Well, hello there! It seems you have stumbled upon my post, so you've done one of two things to get here....
Either 1. You were scrolling through and thought this was a post about something to do with physical metals and by the time you arrived and realized what this post was really about, it was too late (haha!),
or 2. You are a genuine metal head and wanted to check it out, or are a "noob" and are genuinely interested in finding out a good place to start in becoming a metal head, as per suggestion of your super-cool and badass metal head friends! :D
Either way, you've come to the right place!!!!
However, this still begs the question.... "Where do I start?" Well, everyone who identifies as a metal head, no matter the age bracket or background, had to start somewhere. In this post, I only seek to inform and/or inspire those who have always wanted to give metal music a shot. All metal heads have their own back story as to how they got into metal in the first place, and I'm here to A. share my story (or at least some of it) and B. delve into some bands worth noting in the genre and hopefully reach out to someone with a good list of bands to start with, in hopes of gradually growing into the GOOD stuff (metal that is)! \m/
First thing's first.... if you don't mind, I'll give a brief back story on how my allegiance to metal came to be.
See, my mother, God love her, was quite the metal head herself back in the day. My first memory of hearing metal goes all the way back to when I was still in cribs and strollers and the like. In fact, I believe this may be my only memory that goes that far back.... I can't even for the life of me recall how old I was.... maybe 2 or 3? Anyway, I remember first hearing Ozzy Osbourne's "Diary of a Madman" album in its entirety. To this day, half due to nostalgia of that exact memory, it is my favorite Ozzy album. Thus began my journey on the path to a love for metal. (I even recall my mother once saying that my first technical concert was when she was only a few months pregnant with me, she and my father went to see Slayer.... no wonder it's in my blood!)
Anyway, moving on....
So, from that point on, I delved into the rock and metal genres throughout my upbringing with such pure ferocity that I simply couldn't get enough. Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Triumph, Stryper, Testament, Danzig, Helloween, Manowar (these crazy fuckers were my Ma's favorite band during that time and she even got to meet them!), Exodus, King Diamond and so on. Most of my influences were of the thrash variety, but I was a lover of all types of metal sub-genres, depending on what struck my interest at the time.
The first rock album I ever owned was Kiss' "Double Platinum", when I was 7 years old.
The first metal album I ever owned was Iron Maiden's "Piece of Mind", when I was around 10 or 11.
I have now acquired, to this very day, a current CD collection (comprised mostly of metal) of 800 or more, spanning from the old days all the way up until now, which serves to me as a perfect chronological anthology of the genre I love so much. And hopefully this will serve as a stepping stone for those who have taken interest. And now, since you have all been so patient putting up with my little background story, the time has come to form a list of your very own, which may or may not contain any of the following albums, in chronological order, which have all marked as a massive influence on myself both as a metal musician and a metal fan alike.
Hope you enjoy scoping this list as much as I have enjoyed compiling it. :)
First, let's start with 10 from the old days (1970-1990):
1 . Black Sabbath - "Black Sabbath" (1970)
2 . Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell" (1980)
3 . Ozzy Osbourne - "Diary of a Madman" (1981)
4 . Iron Maiden - "Killers" (1981)
5 . Iron Maiden - "Piece of Mind" (1983)
6 . Metallica - "Kill 'Em All" (1983)
7 . Metallica - "Ride the Lightning" (1984)
8 . Slayer - "Reign in Blood" (1986)
9 . King Diamond - "Abigail" (1987)
10 . Slayer - "South of Heaven" (1988)
Well, quite the list thus far, wouldn't you agree? 10 choices just didn't seem like enough, but at the risk of ridicule, it only seemed appropriate to try not to overload you with too many things to look up (if you so choose to), but still manage to give you a good variety of metal ranging over 20 years of "old school".
And now, onto the modern age (1990-present):
1 . Pantera - "Cowboys From Hell" (1990)
2 . Cannibal Corpse - "Butchered at Birth" (1991)
3 . Korn - "Korn" (1994)
4 . At the Gates - "Slaughter of the Soul" (1995)
5 . Slipknot - "Iowa" (2001)
6 . Opeth - "Deliverance" (2002)
7 . Nile - "Annihilation of the Wicked" (2005)
8 . Lamb of God - "Sacrament" (2006)
9 . As I Lay Dying - "The Powerless Rise" (2010)
10 . Demon Hunter - "Extremist" (2014)
Well, as I've said before, I really wanted to make these lists longer, but had I done so, this post would have NEVER gotten finished haha! :p Regardless, I hope you enjoyed these suggestions, and I look forward to connecting with other metal heads on here in the coming days, assuming anyone finds this posting!
Till next time, fellow Steemians....
Stay metal. \m/
I saw this because it was new brother. Maybe you should break this down into segments so people can appreciate the music you are referencing. (Option number 3)
I agree with Jonas. An individual post on each metal band with images and Youtube video links to their music would be righteous and offer the proper honor to the artists for those who may not have experienced their music! And for "old fogeys" like me who want to take a trip down memory lane.
Thank you @survivalist.com! As stated to Jonas, I actually did plan on doing a week-to-week thing on each of the mentioned bands in these lists, breaking down each and how they all became such an influence on me as a metal head. I was thinking of making it something of a blog series of some sort, including a YouTube attachment to give readers a taste. :)
I love the input @jonaswakefield! Thank you! I actually was planning on breaking them down in further posts with YouTube links. Just didn't have a lot of time to kill, so I decided to start with a summary, then unleash more in the coming weeks. I appreciate the feedback! :)
Do you like Slipknot's new album The Gray Chapter?
Indeed I do! I'll admit, it feels strange not hearing Joey Jordison's signature drumming style on the new music, but this Jay guy can seriously shred on drums! Pretty impressive for what would potentially be their "comeback" album, if it can be called that. So far I have to say that the third track, "AOV", is my favorite track on it. It just packs such a versatile punch. It's got heavy riffs, it's got brutality, it's got melody, and so on and so on. A great album all around, no question about it, but that particular track just stands out to me.
Nice Damian, I love this post. You did remind me of other bands I listen to that I did not include in my big collage. I like Demon Hunter quite a bit. They qualify for my interest in people that sound unique.
Nice, I'm glad you enjoyed my post! :) I will admit, I was seriously struggling for HOURS last night trying to sift through my music collection and find some good ones that I knew metal heads and newbies alike could get into, but when it comes down to it, there just wasn't enough time to list them all haha. So I just went with some of the classics, and then some that really stood out for me personally that I thought would speak to others as they had spoken to me musically, you know?
And yes, I am also quite fond of Demon Hunter myself. I have been since I was maybe 15, when I first heard "Screams of the Undead" from their self-titled debut from 2002. It was just so fucking raw and powerful, I couldn't get enough of their music from that point on. Honestly, they're one of my all-time favorite bands simply due to their versatility in sound. You can literally hear how they all progressed as a band with each following album, and that way it keeps their music and their sound so fresh and new and vibrant, but still so heavy. I put Extremist up in the list because to me, it just sounds like they have finalized their evolution in their sound as a band, you know? Track 9, "In Time", is my personal absolute favorite track on there, and might even be my favorite song by them in general, it's so killer.