Here is one that isn't metal:
I STILL haven't gotten around to looking into Queen, specifically because of bohemian rhapsody. I know i'm probably missing out big time.

You owe it to yourself to listen to A Night at the Opera, if only because they put Bohemian Rhapsody as one of the last songs on the album.

I avoided the Norwegian band She Said Destroy for a bit, just because of their band name. Turns out they were pretty awesome and unique, in spite of what I thought before giving them a chance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW4Q4bTOb7Y

I second Destroyer 666, for a few years i throught the name was ridiculous, then listened to "Unchain The Wolves" and i was blown away... now is one of my favorite bands, and had a hell of a good time when i saw them live in 2016.

Didn't really put any atention to Tribulation's "The Horror" at first because i used to see them as just another boring retro-Death Metal copycat. Then came "The Formulas Of Death" and i became a huge fan of that album (still my favorite work by them), so i revisited "The Horror" and holy crap, that album also blew my mind. Now i have both CDs and i play the shit out of them every month.

I never dared to check Katharsis because i throught that they were another pretentious DSO-type black metal band. A few weeks ago i listened "VVorld VVithout End" (still a silly name) and damn, i was soooo wrong. Absolutely mental stuff, like a Black Metal version of Vomitor.

Cannibal Corpse. Really the rapey over the top misogyny of some of the lyrics turned me off for a long time, and they still do to a degree. But dang is the music good. Though I do like the later stuff more than the earlier though I"m not sure its because they toned down the overt rape stuff slightly, its more due to O'Brien and the lineup later on. And SR&S is still a crushing tune.

Funny you mention them. I while ago I avoided Tomb of the Mutilated alone for that reason. After a few full listens, I loved it. And my biggest surprise is actually "Necropedophile" ending up being one of my favorite tracks on there.

Immortal, for the obvious reasons.

Growing up, I firmly believed that The Rolling Stones were overrated hacks playing lame disco rock. Then I discovered that during the first 15-20 years or so of their existence, they were total blues devotees (and bad mofos to boot). Now they are easily my favourite rock band, and I've got most of their output on wax.

The first time I heard Danzig (full disclosure - it was Danzig III) I nearly threw it out the window of my hyundai. I had grown up on The Misfits and was expecting something at least vaguely similar, and I was horrified by the earnest plodding of 'Godless'. As a 17 year-old who worshipped at the altar of punk and thrash, I flat-out didn't get it. About 12 months later, Danzig was my favourite band.

You're never too old to be set in your ways. Discovering and appreciating music is a lifelong journey. I'm about to turn 34, and there's stuff I've heard for the first time this year that I know will be in my rotation until the day I die. For instance, less than 12 months ago I had never heard Marty Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads...

The only cases I can remember of me avoiding a band for a stupid reason was because of the popularity. Extremely popular and overhyped bands, or their fans really, have had this effect on me for a long time. Now I tend to avoid letting judgements stop me from listening to a band.

The biggest example of a popular band that I avoided for quite some time is Black Sabbath. I didn't have a very good opinion of Ozzy, especially considering his stupid family show he had when I was in high school, and I didn't like how dad rocks lovers talked about Black Sabbath. I always assumed they were just one of these hard rock bands. When I finaly listened to the music, I truly fell in love with Master of Reality, and eventually grew to really love the rest of the first four records.



You mean the line-up? How was the line-up problematic on these records?

Mine would be Judas Priest and the story goes as follows: back in 1988 I was a huge Iron Maiden fan (I still am, but Maiden was THE band for me). A classmate had all the Judas Priest vinyls and he was like "well, you gotta listen to Judas, you know? You are going to love it!"So I went to his place and he put the <i>Rocka Rolla</a> album, and I was like "What's this hippie stuff, this is awful!" and didn't want to listen more of that. And since "South of Heaven" had just been released, I encouraged him to put the new Slayer album on and "we would have time for Judas later some other day".

Fast-forward two years later; I found a JP track on a compilation and it happened to be "You've Got Another Thing Coming" and I said to myself "Let's give them another chance". FAIL! I was like "well, this sure sounds like pop metal to me, All the leather and studs for this? FUCK YOU!".

Then <i>Painkiller</i> happened. I saw the cover artwork and all the colored full-page ads on RIP and Metal Hammer back in the day. And I was like "Well, this cover looks like a GWAR cover, so fuck them!" Did not even bother. Couldn't care less.

Years passed. Everybody was like "you haven't heard <i>Painkiller</i>? What's wrong with you?"So I tried the title track... and didn't work for me.

It would not be untill the 2000's when I first listened to the mighty "Exciter". How could I had been so wrong?

Still a huge Maiden fan, though

I was going to say CC too. For years I knew their album art but didn't realise they were so good.

I think it's good they toned down the rapey stuff on The Bleeding and then almost totally when Barnes left, mainly because Tomb of the Mutilated does the most extreme themes so perfectly it's not worth trying to top it. I almost feel like going a bit pseudy sometimes about how that album really rationalises its use of utterly obscene subject matter through sheer artistry but I abstain.

I avoid bands that have really nasty, persistant misogynistic themes though, partly because they just sound like angry nerd virgins and it's just embarrassing. I mean, CC might have the usual slasher-film damsel tropes but at least they gave a lady the upper hand in Orgasm Through Torture.

Megadeth.

Let me give you a backstory. I've been listening to Metallica and Iron Maiden since I was six years old (I know that might sound pretentious, that's not my intention, I'm just stating the truth). We had an old computer with Winamp on it that had Metallica's 90's repertoire and Maiden stuff up to two songs from The X Factor. I listened to those bands as I was fooling around on computer, playing some games. I found about The Big Four six years later, and I also found about the rivalry between Metallica and Megadeth fans. I jumped on the bandwagon and thought Mustaine was an idiot and that his music was crap. I even gave "Symphony of Destruction" and "Holy Wars" a listen, but they did nothing for me. Ironically and quite blasphemous, it was their 2011 output Thirteen that really sold the deal to me. When I heard "Sudden Death" for the first time, I was blown away by the evilness of the first riff (remember, I was 12-13 at the time and had no knowledge of death and black metal) and scolded myself for being so stupid for not giving them chance earlier. I even enjoyed Risk for its hard rock merits (don't crucify me now!) and later Peace Sells became my favourite album of theirs.

Kalmah
Because: "this sounds like children of bodom but bodom is better. what a rip off!"
Edguy, stupid name.
Freak kitchen, because a friend who usually likes shit recommended it.

For metal, I would say I avoided Cannibal Corpse for a long time. It was mainly due to the brainwashing done by Metal Maniacs magazine during the tenure of Katherine Ludwig. She continually bashed CC during her tenure as editor in chief and provided zero coverage. Even Borivoj Krgin chimed in on the bashing and made CC out to be like primitive cavemen playing death metal. I was young at the time and Metal Maniacs was my bible for all things metal. When I finally heard CC, I wasn't convinced right away. I found the drumming on 'Butchered...' and found 'Gallery of Suicide' boring. But when I listened to their other albums, I finally got into CC.

For non-metal. There are two. First was Radiohead. I didn't pay much attention to them in the '90s. I owned their first album 'Pablo Honey' which had their first major hit 'Creep' but stayed away from their later albums. I saw them on MTV all throughout the decade but I was indifferent to their music. I guess I found them too a bit too glum and tear-inducing. It was only in the 2000's that I finally got what Radiohead was all about.

Another one is Coldplay. I once declared to my friends that Coldplay was "music for cry babies" 'coz the singer sounded like he was crying instead of singing. It was years later that I appreciated how special the band was as I began to dig both their old albums and later albums.

Both Radiohead and Coldplay conveys emotions on their music that I related to when I was feeling low. I felt the same way with a lot of the bands that I have always enjoyed such The Cure, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, Katatonia, and old Opeth.

For me it has to be ERRA.I hated this band because they used those strained high-pitched clean vocals and,at the time that i listened to them, i couldn't stand them.2 years later (i listened to ERRA in 2016),when i finally started to listen to Japanese Metal, (a decission i won't regret)i decided to revisit them to see if my oppinion will change about them,and lo and behold they are currentlly my favourite Progressive Metalcore band

Mmmm, I'd suggest starting with Queen I, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack first, if only to hear how the band develops, and how deep some of their earlier albums are.

AND for what it's worth Queen II gets pretty damn heavy at times. "Ogre Battle" frigging rocks.

Oh, fuck's sake. Every metalhead should give Queen II a go. Ogre Battle is bona-fide speed metal at times. Also that riff towards the end of March of the Black Queen: wow.

Late Queen are a great pop band no doubt, but the early stuff is incredible and very close to a lot of classic metal, even if they weren't directly influential on a lot of it.

FINALLY, someone says it. Seeing that name in a metal logo style does NOT make it any better, much rather the opposite.

All I could find was that she banned Deicide and CC. Seriously?

I despised Otep and never gave Opeth a chance because I thought they were the same. Now I love Opeth

How can Otep and Opeth be the same? Are you dyslexic?

Yes, seriously. She had this whole feminist agenda which spilled over to deciding which bands to cover for MM. Those two bands didn't have any coverage except for the occasional snarky side comment disparaging their music. It wasn't until her reign was over and Mike G and Jeff Wagner took control of MM that those bands finally appeared on the mag. The Jeff Wagner years were the best years of Metal Maniacs.

Back in early nineties I didn't like Morbid Angel (though Day of Suffering, Rapture and God of Emptiness were all awesome) until I listened to Gateways to Annihilation, and then gone back to all albums thoroughly. How wrong I was.
Also didn't care much about Meshuggah until 2000. Now, one of my favourites.

Oh jeeze, like I don't know! Frankly, everyone who enjoys music should give that album a spin.

I highlight "Orge Battle" because it's a song about Ogres and it has sweet riffs, so it seems like a good entry point to a band that many metalheads might only know from their radio hits

Oh sorry, don't get me wrong, sweary exasperation was just out of shared love for Ogre Battle. It's just very underrated. Go listen to it, all.



Deicide for animal cruelty (shooting a squirrel incident)

Cannibal Corpse for misogyny (as discussed above, unfair - no more than any metal band with violent lyrics - and it's been said that the cover of TotM was changed to put the female zombie dominant over the male one)

It really did sully her legacy, actually. Bad journalism to hold a grudge against groups for knee-jerk personal reasons.

I always thought that was one of the most hilarious "incidents" to ever happen in metal. Of course shooting a squirrel mid-interview isn't a good look exactly, but come on....the interview was actually conducted at his house, and he only shot the squirrel to prevent any further damage to his electrical system...and yet people still twisted it to make it seem like it was done as a "Satanic sacrifice" or something like that. Just totally ridiculous. I've never actually been able to find that interview though, so what do I know....

Slipknot, because you know, they weren't real metal, well, with time I found out they were not metal but still had a couple of fun songs here and there.

I got into Guns N' Roses in 1992/1993 when I was about 9 years old. One of the coolest shirts had a large back print that said "Fuck Metallica! Here Comes Guns N' Roses" (and Metallica had one with the reverse message as well). I took that literally, as did many of the kids at my school so we really hated Metallica for a year or two just because of that. And even when I had bought ". . .and justice for all" I got guilty feeling for listening to it a while after that.

Of course the shirts were just publicity stunts or whatever. The bands actually liked the other bands music. I especially remember Slash saying he loved Metallica. But we were very young and it was quite important to position ourselves in regards to the battle of the bands.

Yes, totally agree. On topic for this thread: even if you love animals and wouldn't harm a fly (like me tbh), avoiding Decide because a member shot a pest on his property is really dumb.

This reminded me of the Decapitated thread a while ago. A poster said he would not listen to the band again (or something like that) even if they were found not guilty just because they were accused of rape, tell me a more stupid reason to avoid a band than this.

I love that classic early 70's rock where its a mix of pop, prog, proto-metal, and all kinds of other things. Rules weren't part of the equation it seemed. Bowie, Queen, Zep, etc.

People think squirrels are cute when they are really vermin. They will chew some shit up.

Can't they be both? Yes, he was totally justified in killing it. Just like if an angry wasp flies through my window and won't fuck off so I spray it with WD-40.



Absolutely. The thread on that was closed, and since then there's been even more rape cases collapsing in the UK to the point every single current rape case has been sent to review under problems of evidence disclosure.

I honestly don't think false rape accusation is common, but clearly there is a problem in how an accusation gets taken to court. I think there's little doubt Decapitated were entirely innocent. Sad if it ruins their careers. The metal community ought to support them, not quietly ostracise them.

I feel that way but about just some of their material, like on The Bleeding. Some of the tracks on there are very crudely mocking rape victims. But on their other albums it never really felt like that. Like the brutality, the gore and even the sexual violence were all just kind of a B movie reference. It feels like watching an horror movie in a way... The things that are portrayed are not condoned, just merely shown. This is how the over the top violence on Tomb of the Mutilated has always felt to me. I mean, let's look at these lyrics, shall we:

"Slowly turning me, into a flesh eating zombie
Knowing this spell can only be broken
by the vaginal skins of young women
I proceed to find the meat
their bleeding cunts will set me free
Warmth seeping from this
Body
Rotted
After I sucked the blood from her ass"

I can't seem to take these seriously.

But with The Bleeding... it feels weird. One of the tracks on there has a line from a rape survivor help-line that plays at the beginning and the end of the track. It feels too real for my personal tastes.



I don't think it looks very dominant to have your vagina literally eaten ouf of you.

I also do not get why this gender equality stuff is finding it's way into this. I mean, it's not like Cannibal Corpse are Waking The Cadaver or any other shittier mysoginistic deathcore band. And I feel that CC have always distributed a lot of violence to both men and women. The boys are trying real hard to keep our death metal politically correct

Same. Heard the radio edit of The Drapery Falls and dismissed it as just your regular rock band. Was lucky there when someone played me the whole album less than a year later, got into them quick enough to go see them when they came through town on the Deliverance tour.

Cannibal Corpse for misogyny (as discussed above, unfair - no more than any metal band with violent lyrics - and it's been said that the cover of TotM was changed to put the female zombie dominant over the male one)

From the Centuries of Torment dvd, the first sketches were very similar(different angle), just not as graphic.

I avoided Judas Priest for a while because... Well, I'm not entirely sure. I think I might have thought they were Pearl Jam, or that Judas Priest sounded like a band that would be similar to Pearl Jam or some dumb shit like that. Then I heard Painkiller, and it's been among my favourite bands ever since.

I can't remember any other examples, but I'm sure that there have been bands I have neglected to listen to because I thought their name/logo/album art was stupid. This basically goes for any band that uses standard fonts for the logos, like the Bleeding Cowboys font. To this day I refuse to listen to a band that uses the Bleeding Cowboys font.

No, you're right, but the symbolism of cunnilingus gives a different message to penetration (also it might go too far for censorship as it would probably count as zombie porn).

The point is yeah, it's silly. There's no gender politics in Cannibal Corpse because there is no politics. The music comes first. The lyrics merely reflect the music embodied by a reanimated corpse that does nothing but act out primal desires: sex and violence.

But still, look at She Was Asking For It. At face value, a horrible title. But she wasn't. It's what the killer is saying to himself to put off the guilt which plagues him for an impulsive murder. The lyrics just inhabit the mind of a killer.

Of course Fucked with a Knife is just about fucking someone with a knife. But it fits the music so perfectly like, what else should it be about?

The Bleeding is a great album, a bit of a strange pivot for the band. A bit like how Metallica put out their most complex album without Cliff Burton and then commercialised, it doesn't quite fit the narrative you'd expect for Barnes departing. Maybe tensions were already frayed with him. But still it made for some of their most distinctive tracks. The title track is a very clever composition.

Symphony X. The reason is stupid, I had heard some X Japan in the past and wasn't impressed, and when people were telling me about Symphony X I got the two mixed up. I refused to listen to them for a while, until I was broken down enough to go listen to them. When I heard some stuff from "Divine Wings of Tragedy" and "The Odyssey", I realized that A. this is not the same band and B. this band is fucking awesome.

When I was not into them it was more impression than anything based on reading their lyrics. I just read song titles and said "fuck this shit".