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[Metallus Maximus]

Metallus Maximus � Metallus Maximus Forums � Metal On Metal (Moderator: Hellboy)
When was metal most exciting for you?

[COFFINCAR!!]

I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of “during the 80s” answers to this. However, for me, there's 2 distinct eras in which metal was really exciting.

1) Late 80s thru 1995.

Though my interest in metal began as early as '83 with Ozzy's Bark at the Moon and Black Sabbath, I was born a bit too late and was too young to truly appreciate what was going on during most of the 80s. 1988-ish is when it started to take shape for me, and by 1990, I was a full-blooded metalhead.

The early phase of this was spent foaming at the mouth as I discovered Metallica and Megadeth, which then progressed to Slayer, Pantera and Sepultura, and finally stuff like Fear Factory and Machine Head by 1994/95.


2) 1998-2000

'97-ish through summer of '98 got rather craptacular when it came to metal for me. I started losing interest in a lot of the aforementioned bands, many of which had started biting the suck sausage by this point. The last straw was Ozzfest '98. The disgusting amount of nu metal at that show is what finally drove me over the edge. I needed something to cleanse myself of the horror....something evil and brutal, without "jump-da-fuck-up" grooves. Suddenly bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide made a lot more sense.  

My first foray into this world was a Morbid Angel show that same summer. That's when it all changed – not even so much because of the band (though they did rule!), it was the vibe of the show itself. Up til then I'd mostly only seen large bands in arenas and such, so the relatively small crowd and laid back vibe at this show was totally new to me. The crowd felt more like a close-knit brotherhood, and the overall atmosphere was so cool. Huge contrast to what I was used to.

That was it. I'd flipped my lid and went on a mission to discover as much as I could. I read countless magazines like Pit and Terrorizer. I made weekly pilgrimages to the local CD stores and bought the SHIT out of everything. I was buying 10+ CDs a week and discovering tons and tons of incredible bands. In that short time span my CD collection more than doubled. I went to just about every death/black metal show that came through (which given underground metal’s resurgence at that time, there seemed to be like 1 show a week!) whether I’d heard of the bands or not.  

Strange to say, but looking back...this was actually the most exciting time in metal for me. There was no internet yet (for me at least), you actually had to work to discover bands (and it was totally rewarding when you found something awesome), and fans all seemed to have the same "Man, this is all so AWESOME!" attitude. I imagine this is what discovering metal in 1984 was like....only a little less awesome.

[Release]

3 distinct times for me. 

The first was the early 80's when I first discovered metal.  Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Accept, Scorpions.  All of that was just so new and exciting.  Just a great time to discover music. 

The second was when thrash exploded.  Man, talk about exciting!!!  That might have been my favorite of the 3. 

The last was when death metal just started happening.  Again, it was a huge explosion of new ideas.  It was still early enough in metal history that most of the bands had their own sound and identity. 

I might even put the Gothenburg sound as a distant 4th.  For me, they were taking the stuff I grew up with and mixing it with death metal so it was kind of bookending my first and last loves in metal.

[Sharktopus]

Hmmm!


1. About 1992-1995. This was when I discovered Metallica.  I lost my shit to that band, and then to Megadeth, Pantera, Ozzy, Sabbath and others.  I had no older brothers or sisters so I relied entirely on the radio and older siblings of friends, so I got started a bit late.  My super-Christian parents wouldn't dream of letting me buy anything metal, so I'd copy tapes from others.  The rebellious music was exactly what I needed at that time in my life (that 13-16 age).

2. 1997 - 2001.  This is when I discovered the underground and was old enough to go to most (or all) shows.  Like Kid Rock's Schlong I went to every small show I could and liked it much better than the big arena shows (for much the same reason as that fag as well).  I discovered extreme metal, the melo-death stuff and all the other non-mainstream subgenres.  A lot of the music I was way into then I've moved off of, but it was all important in my own personal musical journey.

[Klschmann]

1.  Discovering Iron Maiden.  I know lots of folks get into metal via one band or the other, but the moment I first heard Maiden I literally could not believe music that awesome was even possible.  And my first Maiden album was one of the shittier ones (No Prayer).  I spent months just listening to that album alone.  It totally consumed me.  At the time I was content with just Maiden in my life and that was all I needed.  It was more than just the music- the image, the artwork, the themes.  It was completely and utterly smitten with them from day one and that hasn't really changed to the present.

2.  Early 90's as I started branching out as I discovered other bands.  I really set out looking for bands that were sorta like Maiden which lead me to discovering Priest, Helloween, and a great deal of power metal.  Metallica and Slayer were about as heavy as I got for the longest time but I loved those bands as well.  You never really forget the first time you hear such essential and classic albums like Reign in Blood or Stained Class.  

3.  In May of 1995 I randomly (well not totally randomly, I was interested in the cover art) picked up a tape of Deicide's Once Upon the Cross and that album sorta turned me into death  and extreme metal like Maiden did for the traditional stuff.  It was all I listened to for a good time and totally consumed me.  Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Death, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, etc.   I just couldn't get enough.

4.  Early 2000's was when I really started going to shows.  I actually liked a lot of the melodeath and stuff that was big at the time in the underground.  I never paid much attention to mainstream acts aside from Maiden of course and was super into the black metal wave as well.  Again, it seemed like almost everything I bought back then sounded new and fresh and was incredible.

5.  Whenever any of my favorite bands release new albums I still get super excited.  It's the kid in me, I just can't not get excited thinking about rushing out to the store (or in many cases, waiting for the mail to arrive) so I can savor those first few listens of a new album.

I think that's about it.  Or something.  Hail.  

[Metal_King]

I would have to say it really started for me back around 1983.  That is when I discovered Priest and Maiden.  I was becoming a teen in late '83 and the radio station back then supported metal with a show for 3 hours every late Friday night from 11-2am.  My parents thought I was sleeping, but I had the radio on every Friday night.

With the internet now, music will never be as exciting as it was back then.  Then, when I went back back to school I would talk about it with my buddies.

"Hey, did you hear that band between 12:40 and 12:50?  They kicked ass man!! 

[Firefarter]

1984-when i was first introduced to it,i was 8 at the time and had a friend of mine who was about twice my age who was into it.being that young just made all the imagery that much stronger(Bark at the moon and Powerslave made the biggest impression)

1991-Death Metal.at the time the heaviest things i listened to were Metallica,Anthrax,Slayer and Maiden.discovering Deicide,Carcass Entombed and all that other stuff had a HUGE impact on me.

1999-this still stand out as the best year in Metal as far as i'm concerned.Colony,Dreaming neon black,At the heart of winter,Still life and about 300 others,so many great albums came out that year.
and on a personal note,that's the year i first made it to Europe for a Metal fest(Dynamo)saw what are still to this day the 2 greatest concerts i've ever seen(In Flames and Maiden)saw SOD and Cradle for the first times too,that was pretty big.great year.

[moshdrum69]

Probably from about 1982 through about 1992,,,,,give or take a year,,,,,

[Carl Wood]

Nice thread.

Similarly to the OP, I had a metal reawakening in the mid to late 90's in which I would also identify as my most exciting period as a metal fan.

The internet had not exploded to the extent we see it today, and discovering metal outside of the big names required some research.  About this period, I stumbled upon a weekly metal show broadcast from a local college raido station.  I at once became a regular follower of the show, and eventually even made several guest appearances and became a frequent co-host over the years.  I had access to so much metal - metal I had no prior knowledge of.  I discovered so many great bands in the period; Immortal, Hypocrisy, In Flames, Naglfar, Emperor, Dissection ... To discover one such band these days is something of a triumph.

This of course coincides with my discovery of a great new Canadian metal magazine called Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles which would lead to several other metal-related adventures ...

[Iced Ray]

Obviously, the most exciting was first discovering Sabbath, Maiden, and Priest back in 1980.

Since then, metal has always been exciting in my life...in fact, I love metal more now than I ever did.

[Denial Fiend]

I became Metal in late 1983, so that was very exciting, but as Iced Ray said I think I love it more now than ever. Keeps me straight