[jlpriddy]

I always liked KISS in the 70's while growing up ( Born in 1969) but what really got me identifying metal was the video for 'Metal Health' from Quiet Riot in 1983. That lead to Def Leppard, Dokken, early Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, etc. When grunge hit I was disgusted and hated it. Bunch of no talents who could barely play their instruments. Started listening to top 40 then country of all things ( Martina McBride, Reba, Trisha Yearwood, etc.). What got me back into Metal was, of all bands, some alternative stuff. Bush, Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins led to heavier stuff later on. Around '98-'99 I 'discovered' Iced Earth's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' cd. Realized Metal didn't implode worldwide, it just left the USA and moved overseas (THX record companies and fickle sheep in the US). Now you hear old Metallica on the radio, and, to be perfectly honest, it kinda disgusts me that the stations wouldn't play the songs back then but because the record execs realized they could make money on it they will now.

[berserk]

i've started to listen Iron Maiden and Megadeth at 12 year oldm, now i have 30..

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[canadaspaceman]

Imagine a site like this in 1986?
Well... maybe there wouldve been only 60's underground to download...LOL
But you know what i mean...

Wow, dude, if ONLY ! There were not as many bands back then as now, so it would have been great for the bands AND metal fans.

We would immediately know what they sounded like and would order their tapes or vinyl and shirts without it being a risk
(unless they were ripoffs like Evil Chuck who spent the money sent in, on cigarettes, instead of sending fans their ordered merch).

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[Keeper]

When I was 13, in 1988, an older cousin showed me the Metallica albuns.

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[Panthorder]

I was 10 in 1985 when i stasted listening heavy metal.

[RETIC]

11 or 12 when I was in middle school.

[Clofs]

I was 14 when I started listen heavy metal .I started listenig Iron Maiden , Black Sabbath and Angra. My first metal albuns was "Fear of The Dark" - Iron Maiden- 1992 and "Angels Cry"-Angra-1993.

[ozmatix]

At 5 when my parents take me on Peace Music Festival



Same year we also was on Black Sabbat with Tony Martin and Girlschool in 1st act



but i'm nothing remember from this year hahaha... real year when i start listen METAL was 1991 with Metallica - AC/DC in Tushino



on next month i go in school and on first money i buy my first tape Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast, my father always listen bands like Deep Purple/Sabbath/Ozzy.. and i riped his vinyls to tapes. With every year i was more and more deeper in harder stuff like Slayer/Cannibal Corpse/Testament/Death... also all my friends listen metal till bones and every weekend we go to little market for new records... so now i'm 32 and still in HEAVY METAL
Cheers to all here.

[alucard]

Around thirteen in seventh grade.

[desertwhiskeytango]

Only just started listening to metal. I went from rock to country to jazz and to classical and back again. A friend of mine suggested a few bands i ought to try and since then I have been going around the world listening and purchasing bands that I have enjoyed. I dont always have time to listen to them all. So far I have been piling them up to save and binge listen to. Went from Warrant and Poison to Night Ranger and Halford to Judas Priest and and Van Halen really got into Viking metal with Tyr and drifted around to power and epic metal and the groups listed in there. One of these days I will work my way to Metallica and see what is in store for me there.


I have been amazed at the complexity these guys can perform regardless of the decade the album was in. So much music you hear is compressed and auto-tuned to within an inch of its life.

[TsundeRage]

Around 11/12 thanks to the local death metal scene (lol it's crazy)

But also my father have a bunch of classic rock/Metal albums since... even before I was born (He's a fan of Scorpions and Dream Theater). Even though, I'm not really interested until I know death metal.

[popuespe]

I started with 12. "Powerage" AC/DC 's album was the one. Now I'm 47 and still in this hole haha

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[DeckieB]

Do I feel old or what haha, Thank F*** there are a few more 40 somethings here haha.
I got into Metal when I was 11.... and it was because my Brother bought The Number Of The Beast album in 1982, Before that I did love Thin Lizzy (Still do) but they were Rock, There was no denying Maiden were METAL.

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[Evil Dead]

I grew up on classic rock, but went astray for a few years.
When I was 11 (5 years ago), I started getting into Pink Floyd, as well as dabbling in so-called "industrial rock" acts like Rammstein and Marilyn Manson. Then I discovered Slayer's Hell Awaits when I was 12. Got into Cannibal Corpse/Dethklok and then death metal not too long after. Then, I got into black metal, and then I cycled back to NWOBHM, traditional, power, doom, thrash/speed, etc. Never liked that deathcore/metalcore/nu-metal stuff that got a lot of newer metal fans into metal.

[StjarnlosBibelSvart]

Way too late! Wasted too many teenage years on lamer music.
(But Madonna was cool ... at least when she pissed off the Christian conservatives.)

[drterror666]

It was 1980, I was 10 and my dad came home from the pub with some 'dodgy' cassettes. One was Highway to Hell by AC/DC and the other was the Living Legends compilation with early Def Leppard on it. Well, what was I supposed to make of that?

[vaalkoth]

My introduction to metal came at age 12 in 1983 when my cousin brought me into his bedroom, turned off the lights, and played Motley Crue "Shout At The Devil". I was hooked. I soon got into Ratt, WASP, Grim Reaper, Yngwie, Maiden, etc. On impulse buys in 1984 I discovered Mercyful Fate, Venom and Metallica. But in September 1985 I discovered a local metal radio show that introduced me to the underground: Running Wild, Grave Digger, Iron Angel, Piledriver, Metal Church, Artillery, Fates Warning, Helstar, Razor and so many others. Then I began buying vinyls, collecting demo's and amassing my collection which has grown to this day. I turn 46 this year and still metal as fuck!

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[Mick Bynes]

I was listening at an early age, like around 9 or so. Whenever I heard metal (which was rare for me), I listened closely. I didn't know there were records of it until I was 10. My first metal album was Metallica's Master of Puppets. From there, I got more and I started to properly listen to it.

[Evil Dead]

Been listening to metal for 3 (or 4) years now. I was 12 when I heard my first metal album. After 2 years of listening to Pink Floyd (and many years before of stuff mainly on the Top 40 and rap music, of all things), the soundscape of "Hell Awaits" by Slayer first hit my ears. Before then, the heaviest thing I ever listened to was The Wall, so going from that to Hell Awaits was obviously a very big leap. Later I discovered Cannibal Corpse, got into death metal with Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, then black metal, and then did a complete loop and went to thrash, speed and, lastly, trad/power and doom metal. That being said, I've been getting into many unusual forms of non-metal music since (ambient, folk, industrial, noise, etc). I wonder what could've happened had I not discovered Slayer just mere years ago.

[Al Maazif]

At 5 with my daddy's tapes but started to be really interested by that at 8, with a tribute to Ozzy. 25 now and still like it