I grew up surrounded by Christian music and it was pretty much the only thing I had exposure to other than maybe jazz music. I went to my first summer music festival in 2005, Kingdom Bound, at Six Flags: Darien Lake with my youth group. It was there where I was introduced to Skillet, TFK, TobyMac, and Hawk Nelson among others. Linkin Park and Green Day were my first experiments with secular music in middle school. I thought I was rebelling by secretly listening to them but found out recently that my mom knew the whole time and approved of it. In 7th grade I got my first mp3 player and bought Grits - Ooh Aah, Skillet - Element, Linkin Park - Numb, Green Day - When September Ends. I think the fifth song was another Grits (maybe High). The scream on "Element" blew my young mind haha. I shared it in my English class as music that was important to me. The kid that would bully me played Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine for that same project and it horrified me haha!
I remember being in Boy Scouts in middle school each taking turns trying to play the piano part from Numb. I put the Metallica black album bc Enter Sandman was a huge song for my friends and I when we would go to the skate park in 8th grade. When we got into guitar we were all trying to play their stuff. I felt so badass playing Master of Puppets in 9-10th grade and frankly I should practice it again. So fun to play! Storm the Gates of Hell was a big metal album for me transitioning into high school. Discovered them the summer before digging through CDs in the metal section of the merch tent at Ichthus 2007. Their early albums got a lot of rotation on my MySpace playlist. I later got to see them in 2012 play with In Flames in Flint (also Battlecross and As Blood Runs Black).
I'm not even sure when I started listening to Iron Maiden. I guess with Number of the Beast on Guitar Hero 3. That was another one of those early songs I learned to play on guitar. Played a lot of Zeppelin songs on guitar in those days too. I bought the Mothership on iTunes and burned it to CDs for my dad one Christmas. That got me into them heavily. Over the Hills and Far Away is still one of my favorite songs to play on guitar to this day -- especially if I get my hands on a 12 string. I have a DanElectro 56pro, and even though I didn't pick it out, the fact that Page played one occasionally live meant a lot to me.
I don't really remember how I discovered Becoming the Archetype. Maybe also in the Ichthus merch tent. Pretty hilarious that I was listening to a tech death album before I even knew what melodeath or death metal were years later. I don't remember what year it was but my uncle is super into The Who and would play their collection in the van when we were hunting in the UP. I got the Ultimate Collection for Christmas in 10th grade I think and fell in love. Two of my drummer friends were super into classic rock and blues fusion. One had an encyclopedic knowledge of musicians, bands, and classic live shows. We geeked out about that stuff all the time. He gave me my Yes Montreal live 2003 DVD because he had two for some reason. I also got a ton of music from my other friend and our group of friends would hangout and watch Eric Clapton concert DVDs for fun. Very influential on my guitar taste.
I was super into Christian metalcore and scenecore in high school. Not much else to say there. It was the gateway into the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene which really open me up to metal as a whole. I got a bunch of music from my cousin while on another hunting trip around that time. I fell in love with Avett Brothers and Emotionalism has long been a special album from that batch of music. Finally got to see them live last summer after skipping them 4 times previous in college. I've loved Bassnectar for a long time. During my brostep phase yes, with his Timestrech album, but Divergent Spectrum was when he really started to show, for me, that he was more than just EDM festcore (he was recently Cancelled, FUCK).
I first started exploring black metal freshman year of college. I'd been into melodeath for a couple years now and I guess COB was the closest thing that made me aware of black metal? Idk I discovered the video for Call of the Wintermoon and thought it was hilariously stupid. I appreciated that Immortal didn't use explicitly satanic themes as much so they were easier for me to enjoy than Mayhem and Darkthrone. In the Nightside Eclipse was an early favorite as well despite having a little more of that satanic imagery. I loved listening to Into the Infinity of Thoughts while walking through the snow on campus. I got Vampire Weekend from my friend on my dorm floor and ya that is just about the perfect place to discover them haha. I was really into the whole indie folk/rock scene for that brief glorious moment. So many of those bands turned to shit.... OMAM - My Head is An Animal transports me back to my sophomore dorm, no care in the world, beautiful summer/fall weather, and learning to play MTG with my roommate and our friend (still my best friends).
MGMT super important to me. Still love them to this day. I don't think I got into them until college but there was something about there sound that reminded my of my older friends' nihilistic hedonism from when I was a young teen watching them from a far. This is captured very well on "Time to Pretend." Since I was about 11 I've had the attitude of "fuck you, I won't be what you want me to be" and that is very much what that song is like for me but with a bit of a twist.
Going into my junior year I worked in the lab in the summer and got to sublease my first apartment. It was during this time that I discovered a top 100 OSDM albums of all time on either RYM or another list aggregate cite. Death and Obituary were my biggest favorites from that time. I also went to Mayhem Fest '13 earlier that year and that was a big moment for me. First mosh pit was Job for a Cowboy. Finally got to see COB and the pit for "Silent Night, Bodom Night" is still one of the most insane I've ever been in. Also my first time seeing Mastodon and they sucked haha. Lifelessly played without saying a word. It was a pretty miserable day though and they had the 3rd slot on the main stage so it was everyone's down time in a way. One of my friend's did comment that it was interesting they avoided playing their main singles (he was our college radio metal hour DJ).
I used Pandora to discover a lot of stuff over the years. It's what helped me get into melodeath (while doing my independent study of Chinese in the school library). Summer of '14, when I was working as a sub contractor, was when I discovered trance, shoegaze, post-rock, Sonic Youth, and really got into Darkthrone. Important summer of music.
These were around the years I started actively using Spotify too. Mercyful Fate/King Diamond were so good I couldn't let the Satanism keep me away. A real gateway to the madness there. I discovered WITTR and Agalloch shortly before joining the sub. They captured so perfectly for me what it is like to sit in the woods all day and just exist. That is spiritually very important to me and to my family history/dynamic.
I joined r/metal in summer of 2015 bc I was depressed and working a shitty internship with nothing to do. I chose to pick Summoning as my first shreddit discovery as I loved discussing them with Pesti and CBE at the time. CBE was my first friend I connected with outside of Reddit. To this day we still maintain a group chat along with Majesticscarfripple (victorysongs/elitistposer). I got into Manilla Road and Slough Feg heavily bc of the sub. It wasn't Marco but HC actually who had a heavy influence there. Same with his caverndeath primer since that was a style I was already seeking out. Misterming and Abyssal were two major dissonant albums I got into that first year and made my 2015 list and HM. Them and Portal were very representative of that fringe of music that I have continued to press into and explore. Uskumgallu fits that bill the next year with me getting into underground black metal and really lo-fi and weird stuff. The TKcore if you will. Thank you Kap for getting me into Vrasubatlat! Fallen Empire and I, Voidhanger were other favorites of that time (and still).
Purity Ring and King Gizz I got into from my college radio station since I still lived in the same area during my first job. Hearing People Vultures on the radio BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I love Alcest. Got into them in 2016 bc they played Wacken and I was listening up on the bands there. Seeing them front row, center stage (right in front of Neige) is still one of my absolute favorite concert memories. Then Kodama came out and I've forever been in love. My best friend is recently falling in love with them too and it makes me so happy!
Last three are some metal bullshit whatever ;). Absu - Tara a pivotal moment for black/thrash discovery, Agent Steel for speed, and Incantation for that beautiful style of OSDM that has made a resurgence.
