Surely you didn't just start with Cryptopsy or something. What were the albums that maybe seemed too extreme or too noisy or just shitty at first but you eventually liked?

When I first heard Gorguts' Obscura I thought it was all over the place, now it's one of my favorites.

It took me a few tries to get into Manilla Road, but about a month ago I just spun all the material I own from them from Voyager to The Deluge and I buried the hatched with Shelton's vocals. Mid-era Helloween actually has soaked in to me as well I enjoy their blend of heavier riffs and pop sensibilities and I've actually grown to enjoy Master of the Rings and Better than raw. The biggest one for practically all of my entirety was definitely Burzum, when I first heard Feeble Screams and My journey through the stars I laughed at how "terrible" Vars's vocals were and how off the drumming was. But after hearing Filosofem and Det som Engang var I buried the hatchet with his music, and even enjoyed the droning and dark aspect of those two albums.

I had a fairly dramatic evolution into my tastes of today. With death metal I can recall absolutely hating Cryptopsy on a first listen. At the time the heaviest thing I listened to was probably Slipknot. I was a kid, after all. Over the years I got into the more melodic death metal stuff and eventually got landed with None So Vile being one of my absolute favorite albums.

I got into black metal with Emperor, and at first I really didn't like it because I felt the vocals were far too quiet. I got a taste of Anaal Nathrakh and literally had to turn my speakers off. I thought it was horrendous. But one thing lead to another over the years and I've grown into them.

Everything from the vocals to the instrumentation used to throw me for a loop when it came to the more intense genres of metal music. I used to think blast beats sounded like a bunch of flailing shit and I hated them at first. But overtime, like with most things in metal, they grew on me.

I never really had a problem with intense instruments, but intense vocals took a couple years to assimilate. Even after accepting death metal, I thought I hated all black metal, and even used that as a kind of excuse for liking death growls. "...I love death growls but those black metal shrieks are just too high pitched and abrasive for me..." Eventually, I came to understand how black metal's abrasive vocals fit into the musical aesthetic. Now I love Dissection, Horna, Sargeist, Melechesh, and myriad other black metal.

Speaking of vocals, took me a while to get used to the vocals of Pagan Altar. Not the most challenging thing I ever got into, but it deserves as honorary mention. One of my favourite singers now.

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten.

I don't know what it was, but I couldn't parse the notes from one another for the longest time with this album. Not to mention I thought the drumming was off-time (even now, those double-bass triplets on Infecting the Crypts still sound out of tempo). The album just sounded like an absolute mess to me. However, the compelling rhythms and the unanimous praise the album gets kept me spinning it; eventually I cracked it and now Effigy is definitely in my top 15 favorite albums.

Didnt like Dark Funeral at first, thought it was too loud. Immolation sounded too sloppy(doesnt really follow a pattern like, say Deicide)

I first got into metal via Metallica's Black Album, and when I bought Kill Em All shortly afterwards I hated it (the sound more than the actual music). It took a dozen listens to really start to like it, though eventually it was my favorite Metallica album for a while. I also didn't like growling vocals generally for a long time, so early on I stuck with bands like Megadeth, Metallica, Corrosion of Conformity, Black Sabbath, etc. It wasn't until about 6 years ago that I really started branching out and getting into more stuff. Albums like Mastodon's Leviathan helped the process with their sort of half-singing/half-growling at times. Stuff I like now, like Carach Angren's new album, or ea, I would have never even listened to only a half dozen years ago. It's sort of sad how much good music my closed-mindedness kept me from hearing.

I actually still don't see what the big deal about Opeth is. I still don't like Neurosis or Mastodon. I still think the vocals for cynic are trash except thanks to cynic spawning the exivious band which I adore, I feel possibly like rediscovering cynic through more tries.

All of these bands I feel like I could definitely give another shot but just don't feel any connection to them. Opeth on the other hand; I dunno if i'll ever like them.

As for cryptopsy, I remember when I first listened to them thinking: so why are these guys popular? I grew to love them though.

I think you're missing the point of the thread.

No, I do see the point. I just wrote something different. I figure it's not much of a deviation as it is a contribution. Honestly, I can't remember the last "challenging" thing I got into.

I feel it relates to the topic.

Technically i'm getting into them and it is challenging.

When I first heard Devourment's "Babykiller" I was intrigued, but mostly turned off by the absurd vocals and trashy production job. It took me a year or two to actually begin liking it. On the subject of slam, although most people will say it's simply really shitty, it took me a very long while to appreciate Waking the Cadaver's Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler, though I wouldn't say it's a challenging listen for me nowadays. And Portal and Ulcerate were two other bands that took me a while to get into.

None of those are likely to be the most challenging thing I'm into, though. Noism's mix of tech-death and speedcore and Khanate's impossibly minimalistic performance on Things Viral are probably objectively closer to fitting that description, but I got into both with little effort whatsoever.

@metaldiscussor886662384, If you don't have anything interesting or pertinent to contribute to the SUBJECT, don't post.

I had a hard time getting into Darkspace, it was honestly one of the first music to seriously give me the creeps, it was so dense I had to pause the music, fyi I was laying in my bed at night. I tried again recently because I knew they were a band for me and I'll see them in November and it worked. The debut is amazing and the samples are a huge part of their sound, very well done. Can't wait to see them live.

As far as extreme music goes, I always took my time to dwelve into the genres, at first I checked the obvious big bands and then I went deeper and deeper, so it wasn't quite challenging, because it's a long term relation.

When I first heard Morbid Visions by Sepultura, I really did not care for it. I really liked the groove metal of Chaos A.D. and Roots that I had discovered first and Morbid Visions was such a departure from that it was difficult for me for awhile. I had never heard anything so raw before. Of course now Morbid Visions is my favorite Sepultura album and the other two are nowhere close.

Once I got into it, it was pretty easy to get into death and black metal from there.

While it may not be the most challenging album out there, it took me a long time to get into Fates Warning's 'Awaken the Guardian'. John Arch was just too much for me when I first heard him. Years later, I revisited this album, and suddenly I understood it. It's been just about my favorite album ever since.

Opeth was my gateway to extreme music. The vocals took me a while to get past, but once I was able to accept them, and then enjoy them, it opened up a whole new world for me.

Manilla Road also didn't quite sit right with me at first. I thought they were pretty good, just not... that good. Yet I couldn't stop listening to 'Crystal Logic'. Before too long, it embedded itself into my brain, and I've loved the band ever since.

Noise as a whole. It started out as listening to Merzbow albums in an attempt to "understand" it and somehow I ended up loving it in the process.

That's a genre I definitely can't get into right now. My girlfriend bought me a record by Wold, Freemasonry, which I thought I might like because it was on Profound Lore Records and I like trying out new things. Nope. Just static and random (to me at least) noise. I turned it off pretty quickly. I tried it again later and it still didn't click. I gave it to my brother who has a friend that is into noise. Hopefully he'll enjoy that record more than I did.

Emperor - Prometheus: The Disclipine of Fire and Demise was a difficult record for me to get into. I was just getting into black metal after being into death metal for a couple years. I still couldn't get into the majority of the second wave of black metal (Mayhem, Darkthrone, etc) but decided to give Emperor a shot. That album was just a dense taprestry of sound to me that I could not penetrate it. I loved the opening to the Eruption but the rest of the material was pretty arcane.

It wasn't until later that I listened to it again and realized the utter brilliance of that album. If a baroque era composer was alive today and into metal, I'm sure they would have composed Prometheus. Now I enjoy the entirety of Emperor's discography and enjoy more of black metal as a whole.

Dude, seriously, what the fuck?

Lucky bastard.

I heard Anaal Nathrakh and thought it was just noise. Mind you I was at that time also into death metal and black metal, also the more extreme bands of those genres, but in my ears Anaal Nathrakh was terrible. But I started liking the more melodic parts with clean vocals, and their melodies started appealing more to me. It was probably that element that motivated me to listen to it until I started liking the grindy, noisy parts. Nowadays I've grown to relish the aggression and chaotic soundscape they produce.

i remember as a kid pantera was too heavy for me... now i like listening to portal

it's been a gradual process

'Challenging' would definitely be a suitable word for me when it comes to most all grind metal. I've slowly come around to a few bands like Napalm Death and a few of from the Spanish scene but as a whole I just find it hard to get.

I hated Cryptopsy at first too.

Well, non-metal, either noise or drone, the minimalism of both genres is definitely a large barrier, you have to just pick up the layering of the process, and once you "get it" (I fucking hate when people say stuff like that) it's very addictive and a ton of fun. I just recommend making it first, then listening.

In terms of metal, it took me a long time to get into harsh black metal. Anything that wasn't produced really irked me, and I couldn't stand the one string riffing at first, I liked the bombast of Emperor and Dimmu too much but eventually, you learn to look for the small details within the songs the beauty within the ugliness comes out and really hits you in the face. Lovely, lovely. It was Sargeist that first got me into "bad production".

King's vocals. I couldn't listen King or Mercyful Fate for him, now it's a different story. I've never felt a problem with the vocals of extreme metal and only felt intimidated enough with Incantation's Onward to Golgotha the very same year of its release. I liked it, but I feared it at the same time.

I'm gonna distinguish between 1) "challenging" and 2) "music that has a particular trait or set of traits that turns you off" that takes time to grow on you.

Honestly, most metal and associated music genres are not that challenging to the listener. Maybe compared to top 40 pop music but not in the grand scheme of things.

1) would be certain types of 20th century classical music...this is something that's been ongoing for me for several years. I have to be in the right mood for it and even things I've purchased in the last year like a Ligeti box set I'm still working on "digesting".

2) would be any band with a vocalist that sounds "annoying" to my ears at first listen. This is why albums like Peace Sells and De Mysteriis have taken time to grow on me.

Definitely Nile - 'Black Seeds of Vengeance'. At least with Cryptopsy while the music was more extreme than what I was used to, Mike Disalvo's vocals were appealing because at the time I was still really into metalcore/hardcore and getting into some melodic death. But with that Nile album I just never heard anything like it.

"grind metal"

I saw them (and listened to their music for the first time) live at Hellfest this last year and they were intimidating! REALLY thick wall of sound!
My brother told me to go outside the tent and, while we were outside, laying on the grass, I just woke up and told him the guitars were REALLY interesting and we went back inside!
I think you'll enjoy the show!

On the matter of the thread, maybe The Cure? I had this prejudice thinking they were really popy and uninsteresting band but... Man, was I wrong!

not a band in particular, but it took me years to get into grindcore. not sure why, I could handle extremely lo-fi black metal, and boring, abrasive, long as fuck funeral/drone doom, but grind still felt too harsh to my sensitive little ears. I like grind a whole fucking lot nowadays though

It's taken me ages to get into Blut Aus Nord, and I'm still not entirely committed to liking them - hopefully, it'll improve, because behind being a bit unaccessible, I've enjoyed what I've heard.

Death metal as a whole isn't considered challenging by many, but on a personal level, it's been one of the biggest challenges of my journey through metal's subgenres.

Voivod's "Rrröööaaarrr", "Killing Technology" and later "Dimension Hatröss" were to me the most difficult records to get into (in fact, took me like a year or two to get into "Rrröööaaarrr", i think i liked "War And Pain" so much). None of them i liked first but now are my favorites Voivod records.

Also any post-"Dawn Of Possession" Immolation album.

Deathspell Omega and Sigur Ros for sure. My first encounter with both of them was something like "wtf is this...its horrible", but now, my answer to a question "your favorite artist/band?" would be: DsO and Sigur Ros

Well maybe not exactly what the op wants as I have no specific bands but believe it or not, It took me at least a few years for thrash as a whole to open up to me. When I first got into metal it was basically 80's speed metal/power with it's tons of melody. In hindsight, thrash just seemed one dimensional to what I was listening to at the time. Luckily listening to power/thrash like Vendetta, Helstar, or basically bands from the uspm movement in general gradually paved the way to thrash proper. Now the riffs just call to me. And really, these days I listen to more thrash than anything else. Especially tech-thrash.

Non-metal would have to be the music of Alexander Scriabin. Not necessarily his early material - there is enough Chopinesque Romanticism in that stuff to make it very overtly beautiful. But his later stuff is extremely challenging to listen to, understand and fully enjoy. It took me years of intense listening to really "get" Scriabin and enjoy his work. Now he is, bar none, one of my favorite composers of all time.

Metal-wise, I guess Abruptum.

It took quite a while before I could bear listening to Lee Dorrian's singing. I always loved Cathedral's music but the vocals just annoyed the fuck out of me. They still sort of do but now I've listened to them enough to become desensitized. Other than that, I find it amusing that when I first saw Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura, I thought, "How could anyone enjoy this." and now I love death metal. Still don't like Cannibal Corpse though...

The two more challanging bands I've gotten into were the allready mentioned Anaal Nathrakh. I heard them on youtube and thought they are interesting, but not something I would like to listen to actively (at that time I was allready liking a lot of extreme metal acts, so that didn't play a role), but I listened to a song from them every week or so. It took a while but after that I started really enjoying those vocals and the brutal sounds they are able to produce.

The second one is Sunn o))) . For a long time I've considered them as "the one band I will probably never be able to enjoy" but something kept pulling me towards them, same as AN. One day I decided to listen to Monoliths & Dimensions, becouse I loved the artwork and I am glad I did so. I still consider their other albums a bit off putting, but they are kind of growing on me, so that's that.

Edit: also at the time I didn't listen to black metal yet I considered Burzum the most "wtf did I just listen to" bands, but now I really enjoy his music

Gorguts' Obscura. It took a lot of building up my resistance before I could listen to the album in full. Now I love this album, it seems every time I listen to it I discover new textures and nuances that I'd missed on previous listens.

Any of Voivod's progressive albums took several listens before I could fully appreciate and enjoy them. Not casual music by any stretch.

I've tried to get into Noise for years but I can't get into it. I like the concept, I've even seen a couple of Noise artists live and "liked" it. But as something I'll happily queue up in my CD or MP3 player, it's not something I'll ever do.

For me it's definitely Meshuggah, hell I still have problems listening to them from time to time.

When I first started listening to metal I was attracted to the obvious things - hooks, melodies, grooves - the straightforward things. After a while, as I learned more about music, there was a novelty value to complex things - odd times, crazy solos, ultra-percussive sounds, polyrhythms - similar to the simple novelty of most things, like high definition televisions, simply having someone there to gawk at how different it is. As that novelty wore out, and trying to find the fastest/flashiest guitar solos or the lowest tuned chugging or the thickest production, I came back around to looking for different things in music - not so much novelties as the parts that come together as a whole so there isn't an overwhelming distraction of novelty, rather an integration of interesting elements into the music. This goes back to a lot of bands that are very simple on the surface, and just do what they do well, putting together music that has a strong feeling and vibe to it. A few bands that it took me many years and listens to get into:

Aakon Keetreh - Simple, poorly recorded music, not a lot going on. One of the pieces that really helped me understand that the complete sound of the music and the atmosphere, feeling, and mood that it carries are a lot more important than the performances themselves. Listening to it in the background and taking it in is much better than analyzing every piece that plays. He does so much with very little - not tons of stuff going on in the music, very little in terms of equipment, but it sounds so great.

Hatebreed - Monotonous shouting, lots of chugging, and the songs rarely get much past three minutes. It's easy to name a thousand things that you like that they don't do, things that they could do differently, but they have carved out their nice and do it well. Two minute bursts of energy, simple hooks, rinse and repeat - that's what I didn't like about them at first because they're not doing anything new our outstanding or flashy - that's also what I like about them, they're one of the best at what they do. Listening to their self-titled album in 2009 is what really made me think differently about the band. It's simple, everything is a simple, catchy, groovy part, and it fits together. I never thought it would be possible to be so emotive and catchy while shouting in a monotone.

It also took me a while to get into John Arch-era Fates Warning, but I went many years without hearing it. It didn't really register when I was 15 or so, and when I listened to it again many years later, I loved it. I liked No Exit when I was young, but wasn't a fan of anything before or after it. I now regard John Arch as some sort of deity.