FORMER METAL HEADS

My metal mentor was a disturbingly psychotic high school friend who listened, amused, as I tried to impress him with my knowledge of Iron Maiden. "That's what I put on when I go to sleep," he replied. Then he introduced me to Celtic Frost, Sodom, Kreator, Destruction, and a little S.O.D. for comic relief. Decades later, I keep my feet wet in the metal arena.

I wasn't blown away by numetal, although System of a Down have their moments and Tool is always worth checking out. My current favorites, besides the 'classics', include Cradle of Filth, Rammstein, and Cannibal Corpse.

In a lot of ways, my prog timeline has mirrored my metal timeline; sometime between the middle of high school and the last few years I let both genres slide a bit while I went exploring, only to rediscover them- excited by what I might have missed the first time around. Prog is much more rewarding, but I don't think I'll ever totally 'outgrow' my metal side..although my hair is now short and my leather jacket much more tasteful.

 

Joren wrote: I used to be a real metalhead, but about a year ago I discovered prog (Zappa, Tull, Crimson). As a metalhead, my favourite bands were: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Grave Digger, Raven, Saxon, Metallica, Megadeth (My favourite genre was New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. I never felt much for death metal or thrash metal.)

Raven were a great band, but "bought the shark" after "All For One".

...I always thought Metallica/Megadeth invented thrash...

 

HEY!!! The Clown's back!!

I used to be a real metalhead, but about a year ago I discovered prog (Zappa, Tull, Crimson).

As a metalhead, my favourite bands were: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Grave Digger, Raven, Saxon, Metallica, Megadeth (My favourite genre was New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. I never felt much for death metal or thrash metal.)

Add me to the old metalheadz pile - I cut my teeth, so to speak, on AC/DC, Motorhead, Sabbath, Maiden and Purple in the mid to late 1970s.

I picked up on prog when bands like Diamond Head started appearing. Marillion just blew me away - I thought they were so much better than the old prog bands like Genesis and Rush, because the lyrics were about real things, and they weren't over-complicated and noodly.

I then got heavily into Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Sacred Reich - and eventually my own "Thrash" band.

Then I read for a degree in music - I've heard some stuff that makes heavy metal sound wussy (Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima), Klaus Schulze sound like pop music (almost anything by Stockhausen) and most prog seem, well, not very progressive at all (I won't start, because the list would be too long!).

I like quite a lot of Nu-Metal, including Linkin Park, Rammstein, Killswitch Engage and System of a Down - but then I still consider myself to be very open-minded, and in full possession of my own tastes and opinions.

Edited by Certif1ed

Before I entered seriously in the world of prog, I used to listen to a lot of death and thrash metal bands : Obituary (Cause of death), Death, Sepultura, Anthrax ('Schizophrenia' completely blew me away at the time I bought it), Suicidal tendencies, Voivod (the early years), Slayer ('Reign in blood', 'Hell awaits' and 'South of heaven'), Annihilator, Cancer, Fear factory, Carcass... A friend of mine in school helped me discover most of the above-mentioned bands and I quickly became addicted to listening to this extreme kind of metal. However I always had problems with the most extreme form of metal, namely black metal (apart from maybe Bal-Sagoth, which give an operatic side to their music by the use of pompous keyboards). I was also very fond of NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden ('Seventh son of a seventh son' is IMHO their masterpiece) and Def Leppard (I still regard 'Pyromania' as a great hard-rock album). Metallica was also a great discovery, with the mind-blowing Burton's bass playing (and Newsted is also astonishing on '...and justice for all'). The first time I heard bands like Dream Theater, Angra or Queensryche, I didn't like them at all, mainly because of the high-pitched vocals that annoyed me a bit (remember I used to listen to cookie monster growling vocals). Then, when my interest for prog grew, I came back to these artists and began to appreciate their way of singing. The band that made me love prog and want to dig more is Marillion : I began with Fugazi, then came Misplaced childhood which was a huge surprise. Coming back to the topic, prog didn't prevent me from listening to metal, I still listen to Maiden, Annihilator (only 'Alice in hell') or Metallica (up to '...and justice for all') with a great pleasure. But currently my focus is mainly on metal-prog : Altura, Ark (only their first record), Angra, Evergrey, Ice Age, Ayreon and the first heavy metal bands : Deep Purple (I really love the Gillan-era), Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin than on death metal.     

Black Sabbath, Zep, Hendrix, Purple were my starting point in metal.

These days I dont find Heavy metal as satisfying as prog.

I would say I have seen every pre 1980 major metal band. I actually saw Scorpions & Motorhead in Bolton.Those were the days.

I've noticed some of you mentioning your past/present interest in "metal". I was a simialar case until i discovered TDSOTM and after seeing a Pink Floyd cover band twice.  From there i was a PF-aholic for like a year! Then i found Todd Rundgren and Rush. Then i found this site whall looking for Utopia downloads on the internet. I downloaded "Utopia Theme" and then i became addicted to this website and now listen to soo many different bands comparitively.  I could have lived being a Pink Floyd whore but this is much better

What's your storie former/current metalhead?