I am curious, first if anyone else came across metal by the same path I have, and second how they had come upon it.
By this I mean, if it were a revelation for you, what finally caused you to decide that metal was your music?
Ultimately for me it was Slayer's Reign in Blood. I knew Metallica, Slayer, and ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?, and that album, when I discovered it about eight years ago forced me deeper into speed metal to the point (with the help of what I might call my mentor) where i moved into death metal without any cannibal corpse interruption.