YOUR metal timeline

[Antihuman]

Birthed in 1988

Hated music until I was 15 (ca. 2003-4), at which point I spent many hours rooting through everything from Disturbed to Avenged Sevenfold to Rammstein and finally Slayer, which was what ultimately clicked.  Spent years with my favorites revolving, from Slayer, ron Maiden, and early Metallica to Mastodon to Entombed.

Somewhere in there I caught onto black and death metal that I only somewhat understood.  I relied on the Metal Archives for reviews and such.  At this point I realized that there was far too much metal out there, and that most of it was even worse than other pop music.

Discovered ANUS in 2007.  I had already heard and enjoyed about half of the best ofs, including Morbid Angel, Demilich, Immortal, Emperor, Mayhem, and took it from there.  The philosophy was similar to what I had developed to that point, and I stuck with the site as my main source for all things metal.

This coincided with an obsession with and subsequent reading of all of Nietzsche's works, and a flourishing interest in philosophy and literature.

Today: Disembowelment and Beherit are my favorites.

[Shanti Andia]

1995: Green Day, Offspring, Pennywise.
1996-2002: Listen to some great music  (Black Sabbath, Metallica, Judas Priest, Testament, Slayer and Sepultura) and also to some terrible happy metal and marilyn manson-style stuff.
2002-2007: Begin to apply a more selective criteria with my music, focusing on quality within the realm of extreme metal almost exclusively: Mayhem, Immortal, Deicide, more Slayer, Death, Obituary, Carnivore, Nuclear Assault, DRI, SOD.
2007-2010: Start to follow ANUS advice on music (although I already knew the site since the nineties), learning about good ambient and pop, rediscovering classical music. In metal: Summoning, Godflesh, Jesu, Burzum, I Shalt Become, Mütiilation.

[Devamitra]

Just for the record, I'm not usually into these topics because people are just showing how cool they are. But as I started playing with the idea of a timeline in my head, I noticed it would be a good mental exercise to recapitulate all this. "The doom of men is that they forget." -Merlin

1980: Infant joy. I am born with musically inclined genes.
1981: Old, romantic songs are being sung to me while I'm nursed to sleep. Environment is music.
1982: I become musically active as I wail and emit vocals. Pure expression through music is the best form of participation for me.
1983: I might have become a fan of industrial at this point, since our house is being built. Kling klang!
1984: I am mostly into cars and their noises. Hail noise!
1985: TV and collections of vinyl expose me to all older, and a few newer, styles of music, as everyone in my family loved and loves their music.
1986: A recording of me demanding to hear music which has "electric rhythm" exists.
1987: I prefer uptempo rock from 50's to 80's; in a way, I never strayed from this.
1988: WASP, Ozzy Osbourne are musically not as heavy as the mythic imagery, thus not particularly igniting my interest.
1989: Movie soundtracks in John Williams vein are massively cool, for one with an overactive imagination.
1990: I spend hours each day listening to various types of music on black fucking vinyl, which I've begun to buy. Airdrumming and just getting mesmerized.
1991: By now pocket money has brought a small collection spanning from pop to classical. Who cares about "personal taste" when you can study it all?
1992: CD's from library (3-disc edition of "Lohengrin", 12-disc edition of "Der Ring des Nibelungen"). I also lend the written partitures occasionally and gaze at them while listening.
1993: Tchaikovsky and Tangerine Dream provide the perfect soundtrack for AD&D sessions.
1994: My fantastical subconscious gets ignited by Danzig and Manowar. The obsession with Satanic and battle themes in music has stayed with me until this day.
1995: Punk, Dead Can Dance and techno all mingle with more metallic sounds, as I don't have any subcultural identity. I'm a little programmer / computer gaming geek.
1996: Amorphis, Bolt Thrower and company lead the way towards death metal and black metal, thanks to music websites, webzines and USENET newsgroups.
1997: I realize the scam nature of contemporary black metal and it's probably the first musical crisis I take seriously, amidst a teenager's problems.
1998: Being so angry I can hardly listen to anything except drones, ambiences, Ildjarn and Immortal, elemental to surviving life with an intact sanity.
1999: I go for NS black metal because it's one of the only avenues left where to express the rage of my Nordic soul. I start calling myself "Black Hate".
2000: I start some musical activity myself, meet musicians around the world, become cynical/wiser and no longer need to represent myself as a metalhead.
2001: Due to a weird, busy and hysterical life, I am unable to enjoy music except for some "neo-serious" black metal like Antaeus and Krieg.
2002: Blazebirth Hall, Nokturnal Mortum and other Aryan ethics re-remind me of the pleasures and horrors of the way of the warrior.
2003: Preferring occultism to materialism, I sell most of my metal collection to get rid of all the excess scum accumulated by life, but I still enjoy the occasional Burzum or two.
2004: Administration tasks in the Finnish black metal messageboard, while in my spare time I go back to new wave, synthpop and experimental.
2005: Times bring old school heavy metal back to both my life and to all of Finland and it's a good time to relive ancient metal moments, with a beautiful Celtic Frost gig and others.
2006: Work and school routine permit studying of various styles of music, listening to missed classics and re-establishing old contacts (such as ANUS).
2007: Getting back to zine and web writing activities, since I tend to feel this need to get to the core philosophy of the music and somehow participate.
2008: Seeing Manowar perform six early albums in their entirety, my metal career has traveled the full circle and it's a joy to feel like a "Hessian" again.
2009: Music "journalistic" activities start to take the fun out of music because I am forced to listen to too much shit, you guys should all beware of this happening.
2010: As of now, I am careful to listen to music sparsely and to create well organized, analytic playlists for myself, through which I enjoy metal as I would quality wine!

[Conservationist]

1978-1985: Exposed only to classical music and The Beatles, which I quickly recognize is superior to the crap on the radio, very little of which uses distortion. Early preference for distortion.
1985: I start sysoping BBSes with original ANUS gang, start hearing people talk about music. I realize how important it is and about the same time, encounter first literature describing how popular music transformed society. At this point, only know of the Beatles and AC/DC, am fond of them both. Repulsed by Led Zeppelin.
1986-88: DRI, Cryptic Slaughter, Dead Horse, Metallica, and Slayer, Judas Priest, Queensryche, some Guns and Roses and lots of AC/DC -- then: holy shit, Morbid Angel and Deicide, Sarcofago and Massacra. Prong, Nuclear Assault and Testament also feature prominently.
1991: Pure death metal. Obituary, Incantation, etc.
1993: Discover black metal. Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, etc
1998: Burn out on metal. Mainly because the last thing I really liked was Sinister's "Hate." Still like Graveland.
2000: Decide not to burn out on metal, just to listen to the best, as a means of excluding all the recent pointless crap that happy morons keep telling me is important.
2001: Decide to throw classical into the mix, it soon takes over 75% of listening time and mental inclination toward music.

[nothingnowhere]

1990 - Born
1990-2002 - Too busy with a steady diet of playing army or swords and sorcery outside, historic and fantasy novels and video games, etc. Besides the total lack of music appreciation at a young age, a good foundation for metal.
2003-2004 - Listen mostly to things I heard on the radio (like Blink-182) or old CD's from my parents (AC/DC, Kiss, Guns n Roses, etc)
2005 - First introduction to heavy music from crapcore band Poison the Well.
2006 - First black metal CD is Sons of Northern Darkness. Tastes go all over the place from that to crappy viking metal, to crappy melodic death metal, to crappy deathcore, to Burzum.
2007- Tastes both contract and expand, I stop listening to almost all metal except for Burzum, Darkthrone, and Death's Scream Bloody Gore is the first death metal album I "get". In replacement I listen to a lot of stuff I find to be more "realistic" than metal like old hardcore.
2008 - Discover ANUS which reminds me why I liked the metal I did to begin with; for the magical spirit it evoked that was simply lacking in all other forms of music I had heard. I discover tons of metal, black metal always came natural to me but it took some time to get into death metal. Also start exploring ambient music.
2009 - Listen almost entirely to metal and a bit of ambient and classical.
2010 - Still listening to quality metal but have expanded my library and musical understanding to a greater variety of electronic, ambient, classical, and folk music.

[Sammaellofi]

Not even a metal head to this day and also a late comer, but here goes.

1987 - Born
1998 - No one liked metal in the nineties so I never heard much.  Korn was getting big around this time.  Didn't understand it.
2000 - Ozzy Osbourne / Sabbath AC/DC etc etc  Little Metallica later on.
2003/4 - Listened to Nu Metal for some reason even though no one liked it anymore.  Quit once I found Sepultura, though not the good albums.  Slowly got into ARE YOU TALKIN TO ME?, Metallica, Biohazard.  Easy stuff for virgins.
2005 - Thought death metal and black metal was crap pretty much until I found out about Norwegan Black Metal scene from a VH1 special and thought it was just something creepy i was getting into, but slowly found that it fit my beliefs more than any other kind of music that I was into.  Slowly got into Death Metal after finding Anus.com the same year
2006 - Getting into all the underground metal I could.  Fell into the current trends of that time of thinking that ambient music was godly and that Graveland / Lord Wind and Summoning were going to save all of metal.  Also listened to ( as most here did at the time) Neoclassical, Neofolk, ambient, and Wagner.
2007 - Slowly abandoned metal except for Burzum and a few others after being disillusioned by it.
2008 - Returned and found new appreciation for all the old albums and have been building on this ever since.


This seems so horribly incomplete.  I should add that the other music I liked prior to all this shaped my interests and guided me in certain direction.  Throughout life I was always into dark atmospheres and meloncholy music, though nothing was ever strong enough for me.  Also getting into my studies on History, philosophy and poetry guide my current interest in metal.

[Monolith]

1981 - Born

1984 to 1991 - Saw Aerosmith first time on TV and also watched the some music program broadcast from Germany(mostly jazz and classic rock bands). Listened to mostly Indian classical(my parents used to listen to it and still do). Saw Zubin Mehta conducting a symphony live in India.

1991 to 1994 - Listened to mostly dance music and mainstream pop.

1995 - Started listening to mainstream rock(I had just started listening to Def Leppards, yikes!)

1995 to 1996 - Mostly mainstream rock bands but then discovered Iron Maiden's Best of the Beast. Also started listening to Metallica and Megadeth

1997 - Discovered Judas Priest Painkiller. By now I was knee deep in metal!

1998 - Huge Metallica fan! Also was listening to Black Sabbath along with some grunge(lame!)

1998 to 1999 - Learnt Indian Classical music. Played the Indian lute for nearly 3 years.

2000 - Switched from playing Indian lute to bass guitar, inspired by Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton and John Paul Jones.

2001 - Formed first band, mostly playing covers of Slayer and Metallica. Also discovered Morbid Angel!

2004 - Started exploring black metal(discovered Emperor!). Moving in the direction of extreme metal, primarily technical/progressive death metal.

2006 - Spent a lot of of time listening to Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone. Also became National Socialist and "joined" the LNSG. Also edited their the first issue of Blut und Boden. Also played in a death metal and black metal band.

2007 - Stopped playing in band since 2006 end. Focussed more on career. By now I was sick of the morons in the metal community online and offline.

2008 - Started a grindcore band and played shows till 2009.

2009 to 2010 - Got my life in order and started focusing on photography, travel and death metal. Currently very much sane and working on a new EP with my death metal band! Shout out to Grim Morrison!

My interest in classical music has been revived. Listening to doom death/funeral doom metal.

In all these years, I owe a lot to Prozak's writings, ANUS website, DLA and the forum members from the old board Ether 2002 to 2006. Thanks to all on ANUS who fed my hunger for metal and encouraged me to explore other forms of music.

[Humanicide]

1987 - I descend unto this mere mortal world.

My early years had little musical experience; my mother listens to really bad AOR, and my dad listens to mostly traditional Greek folk music (which I think can be cool).

1993 - I see an episode of Headbanger's Ball. The seed is subconsciously planted.

1995/6/7 - I begin to take an interest in rock music and radio.

1998/9 - I first hear punk bands like Pennywise, NOFX, The Vandals, Bad Religion, and Bigwig. I also get into stuff like Primus and Tool. It is through these bands that I discover metal.

2000 - I see LOUD, a program on Much Music (now known as Fuse). I see videos from Celtic Frost, Metallica, Razor, Morbid Angel, Slayer, Death, and more.

2001/2/3 - I am very much into hardcore punk, mostly from the USA. Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, JFA, etc.

2004/5 - I discover death metal through metalcore bands, and am infatuated.

2006/7 - I delve further into the underground, finding black metal. Mayhem, Darkthrone, Black Funeral, Emperor, and others pique my interest.

2008/9 - I discover more classical (which I had liked since my early years but had actually known very little about). I also regress a bit, discovering more worthwhile punk in crust/d-beat and global hardcore scenes.

At this time, my listening habits have flowered. I know what characteristics I enjoy in music, and I actively seek to find the best material I can in the genres I love most.

[Arctic Sun]

-Born 1986
-Enjoying Elton John at a very young age (still find some of his music tasteful)
-Inherit an old copy of Metallica's debut (with bonus tracks!) from my sister's boyfriend in '97-'98
-Read about Dave Mustaine in the liner notes and get Megadeth's first few in '99
-Try out but discard Nile, Dream Theater and Iced Earth in 2000 (they were popular in forums at the time)
-Attend a Morbid Angel concert in 2001 and witness the difference between excellent music and P.antera
-Lurk around the old ANUS boards shortly after and maybe even before (weren't links in unreadable powder blue text?)
-Buy a few Death albums as a result of reading yet more liner notes (2001)
-Grow tired of Schuldiner's boring song structures (2002)
-Discover Cynic, Pestilence, Gordian Knot, Sadus, and Monstrosity from Death booklets in '02
-Necromantia, Windham Hell, and Atheist came as recommendations in the same year (I nervously sent cash to a druggy Rand Burkey via Ebay for the blue pressing of Piece of Time - finally showed up a few months later).

-Nothing special in the past seven years or so.  Simply digesting recommendations from people I trust

This is a pretty standard series of events among friends I grew up with, with the personal exception of great material falling in my lap due to an older sister's messy breakup.  Otherwise I think the Dream Theater/Iced Earth/Nile internet forum craze of the early 2000's has somehow been forgotten.

[Veritas]

2005 - metallica and then after hearing metal on the radio, popular bands like PFA, arcturus,
some songs from darkthrone, nile, emperor (I am the black wizards as favourite song), morbid angel, summoning, agalloch
2006 - more aquainted with metal, liking french black metal like blut aus nord, DsO, a bit of LLN, peste noire and even alcest. some doom metal.
2007 - stop listening to metal for a while, after having not discovered anything more i like, and getting bored of the bands i used to listen to
explore various other genres, lots of emo/skreamo lul, and electronic, various kinds of rock etc.
2008 - discover anus after interest comes back due to hearing more old school death metal
listened to stuff from their best of lists and noticed how consistently good their taste was
so started to get taste from there, listening now largely to old school death metal, also eg. summoning, ras algethi
2009 - listening more to the black metal albums, like burzum, ItNE, Pure Holocaust.
2010 - haven't heard much new metal. now starting to further explore classical music.

[Sinshamsh11]

1988- Born
1988-mid 90s- not remembering much music except CCR, Pink Floyd, and The Planets Symphony
Late 90s-2003- mostly horrendous pop-music, aware of nu-metal like Korn/Linkin Park and Metallica but not interested
2003- discover that if I turn the radio dial, classic rock is pretty damn good, especially Blue Oyster Cult and Led Zeppelin
2004-2006- Continued interest in classic rock alongside bands such as Judas Priest, Metallica, and Black Sabbath 
2006-2007- Classic rock alongside newer acts such as RATM, SoaD, Tool, and Slipknot
Summer 2007- Go to the local record store looking for something intense, pick up Machine Head and Deicide's debut on a hunch, blown away by both
Fall/Winter 2007/Spring '08- confused extended introduction to extreme metal, introduced to grindcore and bands like Morbid Angel and Slayer
Summer 2008- Discover black metal, initially hesitant, but after acclimatization dive in head first
Fall 2008- Find that Burzum is probably the best band I've heard in years, pulled further into BM
2008 to the present- developing more nuanced, selective views on BM bands alongside new appreciation for grind/crust/powerviolence, still listen to BOC a lot
Spring 2010- Founded grindcore act with like minded individuals

[David_Brent]

1985 Born
I remember one of my first real "loves" was the prodigy, there was also a song by Take That I used to like, but I have no idea what it was.
Somewhere in the 90's I began listening to Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam... and soon moved on to Pitchshifter, Korn, Antiseen, Marilyn Manson Channel Zero, Sepultura and Slayer.
1998 Discovering Dimmu Borgir, BM was my new hero
1999 My "big" metalyear: Dream Theater, Tristania, Pretty Maids, Darzamat, Dan Swäno, Testament, Cradle of filth, The Kovenant, Judas Priest, Therion, Nightwish, Marduk, Emperor, Satyricon, Type o Negative, Slipknot, The Misfits, Soulgrind, Iced Earth, Evereve, Setherial, Enthroned, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Labyrinth, My Dying Bride, Ancient Rites, Summoning, Immortal, Mercyful Fate, Candlemass etc, etc...
2000 Getting more into Death Metal
2001 Mainly listening to Rakoth, Bal-Sagoth, Pink Frothy AIDS and Mütiilation
2002-2003 mainly prog-rock, alternative stuff, further explorations in metal, funeral doom
2004 Getting more into "trOO black metal", heavily listening to the flower kings
2005 Slowly getting more stability and more hessianlike taste

[here comes the bird flu]

1991- Born
1996- first band: Mountain
2005- first experiences with metal (trivial bands)
2006- first experiences with baroque music, the cello, and the lute
        - Listening to an eclectic mix of death metal (less trivial)
2007- begin writing metal
        - start exploring black metal
2008- compose my first two art songs/decide to major in composition
        - begin listening to the metal I enjoy now ('ANUS bands')
2009- first year of composition studies
        - discover ANUS

currently- beginning my first orchestral work and an unstaged opera of sorts (my first true experiment into the use of extended techniques)
              - recording the first demo for my metal project

[Frostbitten]

This contains information about my personal life too - but it depicts the consequences of music for my life and vice versa.

1994 - Born
1994-2002 - I was brought up with older pop music and some classical, which I though couldn't really appreciate as of then.
2001 - Started playing classical piano.
2003 - My friends got me into mainstream music. Went through a brief period of listening to contemporary pop.
2004 - Discovered the local, shitty mainstream "metal". Nightwish etc. This was the point when I started appreciating heavier music, though only superficially.
2006 - Slayer, Metallica, Iron Maiden, etc. At this point I developed a liking into real Metal and found for the first time the kind of music that I still listen to. I also started thinking of myself as a metalhead.
2007 - Black Metal & 70's metal. I delved deeper into older Metal (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motörhead etc.) and found Black Metal, which became my favourite genre of music almost immediately. I started reading ANUS after finding Burzum and alienated from my peers.
2008 - Started to follow the musical "ANUS dogma" - found Death and Doom Metal and broadened my understanding of Black Metal. At the end of the year, started delving into Classical and some forms of Electronic music, notably Ambient. Developed an ear for the greatest in music and became interested in playing classical piano again. Simultaneously became slightly better at school (from an average of 8,7 to 9,2 - on a scale of 4 to 10).
2009 - Became a daily listener of Classical music and found Metal secondary to it. Developed a full appreciation to the best of Metal. Cut my hair and gave up the superficial Metal culture mostly associated with losing in life, though still remained true to the Hessian ideals. Instead I started opting for success at as many fields possible - became better at school, progressed with the piano, started regular athletic exercising, started composing my own music and became more social. Gained more friends and overcame social anxiety.
2010 - Further widened my understanding of Metal and all other music, found Laibach and industrial music. I concluded Comprehensive School with an average of 9,5 and applied for the Sibelius Gymnasium of Helsinki, still waiting for the results.

[Leperchaun]

I'll use decades in favor of years, as my memory isn't that precise

199th decade CE
I was born, don't remember much else.

200th decade CE
Childhood: I listen to mainstream chart hit popular music from radio, but over the time(when approaching puberty) grow to detest it, which leads to some social problems - I suppose this could be considered an early sign of being a metalhead..

I have Nintendo 8-bit and play Megaman 3 - it has remarkably well-composed music that I still remember well. More recently, I refreshed my memories by playing it through an emulator program on my PC - like all game music, it's cyclic and a length of a single cycle here is about that of a grindcore song. The NES sound system has 5 channels - at least in the Megaman games, 1 was for the effects and 4 for the music. The 4 channels are for "percussion", "bass" and 2 more high-pitched melodies("guitars"). In the Megaman music, the "guitars" are often in harmony with each other, which has led me to speculate that the composer might actually like Iron Maiden(after all, the original Megamans were made during the peak of this band).

201th decade CE
Earlier half:
At this point, I've been introduced to "metallic" sound and it mildly fascinates me - unfortunately, the introducers have been HIV+: Limp Bizkit and Dimmu Borgir.
Little later, a friend introduces me to Manowar and it makes a great impression on me - no matter how embarrassing, their sincere and aggressive musicianship combined to a great singer is something that I had never heard before and I still enjoy their early releases occasionally. The newer Manowar might blow, but they'll always have a special place in my heart as they introduced me to metal and its spirit. It wasn't long until I listened to the "gateway" bands of death/black metal: Slayer, Immortal, Death

Ambient music:
During this time, I played the computer games Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel Thief II: The Metal Age. These games are superior in every possible aspect(with them, the stealth adventure/FPS genre, popularized by the Splinter Cell games, was created), but they also had extraordinary ambient soundtrack: organic hum, ghostly whispers and industrial noise provided a perfect background for creeping through the shadows. I haven't listened to a lot of ambient music since, but these games helped me to understand the potential of the genre.

Later half:
With artists like Bolt Thrower, Blasphemy, Autopsy and Incantation, my taste starts to solidify; also listening to some Bach and Beethoven


202th decade CE
Well, this one has but just begun, so there isn't too much to say yet.
Listening to the newer "true" underground metal like Mütiilation, Katharsis, Antaeus and the new Profanatica.