I began my journey into rock when my neighbor wanted me (then 10 years old) to play the drums in his son's Garage Rock revival band. I was introduced to 1: Stoners and 2: Led Zeppelin.

I then began my journey into metal when I was about 12, when my older female cousin suggested a "very dark" band for me to listen to, since we had a good amount of interests in common with each other. That music was that of what I now know as an infamous band: Slipknot.

I began listening to METAL in this order:

Linkin Park:
They had guitars, screamed a bit and talked about feelings. It mixed well with the violent anime of the 2000's and my dislike of homework.

System of a Down:
I have no clue how I found out about these guys, but they were, and still have that, dare I say, Dadaist image surrounding their hairstyles and music. They also fitted well with the Dragon Ball Z Music Videos on the internet before youtube existed.

3. Napalm Death:
I have no clue how I found them, but, HOLY FUCK, I couldn't come to terms with the chaos and speed of the music, so I abandoned it PRONTO.

4. Slipknot
I was obsessed with them, but strangely enough, embarassed to let people know how much I enjoyed their music, until I did a final project in 6th grade about them. I'll never forget that red line and question mark beside the term "Death Metal" that my teacher marked on my paper. Ironic how his confusion was appropriate to what I now know to be a misunderstanding of what Death Metal actually is.

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I went on a Hiatus from metal circa. 2006 - 2010, and listened to from everything from Wu-Tang to Lil Wayne to Dr. Dre to Common to Ludacris to Immortal Technique.

When my deep-seated misanthropy returned, it was high time that I continued my journey though metallic sounds once again. And so I listened.

Of course, I had little knowledge of the map of metal music, so I began again where I started at: Alternative Metal.
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5. System of a Down
I became a fan, once more, and I downloaded all of their albums and listened to them 24/7 for a month or two.

* TO be continued *