Getting older, getting heavier

[VBCheeseGrater]

So i'm getting to be an old fart - approaching 40. Yet i find myself gravitating towards even heavier music. Getting more interested in death metal and the like, especially the classic bands like Cannibal Corpse and Death that I ignored when younger mainly due to the vocals. I credit Opeth for opening that door for me. I'm just really digging GOOD brutal music right now.

Anyone else experience this? More close minded types would say one should grow out of it, it's immature etc. but i say NAY, the metal brotherhood is strong, i hope it stays with me for life. As Jason Newsted has said "metal music is my fountain of youth" - or something like that - great quote.

 

[RV350ALSCYTHE]

I tend to follow this same trend though a decade behind you in age, 30.
Started with punk like NOFX.
Moved onto heavier stuff mostly thrash like Megadeth and Annihilator.
Moved on from that to Melodic Death like In Flames.
Recently (few years) have moved onto straight Death Metal like Bloodbath and Suffocation.

I also couldn't get into the vocals at first for more extreme metal styles.
First time I heard master of puppets I hated it (in early 90s).
It wasn't until I matured more as a person and musician that I could decipher the music and enjoy it for its quality and not based on angst and tempo alone.

 

[lemniscate]

My interests have been getting heavier, as well. After you get past the inhuman vocals, death metal's the craziest shit ever. There's so much of everything. The scene's also pretty awesome. I love being 7 feet from bands, while there's people losing it.

 

[celticelk]

I would say that as I get older (also turning 40 this year!), I'm getting slower and weirder. Whereas I used to be a thrash fan in my late teens, I find myself doing most of my metal listening these days in the doom, sludge, and post genres. My non-metal listening is venturing mainly into the strange edges of jazz and other off-the-beaten-path territory, hence the "weirder." I know a lot less about current pop music than I did in my teenage metalhead days. =)

 

[OmegaSlayer]

It's good, except the metal brotherhood stuff, that, it's quite a lie.

It's about music, it's about being hungry for music, it's about getting into the music, dissecting each instrument from the scary wall of sound and assimilating it, it's about understanding that the heavier you go, the less boundaries you have (more or less)

Glad you didn't stop to listen good music that has still some feeling and a path to evolve.

 

[Sunyata]

Thought this was going to be about your weight...

 

[heregoesnothing]

I moved on from metal, and started playing blues-rock and some bebop (getting mellower?). I really learned how terrible of a player I was

 

[cwhitey2]

Yeah since i started listening to heavy music its only gotten heavier

 

[abandonist]

I've always had an interest in extremity. Whether it was Merzbow in the 90s, or Gnaw Their Tongues now, I just want to hear outsider art.

 

[Marv Attaxx]

For me it's the opposite
I started with the classic Nu Metal stuff (Korn, Deftones, Slipknot etc.), then moved on to the most extreme stuff I could find. Loved Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, JFAC, Black Dahlia Murder, Admiral Angry, Portal, Gnaw Their Tongues and weird deathgrind- stuff.
Nowadays metal makes up about only 60% of the stuff I listen to. And it got a lot more melodic. Deftones is my favourite band again. I love Tool, Periphery, Tesseract, progressive dreamy stuff.
I've been discovering all kinds of new music the past 3 years. Love electronic music, down-tempo. I like post-rock like Caspian, If These Trees Could Talk, God is an Astronaut.

I find myself reaching for the Flying Lotus, Bonobo or Burial CD a lot more often than the Acacia Strain.
Well, except when I workout. Then I still prefer my music to be as heavy/angry as possible

 

[Cnev]

I don't know that my listening tastes have grown heavier, but they certainly have grown more extreme and obscure. I just have little interest in familiarity these days, regardless of artistic medium. I actually find the modern metal genre as a whole to be one of the most boring and uninspired.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

Lots of cool responses thanks. I definitely dig plenty of music on the lighter side as well, but i don't think my love of metal is ever going to die - there's something about it that invokes a response you can't necessarily get from other music

It's good, except the metal brotherhood stuff, that, it's quite a lie.

You go to a show of one of your favorite bands, get near the front. Show starts, you and another group of strangers start screaming out lyrics to every song together. There's something there. Friendships are easily forged over metal. Moreso than other genres of music, there is a bond among fans.

I do agree it's all about the music, and the music brings folks together. It's a bit similar to the jam band scene in that fashion.

I should also clear up i'm 36 - probably "approaching 40" was the wrong phrase to use on my part.

Thought this was going to be about your weight...

 

[Shredasaurus]

I think as we grow as individuals our taste changes it doesnt matter how hold you are and what you listen to it just happens

 

[cwhitey2]

Although I will say that the amount of obscure music (doesn't have to be heavy) I listen to has gone up by 100%

 

[lucasreis]

So i'm getting to be an old fart - approaching 40. Yet i find myself gravitating towards even heavier music. Getting more interested in death metal and the like, especially the classic bands like Cannibal Corpse and Death that I ignored when younger mainly due to the vocals. I credit Opeth for opening that door for me. I'm just really digging GOOD brutal music right now.

Anyone else experience this? More close minded types would say one should grow out of it, it's immature etc. but i say NAY, the metal brotherhood is strong, i hope it stays with me for life. As Jason Newsted has said "metal music is my fountain of youth" - or something like that - great quote.

More power to you. I ....ing hated when I was 20 and people would say to me "you'll grow tired of metal, you'll like jazz or something when you're older". I'm 30, about to be a dad, and I listen to even more metal now than I did when I was 20. Hell, when I was 20 I listened to more metal than when I was a teenager. It only grew more and more. My advice is... don't care about what people says, listen to what you like, and if that's metal, that's awesome! I'm sure that I'll be listening to a lot of metal when I'm 40, 50, etc.


ps: funny thing is... the same seems to happen to my brother. He was more of a power metal kind of guy, but lately he became this black metal freak and he shows me all kinds of stuff related to black metal. He is 35 and father of two kids

 

[AdamMaz]

As far as metal is concerned, my tastes have progressed towards heavier, more inhibiting music as well.

Ultimately, I've mostly grown in other directions in terms of music, generally just broadening my tastes.

 

[Metaguitarist]

So i'm getting to be an old fart - approaching 40. Yet i find myself gravitating towards even heavier music. Getting more interested in death metal and the like, especially the classic bands like Cannibal Corpse and Death that I ignored when younger mainly due to the vocals. I credit Opeth for opening that door for me. I'm just really digging GOOD brutal music right now.

Anyone else experience this? More close minded types would say one should grow out of it, it's immature etc. but i say NAY, the metal brotherhood is strong, i hope it stays with me for life. As Jason Newsted has said "metal music is my fountain of youth" - or something like that - great quote.

Other than Opeth, Insomnium is the band that lead me into more brutal sorts of bands. Check them out!

 

[Preacher]

I would say yes, it started for me in my late teens/early twenties when I listened to Lamb of God. I credit As the Palaces Burn for making always strive for heavier and harder music. The slightly disturbing thing I found the other day was I listened to the Serpentine Offering by Dimmu Borgir and I found I understood everyword without issue in the vocals, and the music seemed a little... soft :s

 

[Andromalia]

Realised I got old when I was asked at a show "Do you know where is the beer stand, please, Mister ?"
I'm exactly 40 and I actually listen to a more varied scope of music than when I was a teenager. Back then it was the big 4 minus Anthrax and that was it. Now I even like Motley Crue...

 

[The Reverend]

I'm not as old as some of you guys, but I've been slowly getting heavier and heavier for the ten years that I've been into underground music. I started with pop punk, then got into hardcore punk a la Bad Brains, then followed it to metalcore. The rest is history. I think there are only a handful of metal subgenres I have never enjoyed, and that's doom, power, and black metal. I like quite a few hybrids of those, but yeah. I used to listen primarily to metal, but I've picked up some other artists as time goes by. I don't think I'll ever "outgrow" metal. It fundamentally connects with me, and that's all I look for in music.