Not sure whether this would fit better in "The Tavern" but if so could a mod please move this. While taking digital pictures from old photos for my mum (who gave the old photos to me on my 18th birthday in 1995), I stumbled upon some very early pics showing the start of my metal days.
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edit: unfortunately I couldn't find metal related pics from my "evil days" from the mid-nineties etc. I swear you would have had a great laugh. 16 year old wearing wanna-be corpse paint etc. *lol* Generally pics from later than 13/14 are missing as we had no such thing as digital cameras or cellphones with one we could carry along with all the time. So when my parents stopped bothering me to get pictures taken there just were none And when I started going out and spending my time mostly outside (apart from dinner and breakfast) the photographs "stopped".
___

Do you have any such treasures, too?

Here we go:

edit2:
here the tendency towards music in general and guita based music in particular can #
be seen on my 3rd birthday in 1980

/edit2

my first Maiden shirt, 1989:


my first patched jacket. Apart from one Megadeth and one Anthrax purely Maiden (backpatch was "Life after death").
This was in 1990 at the age of thirteen:


my first real Metal vest / Kutte. Backpatch was "Kliing is my business" and the back also had numerous other patches like Sacred Reich, Testament, Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Blind Guardian etc.
this was the first "version" and over the years the patches got more and more. Unfortunately I haven't a pic of the later state of it.
This was in spring 1991:


still pics from 1992 to 2004 are very scarce, gonna look up if I might find sth.
at least here's one from 2004:


and for completition -
here's one from may 2010:


and this is what became of me at the age of 34 (some weeks ago / 2011)


August 2012 - my hair length started to annoy me (again) and it had to "go"



Ok, guys - would be great if you, too, have sth like it. Pictures spanning at least ten or more years of your metal days. I see no sense in posting just the latest pics. There has to be some kind of "growing" going on...

Good thread idea. Hope it lasts actually.

This is a great thread. I hope more people have pics they can share.

Lennon is the riff...and terri the variation

I'll contribute here even though I was a bit of a sucky looking kid, haha.

Before I got into metal, I was still interested in music as you can see in the picture here with my aunt, grandmother and brother.
I use to love those plastic instruments but I do believe that helped pave a path into metal down the line.
That picture is from 1991.



I don't have any photos of me when I first got into it on this computer but it was around 2002 I found interest in the genre.

This one is from about 2005, I started growing my hair a year after I got into metal and this was from the first time I had long hair. Excuse the gimmicky Myspace shot.



2007 is when I cut my hair, I never should have done it but what's done is done. By this stage I was well into metal as well.



Now this would be me in 2011, hair longer than it was before, developed a beer gut and finally grew some facial hair.

I'll leave this open for now, even though we have a policy against picture threads. This one at least has a theme, and a connection to the board's purpose. Also, the time span idea prevents postings by the youngest ones. You know, the fellows who lack common sense.

As a warning: any trolling, misuse, inappropriate "jokes" and pics of ANYTHING else than what the OP meant will lead to a permanent ban. Non-negotiable. I'll be watching from my eroded mountain of volcanic origin, and toying with the "Ban" switch.

And by that I mean the obvious old ones, i.e. pics of a lonely BM dude in a McDonalds, all sorts of photoshops, pics of an Israeli taking a crap, goatse, pics over which you have no copyright, pics of famous band members from their early day (esp. Varg and Dead) you claim to be you, drawings, cartoons, porn, and overall silliness. Also, comments meant only as insults, with no warm-hearted comedy in them belong in the same category. Anyone posting a pic on this board had better have a thick skin, but intentionally picking a fight and insulting folks maliciously will not be tolerated. Break these rules, and you're gone.

And finally, believe or not, these rules apply even if you didn't read this post. I fucking hate it when folks reply to threads without even bothering to find out what they are about.

EDIT: also, I'll move this to the Tavern. Not real metal discussion here, but personal history.

Thanks, Napero. I really hope this thread won't be trolled/spammed etc.

And this...



..is a strong purpose of me, too. I absolutely don't want to see sth like "this is me last year, this is now". The time-span thing is a MUST (imo)

I would post dorky pics, but it's fucking hard to do.

My metal history is longish though not well documented.

Really like this idea, I'm set on collecting some pictures now, I'll post the results later. Hope some asshole hasn't ruined the thread by then..

This is a really good idea, I hope to see more pictures. I'll refrain from putting pics of myself as I haven't looked remotely metal since I was 14.

i dont have many pics of myself that are metal related but i do have at least some. Might be able to post some other time.

well, the purpose of this thread is the relation of passed years and metal. Might it be the look of your past days' clothing or the grwoth of hair or whatever. But a relation to metal should be there to keep this from being "just a picture" thread. Oh, and the time span should - as stated above - be longer than four, five years or so...

Still looking for a way to scan in a picture from 2002-2003 at my first metal concert ever, Blind Guardian. Then I'm ready to go, really nostalgic going through all these photo's haha

just a little tip: I just made a digital photo with my digi camera. Works quite okasyish for this purpose and that or using the cell phone's camera should work without needing a scanner...

i only have pics of myself from 2005 and up, if i find some old ones in a scrapbook i'll share with you guys

This is a neat idea for a thread; I hope more people decide to upload pics and explain their foray into the world of metal. As for me....


This would be me in 2002, 6th grade. I was a fairly normal-looking child, nothing exceptional. Parents were pretty much against me looking outside the norm, which meant short hair and basic jeans and kid shirts. My music taste consisted of whatever radio station my parents had playing in the car. I was leaning more in the rock direction then, but was in no way serious about getting into music. In fact, I hated the music classes we were forced to participate in during elementary school. If only I had paid better attention back then, I might be somewhat better versed for the music I'm trying to make today...


Fast-forwarding to 2006, Sophomore year of high school (I was unable to find any pictures of myself from middle school or freshman year). By this point I was listening to your nu-metal mainstays like Korn, Slipknot, Mudvayne, System of a Down, etc., and most of my shirts were merchandise of those bands. It was also around this time that I discovered Fear Factory, who were absolutely essential to me getting into more extreme music. Parents were a bit more lenient on me looking how I wanted, and therefore my hair became a bit longer than it had usually been. At least until...



Junior year of high school, mid-to-late 2007. By this point I had discovered Cannibal Corpse and wanted to find more bands of that extreme nature. My new friends at the time introduced me to the more well-known bands like Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Nile, etc. I forgot about nu-metal almost instantaneously after discovering these bands, as they were resonating with me in a way that radio-friendly music had never done before. I began seeking out and wearing more real metal-oriented shirts and paid no mind to my hair length, even straightening it on some days to make it look longer.


Present day 2011, post-graduation and college years. I've branched out to more underground death and black metal (mostly thanks to this website) and even various forms of electronic music. I still wear band shirts on a regular basis and have no intentions of stopping. I try making metal-oriented music in my spare time, as it is incredibly fun to do. I feel that discovering metal was one of the best things I've ever done, as it has expanded my mind and musical taste to a height I'd never thought was attainable had I not done so.

Do you think you're witty or important or that anyone gives a shit what you think? You're a moderator for some music forum. Shut the fuck up.

And I guess that was meant only as an insult, so inb4ban

Also, no homo but the guys who posted pictures are sexy as fuck (not even kiddin' brahs)

Did your parents die or something, Slats?

Good idea for a thread, but I only got into metal after graduating high school four years ago, so there's not much to show!

Hello. Bye.

Great thread G_M. After reading Napero's post, I'm going to post, but tread with caution.

(DISCLAIMER: My metal history spans about eight years, from the age of 11, so if I am not eligible to be a part of this thread, let me know and I will happily take it down.)

I first discovered metal around 2002-2003, from my uncle who was a huge part of the early speed/thrash scene in the eighties. By age eleven, I was deep into hard rock, trad. heavy metal, and early punk. My first metal albums were Saxon's Wheels of Steel and Slayer's Reign in Blood.



Here's a picture of myself from around twelve, sporting my favorite AC/DC hoodie in those awkward years.

As I reached ages 13-15, I started exploring more thrash and NWOBHM, discovering bands like Diamond Head, Megadeth, Metallica, etc. There was a foray into glam as well, again due to my uncle's influence. I still listen to Motley Crue and Def Leppard at times. This is also when I first joined the Metal-Archives under my first username back in 2005. I was just beginning to pick up the guitar at around age 14.




This is a picture of me at 15 with my first guitar. I was so proud of that damn thing.

(Note: from the period 15-17 I had an unfortunate departure from the metal scene, most of you will know what it is )

At 16, I started to return to the metal scene, discovering brutal death metal, death metal, and eventually black metal. I formed my first meaningful band at this time (Nyarlathotep), and my metallic tastes were slowly starting to "mature" (I know this will be a joke to you oldies, but I'm talking in comparison to my own age). But boy, once I got into BM, I was really into the "dark" and "cold" gimmick of it. For example:



There's a picture from early '09 which pretty much encapsulates how I felt about black metal at the time. The obscureness drew me in, and the quality of the music led me to stay.

Finally, after two long and difficult years where I had barely any time to do anything, much less listen to metal, I am finally back on the track of discovery and am currently on a power metal kick, although my love for NWOBHM, black, and thrash is still there as always.

To wrap it up, here's my "today" picture, which was taken in late April 2011.



(Nab the hair in that one, it's short now but it's the only recent picture I have pertaining to metal)

And that's the evolution of fetalfeast.

Hopefully I don't come off as a pretentious douche. I'll admit I'm a bit of an attention whore, but that's because I don't get to socialize very often these days XD

Shortly after waking up at a random kid's house after a night of drinking (notice my shitty hair). I don't remember whose dog that is, but my friend thought it would make a worthy picture if I held it... awkwardly:


Fourth of July in Mount Eaton, Ohio. This didn't turn out as epic as we hoped:


Halloween of '09. I had so much fun with this. I tied a rope around that baby doll's neck and dragged it across the road when drivers were nearby. It wasn't even supposed to be "offensive". It was just funny in a stupid, grotesque way:


My senior homecoming. I ended up not going with the date I was supposed to have (long story short: I didn't think she was serious when she asked to go with me), so I decided to have fun in other ways. The DJ that was there handed out free glow sticks for the dance. My friend managed to get people to voluntarily hand their glow sticks over to me so I could make a kind of chainmail suit out of them. My dickhole principal eventually kicked me out but we came back to crash the homecoming later that night. Good time and was full of lulz.


Just to show a recent snapshot. This was taken at the Australian exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. This picture is only a few weeks old. Apparently, what you're seeing is a primitive sound amplifier. It was actually pretty humiliating to approach this thing while everyone in the vicinity was watching me:


So there you have it. That is the face of bassistneededlolnot. Now you can repress that memory and look somewhere else for more gratifying scenes to fill your head with.

Being the happy moron I am, I generally fail to consider this position a power trip, but thank you for this glimpse of that wonderful feeling.

fetalfeast, you look exactly like the younger brother of a friend of mine used to look at the age of 13 or so in that first pic. Actually, so close that it's almost eerie...

cool, keep the pics coming, guys... btw - edited a pic from 2004 in my OP

@fetalfeast:
Yes, I wrote sth about a ten years span between the pics but mostly to stop just posting too similar pics and prevent the thread from being spammed with a range from e.g. 2009-20111. If, like in your case, there are "only" eight years or so, it#s totally fine. What#s important is the prgogression from your "metal start" to now, the actual grwoth.

this is actually turning out to be a really good thread ignoring napero's little lover boy. i believe that a lot of new MA user's will be more than happy sharing their backstories of their own personal evolution into metal, and even some of the older guys here that haven't had a chance to say much. this could work as a sticky, but thats my own personal opinion. anyone agree?

If I'm correct, you missed the point of this thread. You're supposed to show your evolution as a metalhead from your younger days to today.

Damn, this is cool but I don't think I have many early pictures on my computer.

actually this is my personal major interest in this thread. Of course, pics from the "digital era" are ok as long as the mentioned "time span" requirement is complied. but I think real photographies from the 80s/90s are a lot better to see the development and grwoth. they just have sth special/retro to them.

HAHAHA! This is awesome as I've been a metalhead since I was a wee girl! Unfortunately I don't have any of the photos of me blonde in my Slayer shirt at the age of 10 but I have a few when I was 15 and in between ages as I was a lost young girl and now... Not much difference... Just a lot of tattoos and I grew my eyebrows in. I had a rockabilly/pinup girl faze in my late teens/early 20s but was still into metal then as well.

15 years old in my back yard with my Mayhem shirt



15 year old meeting Cryptopsy. This was a special date for me as they put me on the guestlist so I could sneak into their 19+ show... From then on I started going to extreme metal shows and sneaking into bars. Hehehe.

16-18 I was really into the goth thing and LOVED black metal.. This was my attempt at "goth" modeling then.




My rockabilly/pinup faze when I was 18-22


*gasp* I cut all my hair off

And now.. 25... I have a lot of tattoos... I have eyebrows... And I have a vest.

I think this should be the new face of MA.

Altars; that's some cool photography you got going on, I wish I had pictures of me as a strapping young 15 year old metalhead....but alas, I do not.

Where's Gutterscream?

Haters gon' hate.

The earliest documented evidence of how kvlt and tr00 I am is from my 7th birthday party. I flew artists out from Norway to carefully put my corpsepaint together. There were no survivors that day. I also apparently had a little boner.

I was a furry at one point, it seems. My brother was a Saiyan.

Years passed, and all the metal inside of me began to grow along with my body, but at an accelerated rate, as I wasn't aware I was a real metalhead yet, and the metal inside of me thought I was a poser and was trying to leave the hall. So, I began to bloat and bloat (about 12 or 13 in this pic). But I kept it inside of me, and soon, it exploded out of me in a flurry of incessant cheesiness (about 16 in this pic). Dear LORD.

My hair absorbed the cheese and continued growing (I'm 17 here). And growing (bordering 17 and 18). Notice the dark power of Bathory escaping my eye as a sign of dark, Satanic evil red. Cal just always looks high.

I fortunately started losing weight, but my hair kept growing (18 years old) despite how bad it is, and finally, it reached the longest I let it get to (still 18). I finally cut my hair so I could actually get a job and so I'd stop looking like a girl.

Unfortunately, I still hadn't learned. For whatever reason, I combed my hair like a twat and wore a pleather jacket. Ugh. I realized eventually to stop combing it like that and just let my Asian hair run straight (I swear it's not straightened). Another picture. Potato cannon!

At this point, I didn't want naturally-a-bowl-because-I'm-Asian hair, so I went to get it cut pretty short. The barber REALLY fucked it up, so I wore a beanie everywhere. Trust me, it was that bad.

Finally, my hair grew out a little bit so the damage wasn't as evident (actually, it was EVEN MORE evident), so I ditched the beanie. At this point, though, I'd been long interested in a female friend of mine, and though she had a boyfriend (long distance and out of high school, derp), she was interested in me, too, and here is proof that looks don't really matter for attraction. Oh, and I was drunk, but she's sober, hahaha.

Here's that bad hair grown out a bit more. Yes, that's a Slipknot shirt. Come at me.

I went and got another haircut at a place that didn't suck huge dicks, but I got a white person haircut, so it doesn't really fit me. Here it is grown out a bit with me making a wacky face 'cause the world is such a crazy place.

Got it cut earlier this summer with a proper Asian-style haircut, though I kept it messy 'cause I like my hair like that. Grown out a bit. World is still wacky.

It finally grew out to about here (and this is also one of my now-girlfriend's (that chick from before, yup, she and her boyfriend broke up) favorite pics of me) here, and I decided it was time for another haircut. I got it cut this short, which is so manageable and comfortable (and I look like a 14-year-old punk-ass mo'fucka).

It's grown out to here and now here. I plan to keep it around this length from now on.

So, moral of the story is, don't have to have long hair to be metal, plus cutting my hair made me cuter and I now have a girl thanks to that, and we're doing really happily.

Awesome vest Altars.

Scrafty that was pretty entertaining. Fetal...you know I love you.

Altars, I like the leopard print tattoos. My girlfriend is really into that stuff and she can pull it off pretty well too even when she's covered in the stuff, haha.

A big thanks to Mr. Jonathan Norbergensteinman for helping me re-discover this thread. I had no recollection of this, but since the time of this posting, I have the Fed's to worry about. A big thanks to moderators for keeping this thread open and giving the users enough privileges to retroactively modify their posts.

I have honestly never seen a person with grey eyes such as yours. They're usually grey/green but yours are a beautiful tone of grey.

Adds Gr1mness.

Maaan, I wish I could find mine as well from the early-mid nineties, I know they're around somewhere....I still have all my homemade gauntlets...

Wouldn't even know where to look (if they have survived my many moves over the years...) to find my wee metalhead pictures, from then til now, as I believe I have some. My thinking is that a good deal of my friends have them, as they took the photos. Pity. Great thread idea GM!

Upon seeing a picture of a female on the board, please stop to consider whether or not you'd post the same things after seeing a pic of, say, OlioTheSmall or one of the mods. If the answer is "no", then reconsider. These things have led to lockings of threads and/or bans.