Same here, and also at other occasions. But than again, I laugh to myself because they won't enjoy the pleasures of heavy metal . What I do find rather frustrating is the fact that my music is ignored, and they put on some Latino/bounce/hip hop/...like music. That is even less music than metal!

Sometimes, my girlfriend (who likes some gothic and power metal) puts on my patch-jacket, raises her fist and starts headbanging in an attempt to imitate me. It's rather funny.

"A 'very ugly'" my parents referring to my band shirts.

"Plugging a guitar on to the electrical net was the worst invention ever." A class mate who apparently only likes acoustic guitars

Mostly along the lines of others who have posted their stories here.

One of my roommates who's room is right next to mine, something along the lines of:

"Every time I pass your room I always think my tvs gone static-y, then I remember its probably just your music"

One of my old roommates on my listening to music while falling asleep at night:

"You can't stand our music, but put on something like "RAWR RAWR RAWR" and you sleep like a baby"

Some frosh chick:

"What's Black Sabbath? I keep hearing about it but I have no clue what it is?" This question was followed by a moment of astonished silence by metalhead and non-metalhead alike.

My mother's comments on anything Burzum related:

"AAAAHHHHH BBWAAAAAHHHHH AAAHHH...see I can sing too!"

My mother on Obituary:

"Why does he want to be chopped in half?"

But overall my parents have always been pretty cool about my music. My mother likes some black, doom, and power metal plus she's always been a fan of Sabbath, Deep Purple, Zeppelin etc. and her mother used to always give her grief over listening to Alice Cooper so she's fairly tolerant. Its mostly people I've lived with, non-metalhead friends, and other acquaintances that make comments on my music.

I think I may have told this here before. I used to work for a somewhat shady company that employed highschool students to sell large quantities of "household products" door to door. We wouldd split into teams and be driven in vans to the neighbourhoods we were supposed to cover. Most everyone listened to top forty stuff or abysmal late 90s mainstream rap. Some of the drivers didn't mind if I hijacked the music though, and I'd just made a mix tape for a friend who worked there. I think it started off with Iron maiden or something, and at any rate everything was cool for the first couple of songs, though I'm sure that none of them except this friend really enjoyed it. Then, Slayer's "Hell Awaits" came on. There was a poor girl sitting behind me .. a rather airheaded thing who was really excited about the upcoming Britney Speares concert, as I recall. The "su nioj, su nioj" part got louder and louder, and then that ominous, ponderous opening riff started. Suddenly this girl started banging on my seat and screaming, "turn it off! Please turn it off! It's making me feel sick!" I think I laughed a little, but I did turn it off .. I kind of respect that music should have that sort of effect on people .. makes us seem just a little bit less desensitised.

"It sounds like he's being killed! Turn it off!" - Sister commenting on Burzum's Det som engang var.

"I thought you were going to stab me with that knife at any moment". - Brother on Strid's End of Life while I washed some cutlery.

Ah, good ol' outsiders-looking-in and commenting.

My parents use to bother me a lot, telling me what sort of lyrics (they don't care what it sounds like) were and weren't allowed in their house. Once they realized how vehement my listening habits became and that metal wasn't just a phase for me, they gave up on trying to confiscate/ruin my listening experiences. I always insist on having my door shut though, since I don't like hearing other people's music while I'm trying to listen to mine. It changes the sound too, and I don't like the way my music sounds with the door open.

My mom and I always go through a nearly identical dialogue everytime she hears something she "doesn't like" (she doesn't like any of my metal mind you. ). This is it whenever I'm listening to extreme metal:

Mum: (In a tone already implying I'm in trouble, like she caught me doing drugs or something) Who is this?
Me: *Band name*
Mum: What kind of music is this?
Me: Metal. Like everything else. You always ask the same question so I'll always give you the same answer.
Mum: ...Well, I don't like this! What do they sing about?
Me: Desecrating churches, Satan, sex, drugs, raping children. The same as every other band I listen to.
Mum: Hmph! Well, I'm going to read some lyrics mister!
Me: Yes mom.

Occasionally, I'll deviate from just responding with "metal" to saying something along the lines of "ultra Satanic, blasphemous, god-hating metal."

Usually, when I'm listening to power/heavy metal, she just comments on the cheesiness. More than once though, she's caught me listening to Stratovarius or DragonForce and said: "Ugh, this is so GAY!" Good ol' mom.

During my senior year of high school, I had the same teacher for typing and business math (an incredibly easy math class), so I'd always finish my assignments super quick and jump on the Archives. One day, irritated that I was finished so quickly and jumped online instead of beginning the homework, he comes up to me and says, "You know, all that stuff is alright for now, but you need to lay off; it'll rot your brain." I looked at him in utter disbelief, seized by a fury like I've never felt. I couldn't even speak, I was so appalled. I just stared at him with my jaw literally dropped as he walked away.

My younger sister has actually taken to some metal, since I've forced it on her so much. So for those of you thinking force isn't a solid method of persuasion, re-evaluate your views.

Just yesterday, in fact, we were driving and while I was looking for something to put on she says, "Put on Metal Meltdown! That's what you always listen to. (This is my standard go-to driving song, along with Deadly Sinners and Primo Victoria)" She tried to play it off like she was just suggesting something for me, but I heard her singing along to the chorus. Hah! She actually likes quite a few Blind Guardian songs, too.

That is priceless

Honestly, I think that sort of reaction is the greatest compliment any non-metalhead can give a metal band or, at least, a band like Slayer. Extreme metal is supposed to be scary.

What does that say? Deeds of Fish? - some dude reading a flyer for a Deeds of Flesh show

This sounds like Satanic Warmaster - guy I know on almost every black metal band

Ah, didn't they used to be called Pig Destroyer? - My ex-girlfriend's neighbor on Destroyer 666

Do you listen to Cannibal Corpus? - Random non-metal dude trying to start a conversation

And a personal favorite - after a show, I went to a liquor store with my friend (from a black metal band) and his girlfriend. He still had some of the black corpsepaint around the eyes and the clerk goes "what happened? did your girlfriend hit you?"

This one struck me as I was driving back from the damn Comcast building with my dad.

*Death's "The Philosopher"* starts playing:

Dad - "Oh that's what you mean by riffs. The last song didn't have one (referring to "1000 Eyes" we heard earlier)."

Then it gets to that part at 1:14 where it's an even better riff + that weird spacey solo.

Dad - "Uh oh, this must be an old song because I heard that solo back in 1970."

Me - "Oh you mean better days... experimenting"

Dad - "Yeah that's the safest way to put it."

My friend upon hearing Amon Amarth in my car: "Zuke, are you gonna slit your wrists when you get home?" The stupid mother fucker thinks death metal is emo and talks about killing yourself and how much your life sucks

My other friend upon hearing Amon Amarth in (while in his dorm room): "Dude you must like this then". And he puts on The Used (for those who don't know, they're a screamo band).
My reaction:

Another friend upon hearing Follow The Reaper by Children of Bodom: "Dude this sounds like Avenged Sevenfold"

Another friend upon hearing Symphony X (don't remember which song):
"This sounds like DragonForce"

My conclusion: I have a lot of stupid friends.

my mother about 1992 on Beherit . turn that fucking lawnmower sounding garbage down if you love lawnmowers so much i'll make you mow the lawn and stop smoking pot in your room. I think i was listening to their 7"th Blasphemy demo

When I played Carcass-Exhume to Consume to a friend, who only listened to Nightwish and Iron Maiden at the time, he was like "WTF?!" and asked if it was just noise or really bad music, but then I showed him the poetic lyrics about eating purulent cadavers and kicking corpse's heads, and he started to laugh like a retard.

I remember showing some black metal to other, and he said something like that"This sounds like a fucking bee hive"

Other than that, I hear only the classic"This is satanic music" or "How can you hear this?It's just screaming!", or when my brother give me funny looks when i'm listening to music without headphones.

The first time I talked metal with my mom about 6 years ago.

Mom: Megadeth? That doesn't look very good.
Me: But you like Metallica.
Mom: A band with a name 'Megadeth' can't be like Metallica.

Now:

Me: I put that dumb fucking King Nothing song you like on this Mix cd.
Mom: You should have put on Wake Up Dead instead.

Those are 2 of my stories. (summarized of course)

When my mom saw my Sodom shirt she thought I was homosexual.

When I was around 16 and I was listening to some black metal in my room:
My mother suddenly opens the door to my room, startles me, raises her hand giving me the metal horns and shouts: "LET THE BLOOD LEAK!!" and shuts the door.

Recent one: My brother tells me, hey you left your cd in the car's CD player. You've gone soft, it was playing something that sounded like Maroon 5.
I checked the CD with the next oportunity and found that it was playing the beginning of "March October" (the clean guitar part).

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I just thought of one with my dad. Every morning he wakes me up at 6:30 and my music plays all night, and one particular night I felt an urge to listen to my Ancestral/Wedard split. When he came in, it was on the Wedard songs, and he thought my speakers were broken.

"You must be a nazi, because you listen "rawr rawr" music and go to neseblod*" - a girl in my class.

Once I was on MA on school, she saw it and said "quit that nazi hell bitch band internet site!"

And of course "rawr rawr rawr, see I can sing in a death metal band too" - by plenty of people.

* Neseblod is a metal store.

My friend maintains that all black metal is simply some guys using as much distortion as possible and screaming about death and trees. (He says that half joking, he says he likes some of the lyrics but the music itself is a bit much).
Another friend's reaction when I played him Darkthrone was "personality clash", I guess because I'm generally quiet and nice.
My mom while I was listening to Nile one time came into my room and upon hearing the vocals was "Oh you don't say", and my dad will go "Oh no my ears!" whenever he hears my stuff.

My mom while looking at the songs on Reign in Blood.
"These songs dont sound very nice."

Me and one of my friends were talking about nazi's for some reason:
Me: "There is nazi black metal"
Friend: "What?!?! black nazi's, how does that even work???"
Then I explained to him that black metal has nothing to do with race.

My mom on Sunn O))
"Sounds like fuzz with someone dieing in the backround"

My friend on black, thrash, death metal and hardcore punk.
"Yeah like theres a huge difference between black metal, thrash metal, death metal and hardcore."

My mom actually likes a lot of the music that I listen to, although she prefers to hear music at very low volumes which I don't think do justice to metal. She used to be worried about the "Satanic" stuff, but I calmed her down by explaining that, apart from a handful of guys, nobody actually worships the devil in metal.

My dad, on the other hand, is an old-school kind of guy. He's never really listened to much music either, so he definitely doesn't approve of the metal. When I'm listening to music, he'll mock it by spazzing out in some sort of bizarre version of the twist while making strange faces and headbanging. After I give him a weird look, he'll laugh, tell me that he's going to cut my hair in my sleep, and walk away. He didn't mind Winds, though.

"This is quite cool, it reminds me of Oliver Reed" - my dad on Burzum (Det Som Engang Var).

He was referring to Curse of the Werewolf, which unlike older werewolf films where the sound would come from mangling up some recordings of a lion or something, Oliver Reed actually did all of the growls himself. He doesn't like the music but appreciates that he just doesn't understand it. He does enjoy 'The Crying Orc'.

"I would have been heavy metal if it were around when I was young, I was the first tomgirl in Warrington". My nan, after watching Global Metal.

Auntie: Who is it you're going to see?
Me: Slayer
Auntie: Oh yes, I know of Slayer
Uncle: No you're thinking of Slade.
He was joking, he's a funny guy.

"So is this actually music then?" My mum, whilst I was listening to Dawn of the Black Hearts. Understandable, you really have to be listening right from the beginning to follow what's going on.

Some sceney music students from college, commenting on my Cannibal Corpse ('full of hate') patch as if I wasn't even there. "Full of hate...why are they full of hate? Why can't they be happy? Death metal's stupid."
"Slipknot are good"
"Yeah I like Slipknot"
"But their last album was only okay"




One thing that I find really annoying with non-metal people, or people that just listen to shit like Opeth, Amon Amarth, Gojira etc. is how they find it absolutely hilarious to sing pop songs in a growled voice. It's very tasteless, geeky humour that they seem to find the funniest thing ever.

During a course at the university, our professor's mobile phone rang, the ringtone being "Hard Rock Hallelujah". He walks out of the auditorium, a guy screams: "Hard Metal Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah!"

I have a radio show at my high school station. So, playing Primordial's "Empire Falls" one day, a random kid walks in...

"Cool, what is this? Deathcore or metal?"

Me: "Metal".

"Oh, cool. I'm about to go home and listen to some deathcore, yeah!"

:lol: That's completely hilarious! Sigged

"This stuff is just like Lamb of God!"

-My friend, upon listening to Funeral Fog.

"Death? What an emo band name..."

-Another friend, after looking through my iPod.

"You listen to metal, right? Any of that heavy duty death metal like In Flames?"

-Classmate

"Celtic Frost totally ripped off Slayer's pentagram logo..."

-My friend, after looking at my Morbid Tales shirt.

I have many retarded friends.

My dad's mate regarding my Ulver Blood Inside shirt: "Vulva?", "what's that, is that a Christian cross?" Said mate is an ambient purist, when I played him some he liked it enough for him to say "I'll let you off".

Dad when I was watching my Opeth DVD: "So this is one of those Norwegian Death Metal bands?"
Me: "Swedish"
Dad: "Same thing!"

Mother when I first played Turisas a few years ago: "oh this was nice until that vomiting came in"

My mother had this thing of getting rather uppity and implying even more moderate stuff was noise, when she was into Zeppelin/Deep Purple in her youth. Sometimes I'm sure she's deliberately trying to sound like an old woman. Same goes for condescending (if complimentary) remarks about band t-shirts.

Generally family members don't say anything much worse than the usual thing about it being too pretentious or extreme for their tastes. I also generally don't have the misfortune of hearing day to day ignorance, I think in person I've heard nothing more than a ska-punk fan slate Slipknot as being horrible death metal, but I don't like Slipknot either so I thought nothing of it. And it isn't massively ignorant compared to some stuff recalled by some of you.





But then I like REM and come to think of it, there are similarities indeed.

Once I played Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle Earth and my brother ( who dislikes (most) metal ) hears Nightfall and says "Is this one of those epic dragon slaying bands who think they are melodic and read too much Tolkien?"

Of course I didn't say anything, he's 4 years older and can beat the crap out of me:p

He approves of and even likes Sabbath, Maiden and Priest but beyond that, nothing. Its all crap to him. Funny thing is, I know he has lots of friends who are metalheads:D

''Turn That Emo Shit Off'' - Some jackass at a party when we were listening to Slayer.

Ah yeah, I get that from my one friend all the time. But he also likes Warhammer 40,000 and Battlestar Galactica, so he can't exactly criticize me about liking stuff that's over-the-top.

I would have ruined his day.

Seriously.

I wish my mom was that cool.

When Metallica came on the radio my dad was like YEAH! KILL YOUR DOG!

this thread pisses me off and makes me laugh at the same time.

One time this kid with no knowledge of metal got into an argument with this guy at school. One of them was wearing a Slayer shirt. The other guy called Slayer emo. That guy went home with a broken nose.

not too long ago i went out to eat with some coworkers and we were with my boss, he likes stuff like Coldplay etc and the last time i played metal for him he didn't say anything he just looked... enraged, but the internal kind haha.
So anyway in his car i brought with me a mix CDR the first song was Morbid Angel-Rapture and i could see his face getting redder and redder with each passing minutes. THe next song was Impetigo-Dis-Organ-Ized and not long after SteveO belched and heaved the lyrics he turns it off and starting loudly proclaiming
"This is just disgusting. you can try to call it music all you want it's just disgusting, ... crap, i don't know what the fuck else to call it-IT'S DISGUSTING"

heheeheheheheehehehe....

every other week i go out to eat with another coworker and whatever i happen to have, he'll hear. he's never commented except once for Death-Leprosy "hey man, have you ever heard uhm... i think it's called "PsychoBilly" ... this kind of sounds like it!"

........Death = PsychoBilly........ really!?!?!!?...??????
*shrugs*

My mom's reaction was completely unexpected but still I knew it would come the way it did. When my mom was younger she was into all the heavier bands and stuff. So when she learns of my metal she loved it all except thrash. Her favorites are Satyricon and Blut Aus Nord.

My dad is really really tolerant of it. He likes to joke about it but he's cool with it as long as it's not "unintelligent garbage rap" (I.E Soulja Boy).

The rest of my family... The generic crap we all have heard more than enough times.

Some kid that was at my school wears those Tripp pants and wears Linkin Park gloves all the time tries to act metal around me. Turns out he likes Spineshank, christian metal, and other assorted shit that he tried to act all tough about. I recommended him bands like Nunslaughter (Or Nun's Laughter ), and Deathspell Omega and this kid came back the next day like a hardcore Christian loser freaked out by me. I told him to never speak to me again and have fun with his shit "metal". This kid tries so hard to be hardcore to people and pick fights and stuff to show his toughness.

You just unsold me on Manilla Road.

Not exactly "metal", but while my friends happen to be roaming my profile on here, they saw my reviews..


"Autumn Tears? Love Poems for Dying Children? Dude... are you alright?"

"So you like metal, huh? You mean stuff like Linkin Park?" - Most people in my high school