It was a warm Saturday night in June 2003. I was staying up late to watch "I Love the 70s," the 1970 episode. I was bored and about to go to bed when all of a sudden, I heard this riff and these words- "Has he lost his mind, can he see or his he blind?" I'd never heard anything like this before. It was dark, yet musical at the same time. The lead singer in the video stopped banging his head and my jaw dropped to the floor- it was Ozzy Osbourne. Until that night, I knew him as nothing more than a drugged-up reality TV dad. But here, leading Black Sabbath, was the REAL Ozzy Osbourne! THIS is Ozzy Osbourne! When the clip came and gone, I kept singing the riff and and words to myself. "Black Sabbath... Black Sabbath... Has he lost his mind, can he see or is he blind... Black Sabbath..." I hoped to hear more of this strange new music that Black Sabbath made.

Discovering Black Sabbath that night felt like flinging open the doors to a completely different world and led me on a journey of discovery that I've continued on to this day. What is your metal journey like? How has it been so far? We are all united by a common love on this forum, and we all had to discover it somewhow.
EDIT: I expect nice, full, complete stories!

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Besides being a huge Queen fan early on, and listening to the sounds of guitar great Brian May...which had some traces of Metal and his playing and sound influenced many Metal players, The album that first made me listen to Metal...really Listen to it...well of course I loved AC/DC too, But they aren't Metal...Onto my first Metal experience...I think it was Listening to the Iron Maiden- The Number Of The Beast...cranked loudly in my Dad's headphones on his stereo in the Living Room, Bruce Dickinson's voice was incredible!...Plus they had that darker image and cool lyrics as well...

Just one of many Metal memories

"When I had journeyed half our life's way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, For I had lost the path that does stray"

Now I pretty much listen to all sorts of true metal and I'm addicted to it, you could say I'm living for metal (I'm gonna kick my own ass for sucking up like that).

And we all lived happily ever after, The End.

What you used to love now, you're gonna adore. With Charmin Ultra, less is more. Cha Cha Cha, Charmin.

 

Wipe ya ass, wash ya self.

I grew up listening to mostly stuff my parents listened to.  The first band I was really into was the Beatles and that was in the late 70's early 80's.  Then I started listening to pop and new wave because that's what my 2 older sisters listened to.  Nothing to obscure, though.  That lasted for a few years until I discovered pop or hair metal.  Some may not even consider this form of music metal, and that's OK by me.  But I felt rebelious as none of my friends listened to it.  The first song of this genre I remember liking is Jump by Van Halen.  I also remember hearing a lot of Billy Idol before I began liking the harder heavier music.  Around the middle 80's I was listening to Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Cinderella, etc.  Man, I though I was bad-ass.  hehehe    I had poster's of Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars of Motley Crue, and Bobby Dall and Brett Michaels on my wall.  Theater of Pain was the best album ever!!

Then in high school I discovered Led Zeppelin.  However, at the same time most of the people I knew then were into bands like REM and New Order.  I actually liked that type of music back then and I still do.  But, I always drifted towards the heavier side of things.  Little did I know that my "heavy" side was light as a feather compared to what I would discover in college.  Aside from my one Black Sabbath CD, one Megadeth CD and one Metallica CD, I had no idea what heavy metal was.

The college years sucked.  Mainly because I had no friends and I hated school.  I wasn't taking any classes I liked and I was terrible at taking tests.  Oh, and I failed out after 2 semesters.  That probably had something to do with my bad experiences.  The positives that came from my first year of college was my introduction to metal (whereas before I had only heard hard rock).  The guy that lived in the dorm room next to me was a country bumpkin that had a distaste for country music (shocking) but had a wild collection of tapes and a handful of freaky cd's.  This guy had a few Iron Maiden (who I didn't really like at first), some Overkill, Morgoth and many other death metal or thrash, or anything else I considered extreme.  I still hadn't really taken to the true heavy metal but I had gotten enough of a taste to know that I needed to hear more.  After my 2 wonderful semesters at college I went home and got a job.  I worked at a retail store that was at the front of a warehouse, and our supplies were kept back there.  I was a grunt worker, spending a lot of time "in the back", cleaning and stuff.  At that time there was a metal radio station based near Annapolis Maryland and thankfully it actually came in pretty clear in the warehouse.  I heard so many great songs on that station, although it was still a fairly safe play list.  But that station was the one that introduced me to Dream Theater.  Lessee, that was 1991 and 1992.  From that year until about 2001 I still was only into the more well known metal bands, mostly Megadeth, old Metallica, Savatage (not really popular then but oh, well), Ozzy and Sabbath.  Even Dio.  My buddy during those years was a grunge fan and I was impressionable so I followed suit.

I got a steady job in 1997, and eventually I got in a position where I could listen to Internet radio.  I found a few good stations that played a bunch of incredible music I had never heard before, mostly prog or power metal.  I tried the more extreme deathy-type stuff but I just couldn't get past the vocals.  I liked clean vocals only back then.  Then, one fateful day on the job I had to train a new employee.  He came to my desk to go over whatever I was to train him on and as soon as he sat down and looked at my monitor (which was some image of the Dream Theater logo, if I recall) my metal life changed forever.  He sat down and said "Oh my god!  You like Dream Theater??!?!?"  His musical taste leaned toward really heavy and extreme music, a side I had touched upn but never really embraced.  My musical tasted leaned toward power metal and prog metal, a side he had touched upon but never fully embraced.  Our friendship began and our musical tastes increased exponentially, each one forcing the other to check out this band or that band, etc. 

So, my real journey into heavy metal only began about 5 years ago.  Since that day at work my musical tastes have grown so much.  I can't even keep track of all the music I have had the pleasure of listening to since then, or all the bands I have been introduced to, but I am a better man for it.

phew, that was a long post....

Just kidding..lol. Metal was always a part of my life as far back as i can remeber. Most of my older cousins listened to sabbath and priest and Kiss when I was young . at age 7 i made my mom by me a Kiss t-shirt i had seen. And by the time I was 8, I was a freaking KISS diehard. The local Radio station 99.5 Kiss had a DJ named Joe Anthony and the guy changed SA forever -playing Rush and Priest and scorpions,and tons of great bands  way before anyone else did in the USA so i had always something good to listen to.My cousin then turned me on to Ozzy and def leppard one day i had heard def leppard and it was ok.. but the minute i heard Ozzy's Crazy train ...my life changed .. the whole world stopped the minute i heard those few opening riffs . Randy rhoads changed my life right then and there. I remember soon after Begging my mom to let me go see OZZY .. but she wouldn't budge. My cousin was going with his friends and he was gonna take me. I asked to stay at another cousins house for the weekend and ended up going anyway .. Now i had been around town to see some local bands but not to a real arena concert so i was even more excited.

And it was every bit as much a change for me as it was hearing the album. I started playing guitar and I loved it. played night and day for about 3 yrs straight . I then got into Metallica and Priest more. I also got into bands like Riot and watchtower .Anthrax,Slayer,Venom ...AND tons of local bands . San Antonio had great metal bands. I enjoyed every bit of metal that I could and even when the glam metal days came around i enjoyed that too. I think if it comes down to it I love guitar playing . If it's decent and true to ones heart and you like it then its Good music .. No matter what style or genre . I listen to rock,blues,metal,jazz,classical,and many other styles of music . BUT ...the one thing I always look for is the guitar. It's what i truly love . And It just so happens that METAL has some of the best guitarists in the world.

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