Map out your taste

[MLI]

Make sort of a timeline of your metal-listening history. For each period you designate, give your top few bands of the time. Anytime there's a sudden change, point out how you found the band. It should be interesting to see how people's taste evolved.

4th grade: Limp Bizkit (all the controversy over them made me find them)

5th grade: Rammstein (Du Hast from The Matrix soundtrack) I wanted them more probably because my mom wouldn't let me buy their stuff at first. I liked them so much I actually taught myself to be decently conversational in German.

7th: Marilyn Manson, Korn, Slipknot, System of a Down (when my mom finally let me listen to Rammstein, I lost interest. Marilyn Manson's Rock Is Dead was also on the Matrix soundtrack).

8th: Lamb of God, Unearth, The Dillinger Escape Plan (crucial point here: my sister's then boyfriend made me a metal compilation CD. I owe him so much for that.)

10th: Jazz, Classical (took a long break from metal, focusing on piano)

11th (end of): Job for a Cowboy. I saw them twice that year and after the second time, I got really really into them. A friend of mine showed me them.

12th: The Faceless, Job for a Cowboy, Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, Exivious, Necrophagist, etc. I got to see The Faceless for a second time this year and I absolutely fell in love with them. I actually got to see the first four of those bands this year.

Sorry if mine is a little long. What's your story?

 

[Triple7]

I can't designate years because most of them overlap and blur together but here it goes.

in the early 90's I was in love with grunge rock, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson.

In 94 Korn's first record came out which ushered me into the whole nu-metal thing. I expanded to bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Staind and many others.

That lasted until about 01-02 when I heard bands like Killswitch, Lamb Of God, All That Remains, and Unearth. Those bands got me into real metal and since then my taste in metal has expanded.

From that I got into metalcore for a while and then expanded into melodic death metal (The Black Dahlia Murder, Through The Eyes Of The Dead)and then technical death metal (The Faceless, Veil Of Maya, Born Of Osiris) and groove( Meshuggah, Sikth, Periphery). Somewhere in there I started listening to Opeth and fell in love with Prog as well.

Now I love it all, I still listen to everything I used to at some point in time. Music is life!

 

[matty2fatty]

I'm not going to break it down like that since I'm a little bit older than you, haha, but basically started with Korn, Rage, and Master of Puppets. Now I listen to just about anything, but I've been into a lot of tech-death stuff lately.

I think it'll be interesting to see if everyones tastes get more extreme as time goes on. If I had listened to something like Beneath the Massacre when I was 12 I probably would have thrown up....I found that for me, metal was like a drug in that you build up a tolerance to certain levels of 'extremity', and need something crazier to get the same kick out of it.

 

[MLI]

I think it'll be interesting to see if everyones tastes get more extreme as time goes on. If I had listened to something like Beneath the Massacre when I was 12 I probably would have thrown up....I found that for me, metal was like a drug in that you build up a tolerance to certain levels of 'extremity', and need something crazier to get the same kick out of it.

Exactly. The only thing I've come to like recently that isn't more extreme is actual singing.

 

[Triple7]

I'm not going to break it down like that since I'm a little bit older than you, haha, but basically started with Korn, Rage, and Master of Puppets. Now I listen to just about anything, but I've been into a lot of tech-death stuff lately.

I think it'll be interesting to see if everyones tastes get more extreme as time goes on. If I had listened to something like Beneath the Massacre when I was 12 I probably would have thrown up....I found that for me, metal was like a drug in that you build up a tolerance to certain levels of 'extremity', and need something crazier to get the same kick out of it.

Yea I can definitely see that, when I first heard The Black Dahlia Murder I hated them, I just wasn't up to that level yet. Now I love them

 

[abysmalrites]

5th: Limp Bizkit
6th: Nu metal (korn, slipknot)
7th: Nu metal
8th: started getting into black metal (or at least what I thought was black metal: Dimmu/Cradle/Immortal)
9th: ^/ industrial a la Rammstein
10th: more black metal (Same as above I suppose)
11th: HEAVY into black metal/started to listen to some death (depressive black metal like Drudkh and such; the death was stuff like Skinless)
12th: Black slowly waned, got really into death, grindcore, and ambient (Origin, Nile, Nasum, Carbon Based Lifeforms)
Freshman year of college: Tech/brutal death explosion, with a few thrash/stoner doom bands thrown in (Emeth, Origin, Necrophagist, Suffocation, Severed Savior, etc. and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder/Acid Bath, Iron Monkey and the lot)

 

[xXxPriestessxXx]

When I was younger it was hair metal. My dad introduced me to as a kid and I have a lot of nostalgia with it. Then it evolved into the grunge or Nirvana and Alice in Chains. When I was in high school I discovered Tool and Coheed and Cambria and became a huge fan of prog. I also got into Nu-metal (Korn became my favorite band) pretty hard. So now it is pretty much everything but I still have a real soft spot for Nu-metal stuff.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

ok so:

10 years old: started listening to Deftones, Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana

11 years old: I only listen to Deftones.

12 years old: I discover Decapitated, Slipknot, Fear Factory and Taproot, become heavily into Nu-Metal (Korn, American Head Charge, Ill Nino, Incubus etc)

13 years old: I discover Meshuggah, Killswitch Engage, In Flames, Metallica, Otep, Limp Bizkit, Staind and Chimaira.

14 years old: I'm into Korn, Chimaira, Marilyn Manson, Coal Chamber, Slayer, System of a Down, Hatebreed and Exodus.

15 years old: all I listen to is SpineShank. I discover Thrice. listening to a lot of Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth at this point.

16 years old: as everyone else around me had decided so, I decide that metalcore is really good and I'm listening to As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, Darkest Hour, It Dies Today, God Forbid, Lamb of God and August Burns Red, though I still listen to my favourites like Decapitated and Slayer. Nu-Metal has died by this point so I hate Slipknot and Korn and everything nu-metal. I'm also heavily into thrash and somewhat deathcore at this point and am listen to other stuff like Darkane, Carnal Forge, Beneath The Massacre, The Acacia Strain, The Black Dahlia Murder, Ion Dissonance.

17 years old: I decide metalcore was gay and I loved Nevermore, Necrophagist and Scar Symmetry. this is when I really start to get into shredding. also loved techy stuff like Into The Moat, Ion Dissonance, SikTh, Decapitated, Strapping Young Lad and Behemoth at this point.

18 years old: I discovered Textures and Gojira and thought 'fuck, that's amazing'. knew all about Meshuggah but started really getting into them. I become a prog-snob. I start getting into black metal and power metal, stuff like Dark Funeral, Symphony X, Wintersun and Emperor. this is where my current taste starts forming and I stop going hot and cold on things. I also love deathcore/tech death at this point i.e. The Faceless, Veil Of Maya and Born Of Osiris.

19 years old: Opeth, same story as Meshuggah, knew all about them but really start getting into them at this point. realise I actually do love nu-metal after all, listening to Taproot and Meshuggah a lot.

20 years old: Bloodbath are topping my playlist pretty much every day. the new The Faceless album gets a big thumbs up. start listening to a lot of Scar Symmetry, Decapitated, Slayer and Metallica again, as well as some old school tech death like Obliveon and Psychotic Waltz. re-discover pretty much everything I used to love and a selection of bands from my previous tastes return such as American Head Charge, Ill Nino, Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God, Deftones, Taproot.

I would currently say my favourite bands are:

Meshuggah, Opeth, Textures, Decapitated and SikTh.

of course, there is a lot of other stuff but you specified metal-listening so I didn't go on about my love for classical.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Initially Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Sabbath, Queen, GNR, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, etc.

Later, Marilyn Manson, and then black metal and old-school goth bands. Death metal entered the picture shortly after.

Instrumental guitar stuff, like Yngwie, Vai, Satch, Shrapnel Records stuff, and then progressive rock and metal. Also discovered classical music and jazz/fusion.

That's basically the three main phases. Nowadays I listen to all this stuff, plus anything else that catches my ear.

 

[Monk]

Let's see...I started listening to hard rock/metal when I was 10; I'm 34 now...this should be interesting:

5th grade: Sammy Hagar (solo stuff) and Van Halen - My 5th grade teacher was heavily into Sammy (sold me a copy of The Danger Zone on vinyl).

6th grade - 7th grade: AC/DC - After hearing Who Made Who on the radio, I was hooked...been a BIG fan ever since; own every album, seen them live 3 times.

8th grade - Metallica - Traded a my used copy of Who Made Who to a friend for Master of Puppets...been a BIG fan ever since; own every album, seen them live 5 times.

9th grade - 12th grade - Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill, Testament, Slayer - the thrash metal years.

Early to Mid 90s - Pantera, Sepultura, Morbid Angel, Carcass, Prong, Type O Negative, Deicide - the heavy thrash/death metal years.

Mid 90s to Mid 00s - Fear Factory, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot - the nu metal years.

Mid 00s to Present - Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Behemoth, Belphegor - the black/blackend death metal years.

 

[Anthony]

3 years old: Whenever my sister would drive me around she would listen to The Smashing Pumpkins.

7 years old: Pokemon 2Ba Master soundtrack. Skipped track 11 cause Misty sang on it and girls are gross.

8/9 years old: When my sister drove me around she would listen to Dr.Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z.

10 years old: Linkin Park TILL DEATH MOTHERFUCKER.

13 years old: AFI. I was a huge fan of theirs. I don't remember what else I listened to.

14 years old: The Cure. Robert Smith <3. At the same time, I heard Dragonforce's Through The Fire And Flames, marking the first time I've ever heard shredding. This got me into Power Metal like Dragonforce, Rhapsody and Sonata Arctica. I also began to heavily listen to instrumental shredding, like Vai, Malmsteen and the Trooch. And Dream Theater. Smashing Pumpkins again.
15 years old: I started to listen to Melodic Death metal and Folk Metal like Wintersun, Ensiferum, Scar Symmetry. Nevermore became huge to me, and Meshuggah entered my life.

16 years old: After spending the summer at Berklee, I experienced a lot of new music. And after seeing Jason Richardson from All Shall Perish rip through every single Faceless song, I began to listen to them A LOT. This led to me listening to other "deathcore" bands like Veil Of Maya, Born of Osiris and All Shall Perish, only to find out this was the shit my drummer was always listening to. I also got into Tech-Death. Necrophagist, Obscura, Nile etc. Oh, and I love Meshuggah. Dr. Dre's The Chronic changed my life.

Rereading this, there's a lot of music that I've left out, but this is taking to long.

 

[toolsound]

Anything before 5th grade ranged from MC Hammer/Kriss Kross (stuff that kids were listening to at my daycare) to Phil Collins/Michael Jackson (stuff my Mom listened to).

5th Grade: Pearl Jam, Green Day, Nirvana, etc.

6th Grade: Anything grunge/90's alternative

7th Grade: Big Silverchair fan. Still listening to 90's alternative.

8th Grade: Marilyn Manson added to the list of favorites. Still listening to 90's alternative. Brief phase of trying to get into rap music.

9th Grade: Still listening to 90's alternative.

10th Grade: Discovered Tool, Metallica, Deftones, etc. Starting to like metal.

11th Grade: OMG I WANT TO BE A GUITAR GOD! Steve Vai, Yngwie, Satch, more Metallica, Megadeth, etc.

12th Grade: In Flames, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, etc. Death metal starting to become a strong favorite

College - Now: Still love metal, but listening to a wide variety of music.

 

[MFB]

4th - 7th grade : Classic rock and early thrash metal for the time being. Usually depending upon which parent we were with, Dad - classic rock in the truck all the time, Mom - country :vomit: At home I would listen to stuff like Metallica, Pantera and Megadeth. Although nowadays I only listen to 4 albums by Metallica, about 2 by Pantera, 1 or 2 by Megadeth and despise classic rock.

8th grade - Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, In Flames, Symphony X, and one other band who I can't seem to recall right now but I know there's another one. I moved into the extreme metal fanbase and really never looked back on the lighter stuff.

9th grade - More Prog stuff came into my repetoire, like Wintersun, Suspyre, and blah blah blah never Dream Theater though - I've never really been a fan of them

11th grade - Indie/Alternative starts to get the better of me and I throw some Coheed into my mix, a little bit of The Decemberists, Of Montreal, etc etc and to be honest it's a good contrast to my normal straight up metal stuff. I also probably got into SYL and some other stuff that I don't remember. OH! Explosions In The Sky as well.

College - Mattias Eklundh, Stanley Jordan, Guthrie Govan, Kiko Loureiro, and a whole bunch of other solo artist stuff

 

[Marv Attaxx]

3 years old: the cure, my mom says I loved them
4 till 5 billy idol
6 years old: some electronic stuff I found on some old platters
7 years old : till 10: old skool hip hop
11 and 12: gangsta rap
13: trip hop, especially massive attack
14: nu metal!! Korn, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot (in that order)
then Rob Zombie, Mudvane, Mushroomhead, Coal Chamber, American Head Charge, Fear Factory etc.
15: Nu Metal and Thrash: Slayer, Metallica
16: First contact with death metal through some Deathcore, especially Job For a Cowboy
17: I start playing the guitar (much too late )
Death Metal like Cannibal Corpse, Aborted, Nile,Morbid Angel, Necrophagist, Asesino...
Some Black Metal (only dimmu borgir, satyricon and some blackened death like Behemoth)
My guitar teacher gave me my first meshuggah record
18: Tech/Death/Nu/ little Trash: SYL, Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, Machine Head, Origin, Soilwork
19 till now: Just more bands, but basically Nu-, Progressive- and Death Metal

 

[JeffFromMtl]

birth-3rd or 4th grade: Whatever my family would play around the house. Some folk like Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens, Bruce Cockburn, some classic rock like Pink Floyd, T-Rex, which was my dad's favorite band. My sister listened to a bunch of music that I had no taste for aside from a few that I recall being Lauren Hill, Green Day and Nirvana.

4th grade: My cousins from ontario introduced me to Smashing Pumpkins and Guns N Roses, which were my two favorite bands for a little while.

5th grade: My friend, whose brother was the first person I ever met who played a 7-string (I think he had an RG7620 in VK) introduced me to Korn because his brother was a huge fan. We also listened to a lot of Deftones (Adrenaline and Around the Fur), Rage Against the Machine and Primus at his house.

6th grade: Once again, while at my cousins' place in Toronto, I was introduced to Tool's Aenima. This album was a landmark in my musical background. To this day, I'm not sure if I've listened to any other album more.

7th & 8th grades: Staind, Mudvayne, Stonesour, Linkin Park, Chevelle, Alice in Chains, discovered Opeth, listened to more Tool (Lateralus was released in the summer between 7th and 8th grades).

9th grade: After discovering Opeth, I fell into the heavier side of things. Started listening to Poison the Well, Chimaira, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, In Flames, Quo Vadis and the like.

10th grade: This was a pretty big year for me. I discovered Mastodon (Remission), Lamb of God (As the Palaces Burn), Dimmu Borgir, Despised Icon, and the most important to me, Isis (Panopticon), which would lead me to other bands such as Neurosis and Cult of Luna. I also discovered Between the Buried and Me (The Silent Circus) that year. This was also the year of Beneath the Massacre, Ion Dissonance and Neuraxis, God Forbid, Unearth and The Black Dahlia Murder for me.

11th grade: Deathcore started to catch on more and more. I was befriended by Job For a Cowboy on myspace in May of 2005, which is pretty crazy because they had around 15,000 fans at the time, it was incredible to see how quickly they exploded. I also started listening to Steve Vai and other guitar virtuosos in 2005. I was also pretty heavy into a number of death metal bands at that time, including Odious Mortem, Aborted and Yyrkoon.

College: I kept listening to a mix of all the things I found through the years, as well as a number of other types of music. I started listening to more grindcore, and listened to a shitload of Phobia, Nasum and Leng Tch'e. I can't even remember what else, but I had thousands of albums, both purchased and downloaded, most of them being metal or hardcore of some sort, but I did start branching out a little more and listening to a number of other genres, such as classical, folk, acoustic, blues, some rap and hip hop, noisecore, experimental, post-rock and Indie.

Post-College: After I got kicked out of school, I started listening to a lot of Hardcore/Noisecore a la Converge, Coalesce, Botch, The Chariot and Gaza. I hated my job and the fact that I was actually being kept out of school by the authorities, so needless to say, I felt pretty much powerless and I was pissed off, so that type of music really helped me throught it. I find it difficult to match that music as far as raw emotional aggression goes because it was being made by a bunch of guys just as pissed off as I was. I found myself listening to less and less "metal", and more of the in-between types of things. I also started listening to more and more folk and indie like Bon Iver, Iron and Wine, Band of Horses and Horse Feathers, and more and more post-rock, of which the list is endless, but will always of course be highlighted by bands like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky.

2009: Now I'm finally going back to school and have been accepted into a very exclusive Creative Writing program at Concordia University. I'm still listening to all the music I've found over the years and I like to think that it all has a hand in who I've become, and where I'm going. I may not listen to as much metal as I used to and I don't know anyone that makes more fun of it than I do, but I feel like I can only do that because I love it more than anyone else I know. These days, I can go from listening to Bon Iver to listening to Meshuggah or Tool in the same day. Hell, all I've listened to today are Clutch, Jenn Grant, Ben Harper and Regina Spektor.

 

[entropydesign]

1 Michael Jackson
2 The offspring and green day
3 When I was in grade 7 I bought a suicide machines album and from then until I was about 20 I was into punk and ska. I liked some metal like system of a down and deftones
4 I heard poison the well and thrice that got me interested in metal. Punk started to bore me and metal was more tech. I started listening to darkest hour, ion dissonance btbam, great redneck hope etc.
5 Now I like anything thats not to generic or screamo. Mostly technical death metal but I still like some grind and metalcore etc. I still like some punk like suicide machines, strike anywhere, propaghandi etc.

 

[stuh84]

Year 0 - I started listening to awesomeness.

Things haven't changed much

 

[Trespass]

Birth - Gr. 6: I grew up listening to a lot of Baroque and Classic period classical, as my mother was a violinist in an orchestra, and also had her Gr. 8 conservatory piano. I also listened to a lot of classic jazz and swing, Django Reinhardt, Glenn Miller, even some swing revival like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer. Some classic blues, pre-SRV (Albert Collins, Ronnie Earl, Duke Robbillard [Still don't like SRV]) due to my dad being a guitarist for a big band/stage band. (He also played fiddle)

So I grew up going to rehearsals for orchestras, and various churches/concert halls for performances, and in rehearsals for a big band, and performances at parades and various festivals.

Gr. 7 /2003 : G3 rolls into Detroit, featuring Satch, Vai and Malmsteen. I go to see them with my dad. I didn't like any of it until Malmsteen swaggers on, and starts playing music reminiscent of classical. My mind is blown: I didn't think this was possible. I slowly get Malmsteen tunes mixed into my normal classical listening. (Sidenote: I briefly get into orchestrated gaming soundtracks)

Gr. 9: I had been doing piano since 5. Piano starts to falter; I'm becoming increasing unreasonable about practicing and perfectionism. I get to the point where I'll only practice when no one is in the house (which wasn't often). I eventually stop practicing altogether. I pick up bass in music class solely due to the fact you could play it unplugged, and be unheard. I pick up guitar the following summer.

Gr. 10: I switch schools, on the condition I join the jazz band the new school offered. I spend time listening to Vai and Satch, no more classical/jazz. I scoff at the idea that I'll join the jazz band, and show up to rehearsals anyway, not doing much. I somehow go September - April without being able to play any of the pathetically easy stuff, forget the intermediate material. I go to Halifax with the band in competition. Become inspired to actually do something. That summer I listen to a lot of Paul Gilbert, start getting into flamenco/world music, do a lot of Paul Gilbert instructional stuff.

Gr. 11: I come back to the jazz band, learn all the material, and eventually become a soloist within the band. I become a huge fan of Mattias Eklundh, Bumblefoot, Christopher Godin, and Al Di Meola/Paco De Lucia/John McLaughlin. I join this site, and begin listening to all the odd time signature stuff like Meshuggah and Periphery. I listen to a lot of the stuff posted here, various metal bands. I find my connection with the guitar in emulating world music/instruments. I regain my appreciation for gypsy jazz, and hoard all my dad's old albums (Django, Jimmy Rosenberg, Rosenberg Trio, Bireli Lagrene etc.) Return with full force to classical/jazz. Find Hiromi Uehara.

Gr. 12: I return to the keys with a vengeance, writing and working on high level material. Still a soloist. I buy lots and lots of world music.

 

[Konfyouzd]

hmm...

5th grade to about 8th grade: Alice in Chains, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Nirvana

Highschool: Slipknot, Coal Chamber, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Alice in Chains, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Orgy, Static X

College to the present: Meshuggah, Nevermore, Darkane, Dimmu Borgir, Necrophagist, Cannibal Corpse, Spawn of Possession, The Dillenger Escape Plan, Jason Becker, Black Label Society, Vital Remains, Anata, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Decapitated, Origin, and ABBACAB (hahahahaha... totally joking... fuck ABBACAB)

Year 0 - I started listening to awesomeness.

Things haven't changed much

 

[Cyco Nino]

13 years old: Limp Bizkit and I still love them.
14: Korn, Metallica
15,16: Machine Head (old school and nu metal period), Clawfinger
17: I fall in love with hc, Biohazard, Madball, Vision of disorder and with bands like Fear Factory and Seether.
18: I fall in love with Cold xD But I still listen the same things that I listened when I was 17.