I was mostly listening to early 80's rock tunes in South Carolina. (about 5 years behind the rest of the world at that time) I heard Sabbath at the age of 10 and it was over! I moved to Los Angeles at 12 and picked up a Slayer record (Show No Mercy) at a buddies house and there you go!

Hello,

For me, it was something like this:

1981: AC/DC, For Those About To Rock -- "This is the heaviest thing I ever heard!"
1981: Van Halen, And The Cradle Will Rock -- "No, _this_ is the heaviest thing i've ever heard!" (repeat above for "Unchained")
1982: Iron Maiden, Flight of Icarus -- "No, wait, _this_ is definitely the heaviest thing i've ever heard!"
1984: Metallica, For Whom The Bell Tolls -- "OK, this is, without a doubt, the heaviest thing i've ever heard, it can't possibly be any heavier!"
1986: Metallica, Master Of Puppets -- "Yikes, it got heavier! How could this possibly be?"
1988: Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax, Overkill, Megadeth, Armoured Saint, Fates Warning, Suicidal Tendencies, Omen -- "Wow, heavier yet! Is there truly no limit to heaviness?"
1988: SOD -- "OK, this is the coolest, heaviest thing i've ever encountered!"
1988: Nuclear Assault, Savatage, Testament in concert -- "Damn, this is f*cking heavy! Look at those people, like popcorn, crowd surfing! I want to do that!" (later, after a bouncer threw him headfirst into a wall) "Owww, I just want to go home ..." (later that week after I recovered, I saw Fates Warning on the Perfect Symmetry tour)
1989: Tori Amos, Precious Things -- "You know, that song is pretty damn heavy."
1989: Ministry, Thieves -- "Speed-metal industrial noise? Damn, this is another kind of heavy, altogether!"
1989: Pop Will Eat Itself, Defcon 1 -- "Cool, techno-metal!"
1989: Sepultura, Arise -- "OK, there is just no way anything could get heavier than this!"
1990: Mucky Pup, Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, Seers, Fates Warning "Parallels", Ministry's Psalm 69
1991: Fear Factory, Death, Pantera, PWEI Cure For Sanity, more Skinny Puppy, Morbid Angel
1993: Pitchshifter, Industrial -- "OK Ok ok ok ok ok ok now this is abso-fuggin-lutely the heaviest thing in existence!"
1994: Sebadoh, Bang Your Head On The Punk Rock -- "Wow, this is so raw and noisy and strangely heavy at times."
1995: Metallica, Load -- "Uh ... did someone mislabel this CD? This can't be Metallica."
1996: Sepultura, Chaos AD -- "Damn, this is __so__ heavy! Refuse! Resist!"

... then I didn't really hear of much new metal, until recently:

2004: Soilwork, As We Speak -- "WOW!"
2004: Darkane, "more WOW!"
2004: Slayer, God Hates Us All -- "WOW!!!"
2005: Fear Factory, Asphyxiate -- "WOW!!!!!"

Regards,

John, lots of other music genres in there over the years as well, but it all begins and ends with metal, does it not? :-)

Falling You - exploring the beauty of voice and sound
www.magnatune.com/artists/falling_you

Oh god... my first experience was sort of accidental, i guess you could say. I went to a little thing called the Cherry Blossom Festival years ago and saw a guy selling some cassettes so i went to check it out. At that time, I was mainly listening to the older metal like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Blue Oyster Cult, so i figured why not try something a little newer. I ended up buying Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden, The Legacy by Testament, The Dark by Metal Church, and Painkiller by Judas Priest. I took them all back home and gave em a whirl, and i felt as if I were in pure heaven (or hell, i guess may be a better term for this music).

Since then, I've been really getting into a lot of metal, but have stuck as close to thrash as I possibly could, bein that it is/was/and ever will be the best out there. My favorite albums of all time would have to be:

Slayer - Reign In Blood
Exodus - Bonded By Blood (Fabulous Disaster is great as well)
Tankard - The Morning After (or Chemical Invasion)
Voivod - Dimension Hatross (or Killing Technology)
Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
Anthrax - Among The Living (Caught In A Mosh rules!!)
Sepultura - Arise
Forbidden - Forbidden Evil
Metallica - Master Of Puppets (RIP Cliff)
Megadeth - Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good
Coven - Blessed Is The Black

And a host of others, too numerous to mention.

THRASH TILL DEATH!!!

I was hanging out at the local convenience store, Minit Mart, eastin time, and a guy pulled up with Testament's Legacy playing "first Strike is Deadly" at full blast. I asked him who and what thatw as, and then walked over to a music store and promptle stole the tape, and I've been a metalhead ever since. I was in 7th grade, prbably 1988. I was already listening to MC5, Wizard, Sweet, Sabbath and Rainbow. Testament is still my favorite band, then Exodus, Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, and of course Megadeth.

i bought "kill em all" in anticipation of my first concert ever, day on the green on aug 31, 1985!

Fluke actually.

6th Grade Birthday, my Mom goes to a record store in the mall and asks the clerk, what's a good record to buy my son for his B-day? The clerk hands her POWERSLAVE, and the rest is history.

Reign in Blood, best-album-ever.

First heard Metallica's Master Of Puppets on a college rock/metal station, then discovered Slayer- Reign In Blood (my fave album ) on my own. At the time I was a Motley Crue and hair metal (it's really Hard Rock) fan, thrash opened the True metal doors for me. I also like Exodus,Venom,Sepultura,Annihilator,Testament,Death Angel,Obituary,Death, Cannibal Corpse. Mostly 80s thrash bands.