The How Did You Get Into...__ __ Metal

OK, I saw this list on Metal-Archives' forum, so not the most original idea but it's fun to do.

Hard Rock:
First Queen & KISS then AC/DC. But visually & sonically it's unquestionably Nazereth's "No Mean City" LP.

Heavy Metal:
First the Scorpions then to a small degree and much larger degree later on, Judas Priest& Sabbath but more so Iron Maiden circa: "Number of the Beast", mixed in with Ozzy, Dio, & Motorhead.

NWOBHM:
2nd Def Leppard album (+ all else BEFORE "Pyromania"- the demo, first EPs & the first LP), Saxon & Raven then Blitzkrieg, Diamond Head (via Metallica, Grim Reaper and a ton more later.

Power Metal - 80's style:
Exciter, Helloween, Running Wild, Savatage (up to "Power of the Night" and a little of "Hall of the Mountain King"), Nasty Savage, Heavy Load.

Progressive Metal:
Queensryche, Fates Warning (I avoided both bands after 1988 though), VoiVod - since I didn't get into 'em until "Nothingface". It's rare as fuck that I like anything in this realm nowadays.

Thrash Metal:
Slayer's "Show No Mercy" then about a month later "Kill 'Em All" by Metallica followed a another year later by Exodus' "Bonded by Blood" and the floodgates didn't end 'til mid-'87 when it started really sucking.

1st Wave Black Metal:
Mercyful Fate, Venom & Hellhammer/Celtic Frost + and many years later Bulldozer/Bathory/Destruction/Sodom & recently - Sarcofago

2nd Wave Black Metal:
Satyricon's "Mother North" then the usual of Emperor, Darkthrone (but really got them when they started adding punk in their sound and went back re-reading the interviews to show that they WEREN'T racists or nazis, quite the opposite, Immortal - especially "At the Heart of WInter". (Early) Mayhem & Marduk in recent years

Death Metal - 1st wave
Possessed - Seven Fucking Churches, a bit later Death's "Human",

Death Metal - 2nd wave
Morbid Angel, Entombed, Carcass, Atheist, Dismember, Deicide, Gorguts, Master (though technically they're in the first category).

Grindcore - 1st wave
Napalm Death, Repulsion probably these 2 more than anyone

Power-Violence
Bleeaarrrrrgh comp stuff, Spazz, Crossed Out,

Punk Rock:
Ramones and later The Damned (most of all UK bands), Sex Pistols - though I now think they're pretty half-assed vs. a lot of the better bands around then: Siouxie & The Banshees, The Damned, Chelsea, Buzzcocks & so on...

Crossover/Hardcore - 80's:
D.R.I. - Dealing With It, Crumbsuckers - "Life of Dreams", Bad Brains - s/t ROIR tape, English Dogs, Attitude Adjustment, C.O.C. Later on: The Accüsed, M.D.C., Rudimentary Peni, Subhumans (UK), DKs, Black Flag, and a million more.

Crust:
Amebix, Meanwhile, Skitsystem, Sunday Morning Einsteins, Ausgebombt, recently: Crude SS & World Burns to Death

Viking Metal - first inklings
Heavy Load (to some degree anyway), Yngwie's "I Am A Viking" (tho' I think that song's really pretty half-assed), 'Maiden's "Invasion/Invaders", Silver Mountain - "Vikings".

Viking Metal - 1990's-now
Unleashed, Enslaved - Momumesion then went backwards into the catalog especially "Eld" and "Frost", Unleashed, Falkenbach, Amon Amarth - up to a point they've started to grate on me lately but maybe it's just their marketing machine than the music.

Professing Metal to The Masses (or 5 dudes from Stanford)

BEFORE?

Wagner Lamounier ex-guitarist/vocalist of Sepultura & Sarcófago during the 1980s. Currently a professor of economic science at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

A few weeks ago I did a radio special on KZSU which was a sort of "audio history lesson" on Heavy Metal. I was really suprised at a few things. Namely, the guys were really into virtually every song I played from Crazy World Of Arthur Brown in 1968 to Metal Church in 1984. A few things I've noticed in doing these sort of "History" specials:

- Cut things off at 1984. It grows exponentially insane at this point. 1984-86 the initial impact of Thrash, Speed, Black and Death Metal begin though all used interchangeably.
- Big, bloated bands like AC/DC, KISS, Led Zeppelin don't need to even need to be mentioned much less played.
- Blue Oyster Cult isn't Heavy Metal and only occasionally Hard Rock. The 1970's definition of Heavy Metal hasn't held up since 1979. I mean Foreigner, Journey and Bad Co. aren't Metal what so ever. (Not unlike people thinking AC/DC or Elvis Costello were "punk" around the same time). They have a few moments here & there but up against Black Sabbath, Judas Priest or Thin Lizzy fuggit about it!

Some interesting things my students brought up:

Q: Would people have called UFO "Metal" in 1979? A: Hard to say, the term was around then but it was a bit hazy. See above on the 70's definition of Heavy Metal. Yet there was a burgeoning (albeit virtually unknown in the U.S.) New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the UK. The music media in the U.S. was all about disco or anti-disco rockers like Ted Nugent.

Q: Thin Lizzy's singer was a black guy? A: Yes. Black & Irish in fact.

Also:
- Sabbath/Priest/Maiden = Son, Father & Holy Ghost (not sure on the order tho')
- They loooove to headbang in the Outer A studio to 'Priest, Motorhead & the like.
- Two of my students said despite the dark themes it's very jubilant and melodic (or at least the '68-'84 era).
- Where does double bass drumming come in? I answered that it was from Motorhead (and forgot to mention things like the faster or complex 'Priest/'Maiden songs ex: "Rapid Fire" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") and hardcore punk like Discharge which had an impact on Metallica, Anthrax and Bathory.
- Another student wanted to heard Metal Church and was gave me a dead on description of David Wayne's "screaming banshee" vocals.
- Motorhead's "Overkill" has 3 false endings if not more on the "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith" version.

See "the kids" aren't just into that sideways haircut, faux-indie bullshit. There IS hope for the kids...at least these 5.

AFTER?

"Wagner" in his "Satanic Lust" days.