First metal band you liked?

Who was the first metal band you liked when you first developed a taste for metal?
What did you like about them?
Do you still like them, or do you feel the need to distance yourself from them because you are so much more "heavy" or "extreme" now?

I have to say Judas Priest. I liked the rhythm guitars, solos and vocals. The album cover graphics were cool too.

I went through a period where I still respected Priest but didn't listen to them at all. The whole Turbo era. I enjoyed Painkiller and started listening again.

There was a time when their tempos seemed to slow, but as I have aged I've realized that metal is good at all tempos. Tempo cannot save a crap song either.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by innocent_leader on October 9, 2009 at 9:30am

I HATED metal growing up. I dunno, it just kinda got under my skin. It didn't help either, that I asccoiated ALL metal with the crappy hair metal bands I saw on MTV. That all changed when I saw Faith No More's video for Epic. That opened the flood gates for me to get into bands like Pantera, GnR, Anthrax (my personal fav!). Kinda stopped listening to metal for awhile in the mid 90's as I was obsessed with grunge and punk.

I put my 'metalhead" hat back on when I heard some stuff from In Flames, mainly "The Jester Race". Awesome stuff.

Permalink Reply by YamiNoSensei on October 27, 2009 at 11:51am

Black Sabbath, high school age back in the late '70s. The whole dark, heavy sound really intrigued me. Then Metallica, And Justice For All era, on the other side of my early-20s hardcore punk thing. I liked (and still do) that their lyrics had more substance and personal meaning, the music was complex without being overdone or sacrificing the basic heavy sound, and Hetfield actually SINGS instead of just howling and/or growling.

Permalink Reply by Fast Eddy on November 14, 2009 at 6:24pm

I liked Van Halen,Quiet Riot & Night Ranger (don't laff), when I didn't consider myself diggin' hard rock musik at all. When I decided I waz a metalhead waz when I heard Iron Maidenz NUMBER OF THE BEAST album on tape, dat I borrowed from my from my friendz cousin. This waz in '84 or '85 I think.

Permalink Reply by HellSlave666 on September 29, 2011 at 7:59am

Black Sabbath. I saw them in concert in the mid-70's. I was a hardcore sci-fi/horror geek as a kid (and still am today). I liked Sabbath because to me they embodied the sci-fi/horror asthetic. Black Sabbath's music has aged well. They sound just as fresh today as they did 40 years ago.

Permalink Reply by enigmatic on November 3, 2011 at 10:13am

The bands that got me into metal were Pantera, Mudvayne, Slipknot, and Black sabbath. I don't listen to most of these bands now (except for black sabbath). The bands just got me into the darker stuff.

Permalink Reply by Jordana LeSesne on February 12, 2012 at 8:38am

Count me amongst the elderly but it was Dokken, Iron Maiden (Somewhere in Time) and Metallica (Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets).....

LOL i'm older than i look i guess.

Permalink Reply by Nove Gree on March 4, 2012 at 1:33am

Well, I've been listening to Sabbath for over a year now, but less than that for straight up M E T A L bands. Sabbath is not metal. They are proto-metal. I got into them by way of punk rock, hardcore and crust punk. I read a book called "This Band Could Be Your Life" and got to the chapter on Black Flag. Their name comes from a being Sabbath fans. This is what lead me to check them out.

To answer the question- the first few metal bands that hooked me: Exodus, Venom, Bathory, Annihilator, Saint Vitus, EHG and Autopsy. Also, the grindcore band Assuck and Discordance Axis.

Permalink Reply by Kishande on April 27, 2012 at 9:21am

The first metal CD that I bought was Metallica (Black Album) when I was 16. I was always in rock at one point or another, but buying that CD was the beginning of me listening to rock/metal almost exclusively.