How do you listen to your metal?
Do you choose a band at a time to listen to?
Listen to albums in chronological order?
Genre by Genre?
Always have the random setting on?

The reason why I ask this is because I have decided from today Nov 8 to listen to my entire music library in alphabetical order. Just for something different. I mentioned this in the FFA and got a few responses and it made me wonder; How do others listen to their music/metal and why? And if anyone else has every tried this. I plan to make it to the end but I wonder how long it will be before I am desperate to hear bands at the other end of the alphabet...
Normally I would choose a band depending on my feelings/mood and listen to an album by them from start to finish. I much more prefer listening to albums in their entirety that jumping around all over the place, although I sometimes turn on the random setting but I end up getting too much filler .

For the record: today was Adagio (Fra) day. Tomorrow will probably consist of Agalloch and Akercocke.

It depends mainly on my mood. Usually I find myself listening to Progressive Metal and Death Metal but I listen to Power and Thrash at times.

As for bands I listen to often: Megadeth and Symphony X.

I always have to listen to an album all the way through. I hate skipping if I can help it especially if I bought it. I like to listen on my iPod outdoors.

Often I'll go through my list of bands, I have full, complete band discographies on my computer, and so I'll look for a band I want to listen to, click on it, choose an album I want to listen to, start the album at song #1 and let it go through the entire album. After it's done, I'll repeat the process. Fairly simple, yet effective, and with 17,000 songs, anything I want to listen to is usually available.

I do that too, I always listen to the complete album.

Ah. I see. I was thinking that I may had seen a thread like this but I was too lazy to search. Oh well...

There's more than one.

I just look at my cd collection and pop in whatever album I feel like listening to at the moment.

I go through phases where I listen to pretty much only one genre for 1-3 months.

Recently (like a month ago) I went from a grind phase to a black metal phase....

As for what I select, Usually when I am in one of my phases I'll have somwhere between 20-30 records that I rotate between (the 20-30 I select when I first start getting into the phase, and obviously the new stuff I purchase, which is almost 100% dependant on the phase I am currently in)...

I am more stuck on TRADITIONAL HEAVY Metal so I'm constantly playing Maiden, Sabbath, Priest, Motorhead, Scorpions, and I know the world has moved on since then but I just play the other sub-genred stuff and newer bands in between.

i'm going to go deeper into the question...


my listening behavior is perhaps strange.
At work i will maybe hum a riff or a solo-so i will write that album down, and i might listen to it that night when i get home... but maybe, maybe i will write it down, and then write the next album down... and then the next! and so forth.
Then i will notice i have a small section of the bands discography and i will know i won't have the time that week to listen to them all, so i make a music calender (by the way, i won't listen to two albums by the same band in one day).
I will make a box for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc and write in which albums i will play that day, for example... this week is BloodBath's discography backwards starting Sunday with The Fathomless Mastery. I will often make side notes of bands/albums i will also probably play, an extra example of that is next week i plan on playing early Kataklysm & Demolition Hammer.

However these more or less are "definite" plays...everything else is based on current mood. So in a week i will have "band kicks" where i will play 3 or more albums from specific bands-the rest is "whatever" unless there are albums i HAVE to play because i can't get them out of my mind.

...i also keep a manual log of EVERYDAY since Feb 21st 2000 of what i have played. ...so...sometimes i will go back in the log and play something i played that day 4 years ago. (what's your birthday!? i can tell you what i played that day HAHA!!!!)

there is more i could go into here, but i'm sure most of you don't give a 3rd of a fuck. ...but i thought it would be fun to answer his questions in a way others haven't haha!

Wow. Makes listening to whatever album (always an album, never random) I'm in the mood for just seem so haphazard.

I alwyas listen to it mostly in my car, rarely in the house, i always choose either on mood or just something i enjoy more than others, and i always listen form no.1 tillt he end of the album and maybe reapet the album again or put another in, my 140 collection is in alphanumerical order in the cd case, lol

i usually only listen to thrash and some grind in my car, and i save my black and doom for home listening with big headphones in the dark usually

I listen to mainly 80's heavy metal, thrash, punk, and early death metal. I can listen to some doom/sludge/stoner stuff, but only if I'm in the mood.

What I've found is that I'll often listen to an album in it's entirety, then go into some random spasm of music. I don't really do anything in particular. I just look through my library until I see something that I feel like listening to at that moment.

Sounds awesome! What have you played on the 17 October, this year? it was my birthday back then!

I do give a fuck, please tell me more! (not kidding dude )
I usually listen to any random songs that pop up into my head, mostly full albums of anything I want to hear, aslong i've got time for it.

I usually listen to entire albums, too.

As for what album I choose to listen to, that really depends on my mood. Sometimes Painkiller is just what I need, other times it's Transilvanian Hunger, sometimes it's Rust in Peace, other times it's Altars of Madness, depending on how I'm feeling and what I'm doing.

Friday Oct 17th 2008:
Drawn and Quatered-Hail Infernal Darkness (that was the band of that week that i played all the albums by)
Kreator-Pleasure to Kill
Pestilence-Consuming Impulse
Winter-Into Darkness
Viscera Infest-Sarcoidosis

i can tell you what i played the previous years too if you want HAHA

as far as telling even more; if someone in a band i like has a birthday i will play one of their albums (Johan Whalin & Johan Jansson had a birthday yesterday so i played Repugnant and Demonical!). Sometimes i have "Sweden Week" where i play loads of albums from Swedish bands only. Most Fridays i call "Classic Friday" which, of course are personal favorites usually. On weekends i play longer albums such as demo compilations and live albums or just longer albums in general.

I also base what i listen to during the week on my job, a half hour to 40 minute album on the way to work, one album about the same length for me 10 minute break and then my half hour lunch-and then a final album of any length for my last break-the ride home and then whatever might be left.

should i go on or is this enough for you to say "shut up" HAHA!

God damn, and I thought I planned things meticulously. That deserves a round of fucking applause.

no way, I wish I have the will to track down by hand all my playings. sometimes I read your playlist bulletins to choose what to listen ahaha

I tend to go through these phases where I'll be stuck on one particular genre, usually for no real reason. I mostly listen to stuff either on my computer (either by CD rip or playing the CD itself depending on whether I listen to it regularly enough to have it on my comp. all the time, I still haven't gotten an I-pod or MP3 player yet) With the exceptions of metalcore, deathcore and brutal death who only have maybe 2 or 3 bands I like in each respectively, these phases can last for a couple of weeks.

My last week of listening was heavily black metal loaded, here are some of the albums I've listened to:

A Blaze In The Northern Sky
Under A Funeral Moon
Panzerfaust
Total Death
Tusen År Har Gått
Return Fire
Bathory s/t
Under The Sign Of The Black Mark
Ordo Ad Chao
In the Nightside Eclipse
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Those of the Unlight
Nightwing
Drawing Down the Moon
Filosofem
Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Pentagram
Antichrist

I'm planning on reviewing some of these so that people can better understand the changes I made to my profile recently.

OH, ....who are you on my myspace friends list!?!?!

I manage the nirvana 2002 page

ah ok! that's cool!!!


yah-everyone, i ALSO make a weekly playlist blog on myspace hahaha...
i'm fucking helpless!

To answer the question directly:

How do you listen to your metal? -- On my iPod or at home on my laptop. Nothing special. I don't listen to it through speakers though, only earphones. I don't really know why...

Do you choose a band at a time to listen to? -- If I have a long list of new bands in my iTunes library I will normally listen to them alphabetically or in order of which I'm most curious about (like ... critically acclaimed bands)

Listen to albums in chronological order? -- Definitely. I choose to hear the progression that the band has gone through throughout the years.

Genre by Genre? -- I listen to a lot of heavy metal subgenres and if I have a lot of unlistened bands I normally prefer listening to brutal death metal or technical death metal first.

Always have the random setting on? Yep, when I've already listened to the song. I make a playlist of all my favourite songs and I randomise from there on.

My thanks, I've been going to the page pretty frequently and I love all the songs on there. I'm not on the friendlist yet but I'm planning on sending a request right now.

When I'm on the computer listening to music, my Itunes is always on shuffle. But, I get into a bad habit of continuously skipping through songs until it comes to a really good song. Sometimes I try to just leave it and not skip any songs at all. This can be rewarding because a song might come up which you haven't heard for a while, and after hearing it reminds you of how good it really is. On the other hand, when I listen to my ipod it is always a specific album and I listen to it in order.

For me, it depends on the mood I am in. I usually just randomly grab a bunch of CDs at a time to listen to. Sometimes it's by genre, sometimes by band, sometimes it's just stuff I haven't heard for awhile or just want to hear again.

My iPod cannot have songs with no albums. Everything in my iPod has an album. I don't download songs, people send me but I don't like them on my iPod.

Yeah, I really only listen to albums. A lot of my friends go by songs, but really, I can't do it any way other than listening to the whole album. It makes the music more cohesive and complete.

As for any other patterns...nope, just whatever I'm in the mood for at the time.

YES! I do this sometimes as well! Quite occasionally! And I think I'll start keeping a log as well...

Always a complete album; or at least, I always start from the beginning of an album, I don't always have time to finish 'em.

I'm usually pretty varied. Doom, death, prog, thrash, power, a little black, and all genre blends (progressive power thrash or what not).
Occasionally, though, I will go on a kick with a certain band and listen to only that for a week or more at a time. This commonly happens with Megadeth, Katatonia, Opeth, Anathema, and some others -Usually when said band releases a new album I find myself revisiting their back catalogue intensively.

Using itunes I've got smart playlists that are indirectly tailored for my mood, eg. if bored I'll listen to unplayed tracks; if feeling strongly in some way or after heightened socialising (ie more than a 20 second exchange) I'll stick on the comfort zone of Most Played, and if I'm especially happy or slightly intoxicated I'll play some top rated. Certain tracks bring to mind others and if such tune/lyric association occurs I'll have the next song in mind for when the trigger track finishes (I hate skipping over songs). It's all very predictable.

I just listen to whatever I'm in the mood for. I hardly ever (and I mean hardly) listen to music on random, as I need to hear the whole album.

Anyway, it doesn't matter...the16th6toothson will win this thread.

that's only because i'm probably legally insane

Same here. My player must be loaded with full lengths. I'm old school that way. The only trims I make are bonus songs that I don't care for on any albums I add.

No, you're not. That's very cool, logging the albums you listen to. I'd do that, but I really couldn't be fucked. I think doing that will show you what albums get regular play time and what others you hardly hear, so that way you can go back and say, "whoa, I've not listened to X album in over a year!".

What did you listen to on my birthday, March 28?

this year would be:

At the Gates-Terminal Spirit Disease
DismembeR-Indecent & Obscene
Morgue-BoneCrunch
Mortician-Hacked up for Barbecue
StormRider-Lucifer Rising
The Day Everything Became Nothing-Invention: Destruction

the band of the week was DismembeR... and i was obviously in a "brutal" mood besides the Swedish stuff!!!


let's go extra nerdy and track down March 28th 2007...

Decapitated-The Negation
Dies Irae-The Sin War
Incantation-Upon the Throne of Apocalypse
Mausoleum-Cadaveric Displays of Ghoulish Ghastliness
Merciless-The Awakening

Decapitated, Dies Irae & Incantation were the bands of the week