Yes, I got into extreme stuff first, in much the same way. I didn't start listening to metal until 2002, during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college. I went to a suitcase college, so not only was there nobody around that listened to metal, there was barely anyone around at all. I started off buying stuff at Borders, but all extreme titles. Meshuggah was probably the first band I got into. Then, I remember really liking God Forbid, which I guess was a bit of a regression. Anyway, I started reading Metal Maniacs and other such crap, but things changed when I started going to underground shows and seeing racks and racks of vendors' selections and real mags. I realized I'd just been scratching the surface. I started mailordering, buying stuff directly from labels and distributors. By this point, I had started to amass a considerable collection, but the reason I identify with the OP is that, while I had Headhunter DC and Vader and Lunar Aurora albums, I'd never heard Megadeth. My approach has always been backwards. The first black metal album I ever heard was GBK's Judeobeast Assassination!

Nah, I started to listen to hard rock and heavy metal in 1982-83, so there wasn't that much extreme stuff back then. I started to listen to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept, Motörhead, Van Halen and bands like that and I've taken the more extreme subgenres to my liking as they have evolved through time.

I started to listen to metal in 1999. The first bands I heard were Obituary, Alastor(Pol), and My Dying Bride. Also, I didn't listen to heavy/power metal until 2007.

Nope, I went the basic Pop>Linkin park>Korn>Metallica/Maiden/METALcore route everyone else did.

i kinda did. As a younger kid i was always on the search for heavy music, because i just loved the sound. I would listen to Aol radio on the metal channel to see what was on. I heard a suffocation song from the human waste ep, and it kinda scared me, but i was intrigued. After that it just spread like a virus, i would spend hours on the internet reading about metal history and finding out the big names in the scene. Lighter stuff didnt catch on that much, though power metal is as light as i will go.

Dunno how "extreme" power metal is, but that is pretty much how I got into metal, my friend introduced me to bands like Manowar, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Galloglass, Brainstorm etc but at the time I was into Rammstein, a lot, for about a year it's all I ever listened to, until I was introduced to power metal, and then a bit after I started getting into that, the same friend showed me Immortal and that's how I got into black metal and just branched out to everything else from there.

I used to listen to Atreyu back in the day. Then my dad beat me a pillowcase full of Darkthrone albums while singing Call of the Winter Moon and I turned out alright.

Don't know how extreme this is considered these days, But my brother played Obituary - Dying off cause of death..and I was blown away. Prior to that, I wasn't a huge metalhead. I mostly liked traditional sounding stuff like Dio or Ozzy Osbourne. But I'd have to say Cause of Death by Obituary and maybe Death - Human are where it all started for me.

i didnt really get into metal on the extreme end, although the first metal band i ever heard and liked was Death (better then Korn or something like that) however i did get into Black Metal on the extreme side. My first black metal i listened to and became a fan of wasnt CoF or Dimmu Borgir, or even Immortal or Emperor. It was instead Anaal Nathrakhs Total Fucking Necro. That was still before i became completely immersed in BM but they certainly were weird times, seeing as I bought ANs Domine Non Es Dignus and Xasthurs A gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors the day I bought an Emmure album.

Avril Lavigne

Btw, I started with Cornflakes.

http://yepyep.gibbs12.com/wp-content/up ... flakes.jpg

I guess I did. I liked Dying Fetus, Slayer, and Nasum before I could appreciate the awesomness of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath.