What Was Your Metal Gateway Band? Spiritbox, GWAR, BMTH and More React 

I love how Metallica and Slipknot kids said everything but their dad’s bands 😂😂😂

I absolutely love how half of these heavy bands cited bands like Linkin Park. You even saw them squirm a little when saying it like they’re embarrassed. They shouldn’t be! Not every band needs to be brutal. Metal needs MORE gateway bands the rest of the metal community needs to understand their significance and be welcoming.

I'm so happy that numetal gets more respect these days it was a rough 20 years haha

People love to shit on nu-metal but it has its own place in music. It's a great balance between accessible yet heavy and intense. Some really talented and creative artists as well. Really deserves more respect, even w/ some of the cringe.

Happy to hear nu metal being a factor into introducing metal to many people. It was for me. Korn was my gateway band. Sepultura was the band that helped broadened my metal horizon and eventually lead me into death metal

Linkin Park for me. I was maybe 10 and my friend lent me his brother’s Hybrid Theory CD and immediately it clicked. They are a type of rock that’s easily accessible to everyone and provide a great starting point to heavy music if you’re interested; if not then you can just enjoy their music as is.

Three Days Grace's One X and Evanescence's Fallen were probably the 1st full albums I ever heard, definitely the 1st ones I remember.

Courtney LaPlante's comment about how media like MTV would never have introduced her to good metal shows a sad change in music. Seeing, on MTV, Metallica's video for One changed my life and Headbanger's Ball introduced me to so much good music. It's sad how much that changed by the 2000s.

I got into harsh vocals by gradually travelling back in time in BMTH's discography. I would listen to a record and find it too heavy and screamy only to give it another try a few months later and fall in love with it.

I had no idea people might not like No More Tears. That album and specifically the title track absolutely SLAPS

Linkin Park first two records are masterpieces,also Slipknot for sure.

mine was soad too. my mom gave me a bunch of cd's when i was like 11 and i listened to all of them, but toxicity was the one i kept going back to the most and loved!! glad this is a common experience haha

Not gonna lie as I got old enough the WWE games from like 2000-2009 were massive influences. Honestly a ton of videos growing up shaped my music taste looking back at it now I’m so glad I was able to experience so much good music

My gateway band into metal was Slipknot. I remember being a little kid and my friend that rode the bus would always bring these cool cds with him for us to listen to and one day he brought Vol. 3. It changed my world! I never heard music so strange and exciting. I never looked back since.

My first few metal bands I ever listened too when I was little were Limp Bizkit, System Of A Down, I got into Slipknot heavily when I was like 9 or 10, and then around middle school is when I dived deeper into Coal Chamber, Static X, Korn. As soon as I got to high school, I discovered Deftones and they were and still are the only band that's ever changed me in ways I didn't think were possible.

Mudvayne was my first and it was when Dig came out whenever I was 8 years old. A year later I found Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Korn, Coal Chamber, Kittie, and Statix-X. And stayed with that till I was 13 and got more into thrash and death metal and evolved more over time and still listening to this day and I'm 29 now

There were a few influences on me growing up, Linkin Park, Metallica etc. But the first album that really got me in deep was "Believe" by Disturbed. Super underrated gateway band

Godsmack was mine, way back when I was 11 years old and received their album ‘Faceless’ as a gift.

Hybrid Theory, Meteora and Toxicity. Those albums opened me up to this wonderful world of metal

Metallica's Black Album, full stop. That was the game changer. Honorable mentions to White Zombie, Megadeth and Pantera, I clearly fell into the right crowd in high school

Defo linkin park, limp bizkit and korn were prolly the earliest for me, but I have this super vivid memory of hearing raining blood for the first time, with all those lightning sounds and feedback and that DUN DUN DUN on drums into that iconic riff. The atmosphere they created just filled me with this sense of dread but also just wanting to fly around the room and kick shit off the walls and that was the moment I knew for sure I was a metal head.

Sevendust is so criminally underrated

I was in the 9th grade in 1990 listing to rap music of the time. All of a sudden the Nevermind album came out and I was hooked. I wanted everything grunge all this time. A classmate gave me Fear Factory's soul of a new mechine album. I had never heard growling before and I loved it.

A split between Pantera - Cowboys From Hell and Sepultura - Roots for me, I was introduced to them both at the same time when the older kids used to play the cassette tapes on the school bus, instantly hooked 🤘🏻

I went from Hanson to Manson , but growing up it always heavy. my dad favorites are king diamond, cannibal corpse, immortal to name a few. So been listening to this stuff all my life..

Growing up my favorite band was Relient K until the day I found a copy of jobforacowboy's doom ep on the side of the highway

Thanks for having me💥🎸-GaЯza

I thought about this one and I think for me it was Rammstein and the visual kei scene. I also remember finding Slayer by complete accident online too and loved that.

Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory was the gateway album / band that got me into the metal world, RIP Chester.

My gateway into finally finding metal was actually by way of emo! Pierce the Veil, Of Mice and Men, Sleeping with Sirens, Thursday. At the time the catchy melodies helped me “tolerate” the heavy/screaming sections until I started craving hearing more heavy vocals. Then I finally graduated by way of We came as romans, Woe is Me, and old Bring Me The Horizon. Now I'm in love with anything remotely metal, Lamb of God, Deftones, Gojira, Infant annihilator, Lorna Shore, Veil of Maya, Machine Head, Korn, Cattle Decapitation, Spiritbox, etc, etc. Really grateful to these bands for easing me into my favorite genre and they still have a special place in my heart

White Zombie, Coal Chamber, Pantera, Korn, and Ultimately, Slipknot, which no other band has came close to matching, since '99 were my gateway bands into the amazing world of metal.

When I was 8, 9 years old, I was still into boy bands, but I was also watching MTV and discovered Korn, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, and POD. It was still several years before I could call myself a metalhead, but those were the first bands that got me hooked.

I grew up with metal influence from my dad but the first band I got into on my own without my dad showing me it was definitely Linkin Park. Hybrid Theory kicked open a lot of doors for a lot of folks. RIP to Chester Bennington.

Mine was Adema. I remember watching their music video for Immortal while playing Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, and I was blown away by it because I had never heard music like that before. I looked them up on Pandora radio and they became the first metal band I was a fan of. Years later, I'm listening to everything from metalcore to DSBM, but I'll always have a deep appreciation for Adema

What introduced me to heavy music were all the songs that WWE would use for their PPVs. One of those bands that I really liked back in the day was Bloodsimple. I was looking up one of their songs and somebody mentioned that Bloodsimple sounds really similar to Slipknot. And then I discovered Psychosocial and the rest was history.

I saw Slipknots duality music video and became obsessed. The masks, the music, the lyrics, I couldn’t get enough.

I love No more tears, that is definetely my favorite Ozzy's album, i can listen to it over and over again, never get tired of it.

A friend sent me a mix tape (folder of mp3s over AIM lol) that had a bunch of extreme metal. I knew the big names, but didn't know any of the smaller bands. Opeth, At the Gates, Children of Bodom, tons of other bands. Thanks Eric lol.

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto Still remember my older brother putting that yellow disc in a cd walkman with a cassette player adapter into our moms 89 Suzuki Sidekick when we left the Wherehouse music store.

My first real ‘heavy’ songs were some of Limp Bizkit and Rammstein around when I was around 8 or 9. I saw Rollin on MTV and heard Du Hast as the leader for some game review tv show, and started downloading more songs by those bands on Winamp, which took like 20-30 minutes for most songs. That was around 2000 I think. Then about a year later i came accros Hybrid Theory, Black Album. And the flood gates openend with bands like Maiden, Korn, Trivium, Static-X, Heaven Shall Burn and on.

I grew up on lots of Hip Hop, R&B and Soul but my father would often listen to Phil Collins, Yanni and Yes so i was aware of rock music but the first album I ever sat down and listened to front to back was Dookie by Green Day. I'd hear other stuff over the years but Nu Metal was where I went all in. Bands like Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, American Head Charge, Fear Factory and downthesun were where i fell in love with metal.

Having older siblings I was lucky enough to get exposed to heavier music when I was in elementary school.I remember being 8 years old getting home from school and listening to Pantera and white zombie on my brother's tapes.With pretty much being a kid in the start of the nu metal genre and the deftones still being my favorite band, I'm surprised I didn't hear them get mentioned.

Def Leppard was my gateway into heavy rock and metal. The world premiere of the PSSOM video literally changed my life.

Hearing one of my favorite bands ever (BMTH) also have love for Nu-Metal is definitely nice haha

Damn I'm old. I was a child in the 80's and teenager in the 90's. MTV introduced me to so much music during that era. Headbangers Ball with Rikki Rachtman every Saturday night open my eyes to a lot of bands along with metal mags. First heard and bought Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer cassettes when I was in 6th grade in 1989.

Bloodywood was for me. It was the first time I heard about metal and then kept exploring more metal.

Garza saying that his introduction is Got the Life using a "chamber music" t shirt is me in my teens. Love him

Growing up in the late 90s and early 00s I'd say my go to bands were Linking Park, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Fear Factory. Later I discovered Metallica, Pantera and Messugah but the one thing that started it all was Tony Hawk pro skater 2, more specifically the ost. I heard songs like Blood brothers by Papa Roach or Guerrila radio by ratm and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I will be forever grateful to this video game for expanding my musical tastes and interests.

Started with Korn. Then I kept hearing this song on the radio with the vocalist singing in a weird, chant-y melody backed by a crunchy chugging guitar. It was later when I found out that l had been listening to Tool (Eulogy from Aenima) and that's really the band that made me appreciate metal songwriting.

For me, my brother introduced me to Metallica - Load and Mudvayne - L.D 50. Never looked back.

14 years old ..first time when I listened to sic by slipknot. It blew mine mind away. So heavy

Man, I feel old watching that.

Sabbath, Metallica, Megadeath as an entry to metal. Sepultura and Pantera were the two that brought the anger though……that anger over 35 years listening has brought me to a place of peace! Believe it or not bands like Cabal, Hippotraktor, Psychonaut, and Black Crown Initiate are hard af and yet they bring a calm to my life.

My brother was 4 years older than me and was big into collecting Maiden albums. We shared a room and he would show me all the secret references on their album covers as well as all the evolutions of Eddie. Maiden isn't my favorite metal band but it was definitely my introduction.

Slipknot, Linkin Park and Mudvayne are the 3 bands that opened my eyes to metal. I remember clear as day, in 2003 when I first arrived in Portugal, MTV played Left Behind by Slipknot, followed by Dig by Mudvayne and followed by Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park.

Older Nightwish, resonated with me being a young fantasy nerd, perfect background music when reading fantasy books :D also Iron Maiden, my parents listen to them. Not sure if Nightwish was because of my uncle, or because of my class mate, don't remember from whom I heard it first Edit: also Alice Cooper! Someone else's comment reminded about it, and yes, thanks to my parents about that, too :D

I got into metal fully from Slipknot and SOAD but my first taste of metal was Cthulu Dawn by Cradle of Filth. Ten year old me went nuts.

It's so interesting and humanizing to hear artists, many of which are/will be significant contributors to the future of music, light up like the regular fan does talking about their favorite bands. Garza perfectly nailed my choice down to the song even! I became a true fan after my first listen n never looked back!!!

I listened to Metallica, Nirvana, Korn. Etc. Then went to rap for a while. Oddly Taproot, Chevelle, Slipknot, System of a Down, Linkin Park and that era of music got me back into rock. Then Atreyu's Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses and From Autumn to Ashes The Fiction We Live started me into the screaming side of music.

A Day to Remember for me. I remember listening to You Had Me At Hello and thinking…I should check these guys out a little more. Then starting the album with Heartless and wondering what I got myself into 😂

The lack of du hasts kind of gives away how much we focus on America. That song was everywhere.

This video is amazing, love hearing all these bands talk about stuff that influenced them, a lot of which I grew up on as well. I grew up hearing Classic Rock on the radio and my dad listening to Sabbath and stuff, but for me Green Day was the first band that got me interested in heavy guitar and fast drums, Dookie and Insomniac were my first cassette tapes I got as a kid. Then that kinda evolved into the Nu-metal of the late 90s, metalcore, and so forth.

My gateway metal band was A Day To Remember and early Falling In Reverse. Those were the first bands I actively listened to when I was getting into metal. But it turns out I was subconsciously exposed to Linkin Park and bands like Disturbed, Bullet For My Valentine & Static-X through video games as a child.

Linkin Park and Korn were my gateway bands, but Korn is without a doubt my favorite band of all time.

This makes me feel old

Architects, haven't been listening to heavy music for long but FTTWTE was the first record i gave a try and i loved it

Started with the 70s rock bands my parents listened to...then I heard spit it out by slipknot....then it went from there! 🤘

Mine was follow the leader from Korn, I was blown away as a kid.... Until I heard system of a down

Freaking Way of the Warrior game mentioned! That's killer and plus my intro to White Zombie.

The Used “Box full of sharp object” got me started down the metal core road.

My gateway metal band would be KoRn and that was 23 years ago when I was 16 during the NU Metal era. My mind was blown when I first saw them on my classmate’s vhs tape of Woodstock 99.

My dad introduced me to iron maiden as a kid which I fell in love with, but I also began to take in the bands out there when I was a kid like linkin park, evanescence, drowning pool, and that furthered my love even more!

Mine was definitely the first Rage Against The Machine album circa 92/93. Being 12 Years old then. But even back then I did not consider them Metal, more like Fusion or the then new term of Alternative Rock, so a classmate made me listen to Metallica ( the classic four records pre Black Album - which was already all over the Radio back then and unavoidable ) I borrowed the Kill 'Em All cassette tape at the time and played it in constant "Auto Reverse" mode until the batteries on the old Walkman gave out. I remember loving the fact that they had a song that was basically a Bass solo ( Anesthesia - Pulling Teeth ) and that the Bass player was like a prodigy who kinda looked like Jaco Pastorius who was a friend of my Dad and uncles. So that was a really big deal for me. "Anesthesia", "Four Horsemen" and "One" left an indelible impression on me for sure. And the song "Angry Again" by Megadeth - which was on the soundtrack of a movie called Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger - LOL - that's kind of a thing you don't really admit but hey everyone in my generation went through that phase of Action movies - But beyond the time I never was a big Megadeth fan, while I still listen to the first 5 by Metallica... And RATM to this day

yoooo love to see Wargasm here!! one of my favourite bands rn 🖤🖤

I started my love of Metal in the deep end of the pool with one of the G.O.A.T. in METALLICA. ONE was my introduction into metal. I was then hooked on them in the 6th grade. Everytime I listen to Fuel I remember my days head swooshing on my 6th grade bus rides to school and home. My Uncle got me into METALLICA. RIP Uncle H. Miss ya!

For me it was Black Sabbath. Was cruising through my fathers excellent record collection when I was 6. Found this album that had a weird, for me, silhouette and that album was Paranoid. I listened to that LP for hour and hours, learnt every song on all the instruments and was hooked. I also found Bathory, Venom and really early Death Albums but it just sounded like noice to me back then. At age 11-12 it was In Flames, At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Entombed mixed with Savatage and of course DIO who I meet in 92 when I was 6 for the first time.

From my parents Ratt and ozzy got lots of play and I liked it (still do) but I think the bands that really kicked open the door for me were NIN and Marilyn Manson. Hearing Sweet Dreams and March of the Pigs was life changing for my pre teen brain.

Hello from New England...First metal album I bought at 14 was Viovod's second album and a month later got Testament's practice what you preach..not sure when those were actually released but I got them when I was 14 yrs old..Great vid.. Peace ✌️

Korn, brother brought home a dubbed cassette tape with 4 songs from korn’s debut album , I was 13, 1996, changed my life as far as music goes

Maiden for me. Their influence is so wide, it helped me get into everywhere from melodeath to thrash to prog to power metal. From there my tastes got heavier and more extreme, like osdm and black metal. Before maiden though, metallica was my first love since I was around 7 years old. I don't really listen to them as much as I used to, still on occasion, but they will always be my first love and hold a special place in my heart

Thanks for making me feel ancient. Never thought saying "Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Anvil, Raven" would make me a relic

I was into rock like acdc, floyd, and zeppelin growing up, but soad was definitely my first exposure to metal that got me hooked.

My first steppingstone in metal was the Soilwork-album Natural Born Chaos.Still listening to it at times, and im still loving it.

Slipknot was mine. Eventually Cradle of Filth showed me black metal.

As a 7 year old in the 80's, my gateway band was actually Bon Jovi.🤣🤣 From there, Iron Maiden, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, RATM, TOOL, System and Slipknot to name a few.

Korn's Issues album and Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory was that for me

Love this, I still remember in 99 my cousin came over to my house and was like u gotta check this new band out, they're brutal. Put it in an old boom box and we rocked out to the entire self titled slipknot album over and over for hours.

i grew up listening to a lot of different genres but my dad got me into metallica, judas priest, and SOAD. but my mom got me into linkin park and and motley crue. eventually i stumbled upon BMTH’s Sempiternal and it spiraled from there

For me it was four different gateways of metal that I discovered more or less at the same time: 1. It was the time of Nu metal and Alt Metal with Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and P.O.D, Korn, Limp Bizkit, RATM and SOAD being some of my favorites at the time. In Germany there was also a brand of Rap Rock we used to call "Crossover" a few years prior with bands like Guano Apes and H-Blockxx that I really enjoyed. 2. I was in boarding school at the time and we were a bunch of nerds playing Magic the Gathering. One unwritten rule was that whoevers room it was, that we were playing Mtg in, got to decide the soundtrack. The metalhead in our group had the largest room so we would play in his room a lot and he would blast bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Manowar, Metallica, Luca Turilli, Masterplan, Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Rage, Judas Priests Painkiller Album and Dios Holy Diver all the time. 3. At the same time I also discovered Punk and Hardcore including metallic sounding stuff like Beat the Bastards by Exploited and that ultimately lead to me discovering Grindcore with Napalm Death and The Berzerker becoming some of my favorites. 4. The few girls in our little scene in Boarding School were into different stuff with Operatic Metal and Rock like Within Temptation, Nightwish and Evanescene becoming something I consumed almost daily. Another honourable mention was a dude that showed me Gorgoroth, Darkthrone and Immortal around the same time. It just took several more years for me to fully appreciate that sound.

My dad had Boston self-titled in his truck's CD changer at all times, then later on I found Linkin Park's Meteora lying around. Thanks dad

I thankful for the guitar hero series for introducing me to so much timeless metal.

The fact that Courtney's gateway band for metal was SOAD just makes me solidify my love for her (and Spiritbox) that much more! Now if only SOAD can put aside their differences and make some damn music...

Seeing as how my two favorite genres of metal these days are thrash metal and death metal, I'm still in awe that Linkin Park was the gateway for me. Definitely wouldn't have thought that Hybrid Theory and Meteora would one day lead to Slayer and Cannibal Corpse.

Grew up on my dads taste, Black Sabbath, pantera, sepultura, Alice n chains. My dad took my brother and I to see SOAD and that to this day is the band that my brother my dad and I will always see together. And now as I grew older got into the 200s metal core. I’m heavy into Spite, the ghost inside, after the burial now. Get chills just thinking of all these bands. Metal is apart of my soul I feel. 🤘🏻

The first modern heavy song I ever remember hearing/seeing was the musice video for Slipknot's "Wait and Bleed" on a public access music channel called _The Box_ back in the late 90's, but it wasn't until 4th grade in '99-'00 that really started listening to my own music when a family friend introduced me to my gateway Linkin Park with "Papercut", it was heavy and felt powerful but had melody that I could sing to as a 9-10yr old, and what completely hooked me was the last minute of the song with that electronic counter melody and the bass. Still among my all-time favorite moments/sections of a song.

yep, Korn, Sepultura, Slipknot, Pantera, In Flames, Lamb Of God

I would have to say it was 3 bands that got me into the metal scene. Black Veil Brides, Escape the Fate & Falling in Reverse. I was in high school, at a friend's house hanging out and he was playing a lot of stuff in the background but what stuck out was BVB ETF & FIR! 🤘

Great video.

Seeing the guy from WCAR wearing a Thrown tanktop makes me so fuc*** happy!

Linkin Park and Breaking Benjamin were my gateway to “heavy” music. As I Lay Dying was my intro to metalcore and it was just a roller coaster since then.