Metal music in your 20s

[Lexodus]

Dubstep is awesome, and i see that new genre really going places in the future, unlike metal which seems to be taken over by more 15 year old scene kids as time goes by. People don't like to admit it, but the metal scene is dying, especially in the UK.

Firstly, ugh... dubstep, and secondly, it's only dying in parts of the UK. It's still strong where I am, the hampshire/wiltshire area.

Dubstep, its a acquired taste, but it does grow on you, and its surprisingly more diverse than it actually first sounds.

I live in Hampshire and it is exactly the same as it was when i lived in kent, not many metal/rock bars/club, not many people, its just not what it used to be like.

Trust me, i went to those clubs back then.

Dubstep just seems like noise, and it's always the same (at least, to me). The best way I've ever seen of summing it up was a motivational poster saying "DUBSTEP: I LIKE THE PART WHERE IT GOES WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB". I dislike it as a genre, although that isn't to say there aren't ever going to be examples of it that I don't. Also, try Basingstoke if it's close enough. It's still going pretty well there

 

[Sarahcidal]

i'm 26 and i still listen to the same music that i listened to when i was 16.. my taste in music has grown over the years though

 

[Jazoni89]

Im 19 at the moment, I am a fan of lots of different types of music, from classical, orchestral and mariachi, to rap, original hip hop (IE KRS ONE and Wu Tang), huge fan of Reggae and whatever niche cage the elephant (THANK YOU BORDERLANDS!) fits into.

But the style of music that I have always loved the most, always came back to, and always rocked out to is heavy metal, with a music library of 2Tb, about 80% of it is made up of bands like ManOwaR, Iron Maiden, Five Finger Death Punch, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Alestorm, Brujeria, Fintroll and more.
I am also a metal DJ at the university Rock society Nightclub, where I play a great variety of epic metal.
It is not to be edgy, cool, to challenge boundaries or any of that, I enjoy metal, I play metal and I dress metal because this is part of my identity, not as some angsty teen who thinks the world doesn't understand him, but rather, someone who knows who they are, what defines them and how to express that to the world.

For some reason this comes with a great deal of disrespect and unkindness from the general public, who, oftentimes think of us as "scruffy moshers" or "stupid metalheads", but when one considers that the people insulting us as this are the chavs hanging around the bus stations with teen mums for girlfriends, living on welfare with no job prospects, no education and a drug problem to boot (mostly), I must ask, who is calling us scruffy? At the end of the day I never would look down on someone for their lifestyle if they have actually chosen it, rather than submitted to the life they found themselves in, but I won't stand for 3 things:

1: People judging me based on appearance and my music choices
2: People being actively violent towards me
3: The black eyed peas

I think the reason why some people dislike metallers though, has to boil down to a superiority complex that most metallers have.

Some metal fans think their music is superior to anything else, so they bash everything else, and thus become unpopular with their peers.

Im not saying your like that though, just pointing out some of the characteristics of being a metal fan, and having a outsiders point of view.

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

I'm 20 and still obsessed with metal. I mean, it's innately natural for human beings to crave the sonic destruction that only metal can bring..after all, we've all got iron in our blood. \m/

 

[LostAlone]

At that point in time, metal seems like the only thing worth listening to. You're angry and want the world to know it! \m/

I liked anything that was heavy/angry whatever not just metal. Plenty of rap and hip-hop and nowerdays lots of industrial and dark techno and stuff (dubstep is terrible btw )

As with the angry thing... Well I don't know if that ever stopped. Like I said, my inner child is hateful and petulant and proud and although I've squashed it a fair amount, people seem to still up a certain vibe from me. I guess now I'm angry with silence than with noise.

I think that metal has a certain 'outsider' aspect to it, both lyrically and culturally, which makes it appealing as rebellion and such, but once you get past that, if you have a certain hermetic/loner quality then I guess you'll stick with it a lot longer than your peers.

 

[Nannernade]

I wasn't that big into metal music to begin with but I listened to it occasionally bands like Disturbed, Static-X, Shadows Fall etc. But yeah as I've gotten older I've really branched off from metal music and only occasionally listen to some Disturbed.

 

[saintchristopher]

in high school I listened to Metallica. Towards the end I found Tool, and I rode that train all the way into college. Along the way I picked up some of the more interesting bands like Opeth or Pain of Salvation.

Then college happened, I found indie radio stations and started listening to stuff that was "alternative" in like, the 80's. (Basically any older song that Rock Band thinks is cool, I was into)

Nowadays the only really metal band I can get down with is Mastodon. The Sword to a lesser extent, and maybe even a little Priestess from time to time. But yeah I've mellowed out a lot.

 

[Faky]

Started listenening to metal from around when i was 10 years old. Death, Deicide, Sepultura... (i could go on for a whole page).
At around 20 i started with jazz (Meola, Metheny, Lousier,..) but even today when im closing to 33 i still mainly listen to metal. Mostly old record, bacause this new age metal with synth and too much melody just does not sound right to me.

My favorite album by a solid lead is Cynic - Focus, close behind is Death. I like weird stuff in metal so i like Pervertum(angry duck singing), Immortal (early albums are...lol), Burzum... I also rofl all the time listening to death metal when singer goes "wooof woof wooof" and lyrics are so complex you cant even believe that he is singing...

So yeah, i will probable never stop listening to metal, because it is truly an art in my ears. Occasional classic like Vivaldi or Bach and some jazz to have some change in music, but metal is my love.

 

[Karilas]

I've always been partial to a bit of metal [although I've always found Death Metal vocals absolutely HILARIOUS], but I've never been a metal elitist, so no, it hasn't worn thin in the same way for me [then again, most of the metalheads I know rip on me for liking late Metallica].

I've known several die-hard metal fans over the years who've gradually grown out of it like you have though. I think the point of it is that as we mature we [hopefully] become less concerned with what is considered 'cool' in the subcultures we gravitated towards as youths.

 

[duktapeman90]

I've actually myself getting more into metal as time goes on. Not that I've stopped listening to what I was into before, my tastes have just expanded.

 

[Caliostro]

24 soon, and my musical taste hasn't really changed in a few years. Then again I was never a "Metal/this or that genre ONLY!" kinda guy. Always thought that was kinda stupid and narrow minded. I listen to everything and anything I deem good, metal included.

 

[Syntax Error]

Still very much metal. The first time I went to a bar (the "unce unce" type of bar) with my officemates, I was literally bored to tears. There's got to be something wrong with you when your first thought upon entering is "Man, what a waste of a perfectly good sound system!". Anyway, I've loosened up a bit, and I can now listen to those types of music to a fault. But given the chance to listen to that or metal? I'd go metal. All the way.

EDIT:

I think that those of us inclined towards metal move through various distinct phases.

Starts with commercial metal (which in my day was on mtv2, but now is on Kerrang... WTF world ?) because its easily available and gives you a taste of metal. For folks in my generation (born circa 1987) that'd be Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit and such.

Next up you start asking people in some piss poor basement metal club that doesn't check ID what whatever song is, and you get into the mainstream of whatever is generally popular where you are.

Next you find that there is simply not metal for all occasions and you look stuff that although not metal you heard one time and liked just as something to listen to when you're chilling out.

Finally, you're world expands without realising it. You didn't listen to anything really metal for a month and never realised. Thus you are a music fan, rather than a metal fan. Some people forget metal (poor sods). Others don't, but you'll indulge less frequently the older you get.

Personally, I'm 23 and I'm as much of a metal fan as I ever was really, but in a different way. I listen to almost nothing that I did when I was young (barring Metallica... can't get that out of my system... was in a tallica tribute band for most of late teens). I still like the bands (even Linkin Park and Korn) but i just don't listen to them hardly at all.

I don't think that metal is 'just a phase' tho. Just like EVERYTHING music isn't static and you aren't either. As you grow up and become a more rounded person, you aren't going to be so angsty, so its natural to move away from death-screamed music of all forms. If you actually do make it into being a genuinely 'normal' person you probably will forget it.

If you have a metric fuck-ton of emotional baggage from your teenage years, chances are you will keep with metal at least partially. I know that my 14 year old self is only a few levels below the surface, and I can still find that little hard ball of hate and self-loathing if I want to.

Also, I like to sing Fear Factory while driving. Make of that what you will.

I'm pretty much like you. I can remember when I was 14 and thinking that ZOMG LINKIN PARK IS THE BEST EVARRRR!!! I don't know when exactly I diverged and went back in time (Metallica, Megadeth and the like), what I do know is that I really love rock music ever since I was a kid, and Metal is my most favored sub-group at the moment.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Well I'm in my 30's and my tastes have changed.
I started out listening to Guns and Roses for a few weeks when I was about 12 until I heard Sepulturas "Beneath the Remains" and got into Death/Black Metal solidly for the next couple of years. At 14/15 I was listening to Hendrix and the Stones as well. 16-17 was Jungle with a bit of Techno thrown in as well as Hendrix etc but very little metal. 18 I got back into black and death metal a bit but mainly gabba. Then it was gabba/techno etc until about 25 when I also listened to a bit of punk and metal, melodic death metal kind of stuff or early Paradise Lost. 26 onwards I pretty much stopped listening to music but if I do go out it has to be gabba and I do occasionally listen to some of the more tuneful death/black metal for nostalgia value, "that used to be girlfriend x's favouite song" or "that reminds me of the summer when x happened" etc.

 

[Goody]

I've liked metal since I first heard it and it's just been getting heavier all the time, however I reckon I've reached my peak now, anything heavier than what I like now seems too much, and I know I won't stop liking it because half the bands I know are through my dad, who is 49 now and still listens to it almost exclusively.

 

[zehydra]

I've only just started listening to some metal about a year or so ago. When I was little I dismissed the genre as being stupid and didn't listen to it, but I've changed my perspective.

 

[Falseprophet]

I'm on the cusp of 34 and still love metal. But I've always been into a variety of musical genres: I learned classical piano, played in jazz and marching bands, helped write a couple techno tracks, went to goth-industrial clubs and shows, grew up in the grunge era, was into a few female singer-songwriters.

I've also always been into metal scenes and subgenres that really weren't popular where I grew up: prog, power, goth, symphonic. There were a few extreme bands I liked but I never really got into those scenes. I don't have a lot in common with other local metal fans other than some musical tastes. The metal bands I listen to these days are either melodic/symphonic, or bands doing something different from the metal mainstream (Unexpect, Agalloch, Eluveitie, Lux Occulta, Hollenthon, Dir En Grey, Orphaned Land).

 

[Grimbold]

20 here. I have been listening to metal almost exclusively during the last 4 years. Not because of some rebellious attitude. My friends listened to metal only occasionally, if at all. I always wanted to explore some other music like classical, jazz, classic rock and hiphop. So two months ago I threw all metal CDs out of my car and burned some others. The conclusion is that I now listen to metal again because nothing kicks ass like that. I'll keep listening to Bach and mature hiphop, though.

 

[Subzerowings]

I've gone from listening to contemporary metal to listening to lots of Maiden, Priest and Motorhead. And I'm much happier now.

I personally think that is much more intelligent metal music than, rarr, rarr I love canibal corpse, and blind guardian, and some other metal band with a edgy name, like some of the members of this site.

How is Blind Guardian not "intelligent" metal?
What does that even mean?
Is it to make you feel like you're a high-brow music critic?
I suggest you look up "And then there was silence" and learn what real epic metal is.
It's especially brilliant when you read/know of the Aeneis, the Roman epic written by Vergil.

 

[Nayr]

Metal is far from old for me, and metal isn't something edgy or cool for appearances. It's a community, a place for people to belong. While I still love the metal I'm starting to like acoustic versions of metal songs a lot now as well. But I still love only metal and that probably won't change for a long time.