Another one for me would definitely be Stratovarius, the first time i heard them it just blew my mind, they were my introduction to power metal when i was in highschool.

Cryptopsy's Blasphemy Made Flesh, specifically that one moment in Open Face surgery where Lord Worm does that disgustingly long squelch

Quo Vadis, they were the first tech death metal i've ever heard..i was blown away by their sound

(old) Tristania - the first REAL gothic metal I heard, what a blast I had.

Therion - for some reason I ignored them even being a fan of symphonic metal but after a while, listened to a couple of their albums and immediatly started raising money to buy most of their releases and I still can't get them all haha, so much good stuff here!

UneXpect - the first avant-garde band that I immediatly fell in love with. After just half of a song from by I was looking for places to buy their music (self-releasing is indeed a bad thing for Latin American fans that love band from the other edge of the world).


Most of the bands that I nowadays listen to kind of grew on me after a few listens, but these three ones were totally different. This was literally my expression at YouTube back then; .

Tempestuous Fall was the first band that came to my mind that sounded really amazing to me on the first listen, absolutely phenomenal. I even wrote about them (you can hear a track here as well): http://www.nocleansinging.com/2012/11/2 ... -and-more/.

Anaal Nathrakh. Probably the song Virus Bomb or Der Hölle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen. I was feeling a bit tired and jaded with the whole music thing and then along came this band that combined all the bits I loved the most.

High Spirits, with the Another Night album. It's fairly upbeat heavy metal, but it's just done so well. Everything about it just fits perfectly, and it's catchy as all hell.

Pagan Altar with "Black Mass". Wife and I were driving home on a snowy winter day after dropping a friend off and I had the local college station on. They're playing all this great lo fi garage rock when suddenly this blast of lo-fi evil just comes rumbling out of our speakers. That weird, high voice chanting "This is the age, the age of Satan" was just awesome and I needed to know who it was. Got home, looked up the station's playlist, and had a new favorite band within minutes.

Carach Angren. First thing I head was their new one, Where the Corpses Sink Forever, then I went back and listened to some of their older stuff on spotify. I thought they were amazing from about 4 minutes in, and still do.

i've had a few of these in my day...

noisear - pyroclastic annihilation (the whole album): i was real stoned one night and browsing the internet. read a cool little blurb about noisear and decided to download that ablum (don't berate me til you read the rest of the story). i distinctly remember hearing the first four tracks and being absolutely blown the fuck away. i was so taken by the album that before i even finished listening to the whole thing i had purchased it, and given that pyroclastic annihilation is something like 30 minutes long i think that's saying something.

cryptopsy - benedictine convulsions: i remember being like 15 being in the car with my parents the first time i really sat down and listened to none so vile. when the fast part near the end of the song began, it got me so hyped up i wanted to punch a hole in my car window. from that moment on cryptopsy have been one of my absolute favorite death metal bands.

Still love that song even though the band went to shit... My buddy used to have that scream (which was over a minute long) as his answering machine message, he would never answer his phone so people were stuck listening to it haha

Alice in Chains and Type O Negative. These two bands are just so original, honest and inspiring.

Soulfly - Eye for an Eye
Opeth - Ghost of Perdition (great start to an album!)
TYR - Hail to the Hammer
Machine Head - Bulldozer

Maybe not half-way through the first song, but here are some albums that I can think of that has been some of my favorites after just a few songs into the first play.

Agalloch - The Mantle
Benighted - Asylum Cave
Coldworld - Melancholie²
Gorod - Leading Vision
Tengger Cavalry - Cavalry Folk
Vektor - Black Future
Vital Remains - Let Us Pray

I know most of those moments were early on in metal, but I'm trying to think exactly of what. Like I Know Master of Puppets blew my mind with battery when I first heard it, but I initially didn't like Metallica much until I came around and bought the black album.

Lets see, I know when I first heard Acid Bath it was Venus Blue, and I was floored by how something could simultaneously both so beautiful and dark. I know my friend gave me a mix with Dio on it and while I didn't care much for Holy Diver, The Last in Line, which was right after it, floored me. I know when I heard Number of the Beast on THPS4 I was absolutely in love as soon as that cream kicked in. Anthrax was amazing because they were the first thrash metal band I'd heard with a fantastic vocalist (Joey Belladonna). I still cry a little from how fantastic The Sane Asylum is. Exciter and Beyond the Realms of Death from Stained Class, which was my first Priest album. Ensiferum and Epica, both with the way they used symphonic, but how the former added it to a very aggressive metal, and the latter used it to accentuate a more melodic style. Basically, I spent my first year falling in love with all the different sounds of metal, and while I still love it when I hear great new metal, there was really nothing like that initial year, when you're used to radio crap, and it's all new to you. At least in my experience.

Cradle of Filth's Dusk and her Embrace was the album that first got me into metal. Other albums that blew me away were Amon Amarth - With Oden on Our Side, Arch Enemy - Rise of the Tyrant, Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath, Ulver - Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr I 5 Capitler, and pretty much everything by Summoning. All of these bands/albums are still my favorite and I always wish there could be a way I could listen to them for the first time again, its just not the same.

First real metal album I bought (was into Cradle of f at the time), Burzums Det Som Engang Var. Priceless album. Into black metal ever since

Oh that is special to get into a Metal band with a classical guitar song but that is a masterpiece anyway

Gorguts, Deathspell Omega, and Baring Teeth. Nobody else is capable.

Quite a few to be honest:
''Ukraine'' from Nokturnal Mortum completely blew me away. All their stuff is amazing, if you are able to avoid being a pussy because of their ideals.
Equilibrium got me into Heathen metal and all that, at that time it was the most amazing thing ever, after that Moonsorrow was the next band that stunned me.

But the most amazing thing I have ever heard is most likely ''Ruins of Beverast'' if you could even call his work a band. All three albums are disturbingly good.

The first band to amaze me was Helloween but that was a long time ago.

I`d also mention ANNIHILATOR but for me that was the Never Neverland record and especially "The Fun Palace" when the solo kicked in and the technical touch of "Imperiled Eyes" plus the stunning rhythums of "Phantasmagoria" !

Which album did you first hear, or do you even remember?

Lazarus A.D.-The onslaught
The Absence-from your grave
Amon Amarth-With Oden on our side
Candlemass- Tales of Creation and Death Magic Doom
Entombed- Clandestine
At the Gates-Slaughter of the souls
The Haunted- debut album
Nevermore- Dead heart in a dead world
Sanctuary-Refuge denied

The first time I heard Metallica's Kill Em All I thought the album was on the wrong speed. I had previously heard one song by them on a compilation record, but that was nothing compared to the record. For the time this was really fast. I remember having to call friend over to hear it because it was the fastest thing I had heard up to that point. Previous to that I believe the fastest music my friends and I had ever heard was Motorhead. I was completely floored the first time I heard this album.