I got into metal was watching a documentary about contemporary Christian music and it had a section on Christian metal and I was like this cannot be real and keep in mind I'm a Christian and most of my life I thought most heavy metal was satanic so when I got into Christian metal I thought it was hilarious but then I started to get more serious about it and now I'm a metalhead

Dude you're cranking out great videos. Love the use of my amp sim II II II II here 🔥

Devin Townsend is the endgame. Love it!!!

what really got me into metal was doom and postal 2. especially postal 2's main soundtrack designer A Fall to Break

"For Whom The Bell Tolls" got me hooked,it and "Fade To Black" still give me chills. Then Maiden and Deth,Gojira and Death,and I got to the "Evil Phase". Black Metal,the melodic kind (and Christian BM),of which I would appreciate any recommendations,thanks to Dissection. I hope I'm not gonna get into the 8th and 9th phases,but listening to Nile,I fear it begins. EDIT:Oh shoot,forgot me getting into Melodeath with Children Of Bodom and Amorphis. The latter seems particularly underrated.

Click click boom - Saliva Given up - Linkin Park Inis Mona - Eluveitie Unbesiegt - Equilibrium Puzzle Box - Haken This was my journey from heavy rock to prog metal. Never was into the really heavy stuff yet. Maybe that is still to come...

Personally? My first exposure to the genre was my dad, he’d play everything from Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Johnny Cash to Ozzy, AC/DC, Rob Zombie, Disturbed, and Metallica while working on motorcycles in the garage when I was a kid. I’d hear metal music in shows and video games I’d consume as a kid like SWAT Kats and Shadow the Hedgehog. Years later as a preteen I was super into Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Five Finger Death Punch, and plenty of punk bands too. Now as an adult I’m still into all those bands including Slipknot, Korn, SOAD, Cannibal Corpse, Death, Sepultura, Anthrax, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, list goes on. Love your videos man, gives me plenty of more subgenres, songs, and bands to check out!!

Juular is a fantastic song, awesome to see you play it!

master of puppets -> thrash metal -> nu metal -> death and black metal -> groove metal -> metalcore -> deathcore -> my journey into this genre of music is still ongoing, it takes years to get into metal

Judas Priest was my gateway band, and the song that hooked me was “Breaking the Law”

For me Level 1: Guitar Hero and EA Soundtracks in Burnout and Need For Speed (especially Burnout because I never played NFS Underground or Most Wanted until I Turned 14) Level 2: Hard Rock // Dad Rock Bands, my father Used to put a lot of 80's Rock Bands, especially Van Halen, Journey, Mötley Crüe, Kiss, Skid Row, Aerosmith, Motörhead, Poison, Ratt, Def Leppard, but the Heaviest thing that he put in His playlist was Pantera and Sepultura, and Non Rock (in this Case New Wave) The Cure and some other 80's New Wave bands Level 3: Posser Era, I know it sounds aggressive and Hypocrite but it's more because the popularity of these Bands, and they aren't Bad Bands, I Actually still Love Them, they got me into guitar and started with Rock Music seriously, those were Nirvana, Guns N Roses, AC/DC, System of A Down, Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson and especially Metallica, Actually with Metallica I started to look at Bass guitar too, and is the one of the reasons why I took the guitar Level 4: Comercial Popular Bands Metal; Megadeth, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Lamb of God, Rage Against The Machine, Slipknot, KoRn, Deftones, Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, Avenged Sevenfold and Rammstein, maybe this place could be share with Level 3 but this was Actually my jump into Metal 😂😂😂 (Deftones and RATM aren't Metal Actually but I Thought it was), and Rammstein Made me love metal (even If they Say Rammstein Isn't Metal too) Level 5: PrOg, DjEnT, sTeViE t, KmAc; when I was 14 years old I Started to Watch Videos of Stevie T and Kmac (as Well as Mexican, a Channel from a Mexican guy Called "Eddie Warboy") because my RU-vid algorithm Started to recommend me, specially Tutorials and humour videos tutorials, at the Same time I Started to listen Tool and Dream Theater, this 2 Bands (with Rammstein) Made me love metal, Level 3 and 4 may got me, but Level 5 made me enter completely into it, after listening to DT and Tool, I found Periphery and Meshuggah Level 6: Extreme Mainstream and Alternative Metal; I got into Gojira, Mastodon, Jinjer, Arch Enemy, Machine Head, Mudvayne, Soulfly, Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace and In Flames, still following the Metal Way Level 7: "Andrea Boma Bocarusso: Underrated Bands and 50 Riffs by"; thanks to this man (and Arch Enemy) I knew Jeff Loomis and Nevermore, and also Started to listen to Opeth and Death, it was my entry to Death Metal also... And Kinda to Gothic and Industrial too... Level 8: Type O Factory; I Started to listen to Fear Factory and Type O negative, then thanks to both Bands I found White Zombie/ Rob Zombie, Strapping Young Lad, Sybreed, Paradise Lost and HIM Level 9: I need more Death and Thrash in My life... 😂😂😂😂😂 It's funny because most of the people that I know that get into metal Subgenres start with Thrash (maybe with Death no, but I did), Annihilator, Slayer, Anthrax, Testament, Exodus, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Overkill, Death Angel and Dark Angel in the Thrash Scene and Cannibal Corpse, Possessed, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Obituary, Deicide, Children of Bodom, Necrophagist, Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates and Hypocrisy in the Death Metal Scene Level 10: FUCK IT WITH METAL... I got a Little into Indie Rock and K-Pop music for a while... I still love MUSE and BlackPink Level 11: why I never listened These Guys before? They're awesome ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️; I tried more Bands that I didn't gave a Chance before, such as Trivium, Épica, Lacuna Coil, Limp Biskit, Alter Bridge, Between The Buried and Me, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cattle Decapitation and Whitechapel Basically I Started in Level 3, in this Timeline could Tell it is 2014-2023 (10 years old me with My 19 years old me today), the Metal Subgenres that I still don't Start it's Power Metal and Black Metal, but some Friends recommend me some Helloween and Mayhem Songs Anyway, Favorite band of Hole time (and of now): Fear Factory and Opeth for sure

i started with dragonforce because of the memes, then unironically got really into them then into stuff like trivium and avenged sevenfold later got into some metalcore bands then gradually started listening to more death metal mostly melodic or swedish death metal then decided i wanted to go harsher and harsher so started getting into brutal death metal which im now super into now ill listen to like whatever lotta thrash starting to get into power metal more and also slam just because i think its kinda funny, trying to be more varied in my metal taste now tho

I am a Gen Z too but my journey started with Queen Led Zeppelin then thrash Grunge Nu Prog and now I just enjoy❤

My first exposure was the soundtrack to Flash Gordon (1980) by Queen. When I was 3-5 I used to watch that DVD all the time and the Battle Theme at the climax planted the seed for liking heavy stuff.

my getaway to metal as a teen were a lot of Japanese bands because they blend heavier genres really well. my fav band is the gazette and they have some lighter songs but also on some later albums ruki throws down some tasteful growls and harsh vocals. and then it evolved into a little heavier bands like maybe coldrain, diaura and with time bands like dir en grey , which was the time ive actually started to listen to actual heavy stuff... and now i love all that plus deathcore

Always pleased to see HevyDevy make the list!

A friend played Black Sabbath, and then I was hooked. Love your videos and playing, fantastic

For me it was nu-metal -> thrash metal -> death/doom/grind/the whole can of worms

I got into metal in the late 90s. The album that did it for me was Aenima. From there my taste sprawled from Sepultura to Meshuggah to all over the place.

I like that you waited to put the name of the song on the screen - made it fun to play along and guess what it was

I started with "Trinity" by Amaranthe, then I discovered Sabaton and they became my favourite music group. I started to listen to 1349 and Mayhem when I went to Norway. I also love Japanese metal. Nowadays, I listen to Sabaton (basically all the time), Amaranthe, Babymetal and Nanowar of Steel.

Getting into rock is how i got i to metal. I really got into metal from metalcore which was when i began developing a taste for heavier stuff. Then eventually got into the extreme genres like death metal and black metal. I still like a load of different genres. Getting into rock helped me appreciate other styles of music.

I started off the same way you did. Couldn't have been more than 5 years old and jammin to the Power Rangers theme. The Linkin Park and Drowning Pool bit was an accurate portrayal of my early teens. I had a grunge phase in my early 20s, then discovered thrash metal at around 24. Since then, I kind of know what I like and am trying to dig deeper into what's out there.

I’m in the Prog Nerd Phase right now 😂

My 1st exposure was Metallica and black Sabbath, discovering heavy rock was the Doom(2016) and eternal ost , starting to get into it was still Doom but also with Ozzy Osbourne and Slipknot, getting heavier was Arsis and Children of bodom for me, Getting Undergound idk what that means , i never had an evil phase i never had an 8 or 9 phase but for 10 its Arsis, Hypocrisy, Behemoth, Doom ost, Ozzy Osborne, Slipknot, Nevermore, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Hanabie, and Cattle Decapitation (this is only including metal)

I never realised until now that the first time I totally dug Metal was watching the opening to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers!

fire as always brother 💯

Started listening when I was watching world of Warcraft PVP montages and every other video had drowning pool playing on it. This was around 2007

my onramp to metal was, of all things, Pandora Radio. Back when it was good when it was free, I liked listening to music while I was studying and working on things. The problem was that lyrics would knock me out of my flow state, so I wanted instrumental music. So, I picked a band that did a lot of instrumental stuff that I knew I liked - Trans-Siberian Orchestra - and threw that in as a basis for a "station" on Pandora. I thumbsed-down any music with lyrics, and thumbsed-up music without, and let it slowly sculpt itself from there. Eventually, I had a great energetic station with lots of good, mid-to-high-energy lyricless songs. Then I went "huh, these bands that keep popping up on my study station that I like. I should look into them!" Wall to wall heavy metal bands.

Started as a Classic Rock fan, listening to stuff way older than myself. Then got exposed to Iron Maiden. Took me a while to get used to it, but I started to really love it (one of my favourite bands to this day). Second big step was Nightwish, opening up the world of Symphonic Metal, my favourite subgenre. Other notable mentions from that time are Evanescence and Dream Theater, diversifying my interests.

A classmate brought Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar" cassette to school in '98 or '99 (don't clearly remember) when I was in the middle of depressive teenage time of 13/14 years old and it was my only thing for a long while. Then the new millennium rolled around, I moved to a big city high school from my rural place and there came Slipknot's self titled album, stuff from Korn, Helloween's "The Dark Ride", "Midian" by Cradle of Filth, "Destroyer" and "Incipit Satan" by Gorgorth, Marduk's "Panzer Division Marduk", Therion's "Theli", Theatre of Tragedy with "Velvet Darkness They Fear", Tristania with "Widow's Weeds" and "Beyond the Veil"...and the floodgates of various styles and bands were impossible to close anymore.

I’m So proud son 🤩

Cannibal Corpse and Deicide was like level 2 for me. I'm at the enjoy what you like level now, which basically just means fast Death Metal.

i went metallica slayer and iron miaden to slpiknot and deathcore to old school death metal then whatever extreme metal i could find

I can't even remember my first exposure to metal but it was probably mainly SoaD, TDG, and Evanescence and Guitar Hero. Stayed around that range, kinda dipping into heavy metal, but then I heard a single Persefone track and that's when I fully plunged into metal. I mainly listen to Sleep Token and Tool nowadays, but I will revisit SoaD and Breaking Benjamin every once in a while. Probably missing a lot of stuff but tbf I was into metal and hard rock pretty much my entire life so...

Great playing man!

Great video

Devin was a surprising and dope addition.

Well, it was Evanescence for me (with a few songs from Linkin Park), then I discovered Nightwish and Blind Guardian around the same time and the rest from the symphonic part of metal like Epica and Within Temptation...And after that I just discovered Eluveitie and with them folk metal and I just started to like harsh vocals so it helped me to get to the more extreme metal styles...

2:05 Yoh!

yo that level 10 song made me open spotify the second the chanting started

The first exposure to me was from an Italian rapper called Salmo who did some metal, punk and rock songs in his career. The two songs that I can recall in particular were the crossover metal song Street Drive In and the rocknroll-ish song Black Widow live edition, which had a 2 minutes guitar/drum solo at the end which I thought were the coolest thing ever. The first real metal band though was Rise Of The Northstar with the song Here Comes the Boom, which I found on the kickass playlist on Spotify. ROTN with their crossover metal that mixes rap, harcore and metal was perfect for someone like me who was really into hardcore rap. There was also another song I got into at the same time while listening to that playlist, which was Dumptruck by Wilson. I don't consider Wilson to be my first band because other than that song I never continued listening to them and I was into it for a short amount of time (unlike ROTN). After that I listened to some stuff like Rhapsody of Fire, Them, Gojira (but almost only the song clone for some reason), and those red and blue FFDP albums, but I still listened primarily to rap. It was nu and alternative metal that made me almost stop listening to rap and listen to only metal (not because I was one of those "ew the other genres suck", but because I wanted to listen to Korn all day). Korn and later on also Slipknot were the ones I listened to the most.

Diabolis Interium is a killer album from the thumbnail

Started with nu metal and alternative rock before bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica changed my world. I remember the day I "got" death metal. I used to hate growled vocals and couldn't get into the riffs. It was Lack of Comprehension that got me hooked and extreme metal just became an obsession from then.

i got into metal at like elementary through dragonforce, then i moved to a new location and started listening to movie titles and pop songs, for like a year, got tired of that, went bck to dragonforce, then amon amarth, afterwards was a bit of metallica, nightwish, rammstein and those big bands, then my music player recommended a black metal playlist to me for some reason and i thought that sounded quite interesting, tried to figure out how they did the vocals and found whitechepel in the process, listened to a few from them and the next day my app recommended bonecarver and oceano which started a 6 month long deathcore phase, got a bit of folk metal influence then i got recommended adept and went off to post hardcore, after that i went to metalcore from videos and stuff, heard about dream theater and that got me into prog, technical death metal started somewhere after that from a video of archspire, this got my app to recommend me technical deathcore and so i went to that, then heard about lorna shore from their popularity andbrought me back to deathcore for another 6 months, then i got into in flames and started listening to melodic death metal for the other 6 months, and now i listen to petty much everything above apart from black metal, interesting how i never thought metal was too heavy for me even at elementary, just sort of liked fast heavy music by instinct

Man finishing on Devin Townsend is an instant subscribe. Great videos. Should've ended with Deconstruction's breakdown just to really nail the point.

The first 5 levels for me were just animals as leaders albums lol. Went from the joy of motion -> aal titular -> parrhesia -> weightless -> madness of many over the course of 6 months.

Devin Townsend as the peak level is perfect

Can't believe that I'm still a level 3 metalhead despite listening to metal since 8

I started by the level 4. Discovered As I lay dying on the radio in Saints row 2

Hahaha im a level 10! Been listening to metal genres since i was 8 years old. I went through almost all those stages hahahaha. High school was a hell of a time. Trying so hard to be the cool goth/metalhead and fit in and know all the heaviest bands. Now ive just thrown all that out and i just listen to what I like best.

The 2nd one made me happy. One word: Dragonzord

I rewound to show my wife the Juular part. Great stuff

I was into hip hop, my usual radio show ended (this was in 1988) and Tommy Vance’s rock show come on, it was the release of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden, I was hooked. That was my gateway drug into Thrash, Slayer blew my tiny mind 🤟🏽

Juular is an awesome song

You play very well 🇧🇷

Just got one of those m-10's fopr 100 bucks on marketplace, plays really nicely for a cheap guiotar! Had to slap a duncan pickup at the bridge but after that it plays like a dream.

Level 10 is ultimate chad. If we could only skip level 9 somehow x.x

I started exactly like this and had all these phases 🤣

I got in through the broforce soundtrack (power metal) and aic, then tyranny (funeral doom), then acid mammoth (stoner metal), then aal (djent/prog), then intronaut (post metal), now i listen to jazz

when i met "Metal head" comrade at college far place, he gave whole copy album to flashdrive

Chingón padrino

Interesting. For me it was almost the opposite as Dream Theater are my gateaway into the realm of "underground/extreme" metal. Iirc it started in mid 2000s in my highschool days when my friend recommends me Iron Maiden and DT and i was totally blown away by 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence bcs before that i only knew Mr. Big, Scorpion, Black Album and Linkin Park so i still clearly remember i spinned that DT album everyday for months lol After that i discovered BFMV, A7x, Trivium, AA, Devil Driver, As I Lay Dying and many more. This was my metalcore stage i think lol. But i still hooked by DT bcs back then in my mind they are the best and other bands are irrelevant so i'd keep on updating everything about them. 😆 Then everything changed one day in early 2010s when i discovered Opeth. This was after i read some DT's related article and they mentioned Opeth. I got curious and decided to spin Ghost Reveries. I was like WTF?! That was totally new experience for me and probably my life changing moment. After that i dig more and more about death metal and extreme metal in general only to realized that there's so much more in metal that i completely didn't know so i felt so stupid to ever think that DT is the only band that matter lol. In short, DT are my gateway and Opeth are my revelation.

90s kid here, so nu metal and Marilyn Manson was the way for me, with some thrash and heavy metal revival like Metallica and Iron Maiden before I moved on to Nightwish and then death metal. Now I typically listen to bands derivative of death metal but care less what genre it is.

Tony Halk Pro Skater 3 got me into metal by way of Motörhead. The Ace of Spades was my first taste.

I'm definitely Level 10 now.

I started at phase 9 😂 Prog for life tho fr

The Whitehcapel song was how I got into the heavy shit too!

For me I got into metal by listening to BMTH, then getting into bands like motionless in white & Ice Nine Kills, eventually discovered deathcore, REALLY liked blackened deathcore so now I listen to black metal and get into tech-death too and that's sort of it, for now

what got me into metal was slipknot then infant annihilator for the more extreme sides

2:37 us at Unburier

Metallica, SOAD, Disturbed, A7X, those were my gateways. Made my transformative years very interesting.

I went from Aerosmith getting me into liking guitar then moved to Metallica and slayer and testament for a while then got into screaming with Shadows Fall and found more metalcore from there and got into death metal and melo death soon after. Up next came black metal and still exploring all the time.

My journey into metal was a weird (and weeb-y) one. As a kid, I thought all metal was satanic, so even if I did delve into J-rock no thanks to anime, I refrained from delving into heavier stuff. And then came Vocaloid. People mostly only listened to the popular and meme-y pop songs, but somehow the RU-vid algorithm pushed me towards the rock side of Vocaloid and from there it was a deep dive into heavier and heavier music until I landed onto Utsu-P. At the time, his most recent album on RU-vid was TRAUMATIC and that's what I first stumbled upon before I explored J-Metal. I fell in love with the old, 80s-90s V-kei bands. It was mainly Dir En Grey and X Japan with a side of BUCK-TICK, Malice Mizer, D'espairsRay and Luna Sea. After all that, I had a brief metalcore phase, mainly influenced by Coldrain and Bullet For my Valentine. It didn't last too long after I discovered Crossfaith, Enter Shikari and Palisades and electronicore ended up being my "main" genre for a while before discovering old In Flames (The Jester Race is a 10/10 album). Now, I'm all about that melodic/symphonic death metal.

You forgot the chaotic hardcore phase as in 'I need a change... every second' 🤗

for me, it was nirvana's bleach->slayer->classic death metal->mincecore->goregrind->black noise->raw dungeon synth

What got me into metal was video games. Dragula was in Gran Turismo 2, and then I listened to the Burnout 3/Revenge soundtrack a few years later. After that I listened to Rob Zombie, Slipknot, and A7x. It kept going after that. Seems like I'm currently in my nerdy prog metal phase lmao, I found Dream Theater a week ago

My metalution went through some drastic changes in regards to genre so here: (Includes the genre) Metallica - Boomer Metal Gojira - Progressive/Death Metal (imo) Demon Hunter - Death-ish Prog metal? also Christian Shadow of Intent - Deathcore baby Saving Grace - Christian Groove Metal Sleeping Giant - Another Christian Groove Metal band Becoming the Archetype - Another Christian Groove metal band... After the Burial - genuinely don't know what genre, was told by a friend their kinda djent Bleed from Within - Metalcore Chimaira - google says metalcore with groove but idk *Lamb of God* - Death Metal with some groove (favorite band) *Fleshgod Apocalypse* - Symphonic/Orchestral Death Metal (fourth favorite band) *Skinless* - Brutal Death Metal (second favorite band) *Dying Fetus* - Brutal Death Metal (third favorite band)

Bruh you are fucking right! Wasn't this specific songs but apart from that, exactly right!!

Started with "radio rock" [old thrash/heavy- and more family friendly nu metal] in the car with my dad- linkin park, metallica, mega death, rage Against the machine, tool, black sabbath etc etc, then Christian rock: kutless (sea of faces album is still good), 12 stones(self-titled album), third day (alien album is especially dope). Then, christian metal, skillet (old school), disciple, demon hunter (i know and can sing every song off of the The Triptych- its an amazing album though all their stuff is good), fit for a king, Then metalcore, hardcore, pop-punk, Three days grace(old school), black veil brides (pre album records), a day to remember (still based), bless the fall, Then deathcore, Whitechapel (self titled album especially), bring me the horizon (old school), Chelsea Grin (desolation of eden), job for a cowboy, sucicide silence, etc Then i went through a phase for about 6 months where all i listened to was disturbed. Then i started down the brutal path. I still listen to everything. Literally. From gregorian chant to blackened deathcore. But when the average song you listen to sounds like bonebreaker by slaughter to previal, hostage by chelsea grin, or what a horrible night to have a curse? Lol I also found out theres heavier christian metal. Bands like impending doom. Dope band. Its a good way to get a christian rocker/metalhead into the heavier stuff.

Devin Townsend, yeah.🤘 Fun fact: I only discovered him because Anneke van Giersbergen was featured on some of his projects. Quite a strange way for someone who first got into the "trve kvlt" Norwegian Black Metal and been mostly into doom afterwards but well... Never been much into female-fronted bands because they're just too cheesy, but The Gathering and After Forever were great (so much so that it hurts to be using the past tense here).

I ended up going into thrash but goddamn haruka kanata was insanely accurate it was one of the first songs I learned on the guitar

I dont remember well how i got into metal, i guess it has always been there for me, at 14 or 15 i started going for the heavier starting with slipknot and now im a melodic/glam/power enjoyer

Kids and their cartoons these days... My first exposure was a cassette (google it) of a few songs from Black Album and Justice for All that had to be rewound manually because the tape would rip otherwise. Wasnt even the actual albums, but a recording someone did from a radio broadcast. Early 90s Eastern Europe was a strange place.

Bro level 1-4 is just nostalgia

Meteora make me explore, Evanescence, lacuna coil, disturbed, and old Slipknot etched me into metal. Cant forget Mudvayne, and about 30 roadrunner trash bands.. trivium, Killswitch engage, others that sound the same... Old in flames definitely. Probably the biggest turning point would have been from Opeth and Cradle of filth. No idea how i transitioned from that to Doom:VS, Forest Stream, Wine From Tears, Swallow The Sun, Disillusion etc...

as follows: thrash,prog, prog metalcore, metalcore, deathcore, now a little bit of everything

I LOVE HARUKA KANATA SO MUCH

Since everyone seems to be sharing their stories here: The first bands I remember liking were when I was maybe 8-10. I liked some classic rock acts like the Beatles, the Who, Scorpions, and some more 90s-era stuff like Blink-182 and Everclear. The first song that ever got me into metal was probably an Iron Maiden song, likely Run to the Hills. I was maybe 9-10 years old when I first heard it. I specifically remember being in my 4th grade classroom listening to it on my mp3 player before class, or maybe I was just humming the tune to myself. Another early contender was Enter Sandman by Metallica (cliché, I know) but I'm pretty sure Maiden got to me first. I can't say for certain. Then from ages 11-13 I listened to basically nothing but classic and thrash metal like Metallica, Megadeth, Black Sabbath, and a bit later on bands like Slayer started to catch my interest. At some point in there I discovered the song Iridium by Dark Tranquility. The growling vocals were still a bit off-putting to me, but I was starting to see the appeal of death metal. By the time I was 14-15 I was fully into it, listening to mostly popular death bands like Cannibal Corpse and Death and the like. I also somehow found a fairly niche instrumental prog band called Blotted Science which I've been a fan of for a long time now. At around 15, I was starting to discover more genres of extreme metal like technical death metal (Obscura, Beyond Creation, Archspire) and the occasional black metal tune (Mourning Palace by Dimmu Borgir and Blow Your Trumpets, Gabriel by Behemoth are standouts). I also found Ne Obliviscaris, a very unique progressive death metal band that also features a violinist who does clean vocals. By the time I was 17-18 I was open to most genres of metal except the really out-there stuff like goregrind and slam. A bit too much for me. At this point I was also starting to realize that it is indeed possible to like several genres at once, so I was no longer listening exclusively to metal. Now in my 20s, I enjoy classical music (all eras from Bach to John Cage), jazz, indie, post-rock/metal, folk (from many different countries), and even some pop music! (16-year-old me would've been horrified!)

Since you did anime, was curious what you thought about the Slam Dunk opening theme...

Pantera was my gateway to metal, then RATM and the NU metals bands like SOAD, nxt should be Screamo, Deathcore. I ended up with Swancore.. for now.. WHAT A RIDE!!!