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I’ve always liked hard rock/heavy metal music. Until college the emphasis was more on classic rock/hard rock than it was on heavy metal. Although I did listen to some metal bands such as Megadeth, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, etc., metal bands weren’t what took up the bulk of my CD collection. Looking back, I guess part of the reason I gravitated toward those few metal bands was that they were mainstream and I was actually exposed to them by the media of the 80s and 90s.
When I was around twenty years old I met a few people who helped me discover much sooner than what I would have on my own a wealth of great bands that I hadn’t heard before (thanks, Kurt and Paul). Some of these bands such as Iced Earth were easy to get into since the music and the vocals were both amazing and similar to the classic metal bands I mentioned above.
However, I wasn’t receptive to everything… at least at first.
I could always appreciate the musicianship of death metal bands (especially melodic death metal) but the vocals just didn’t appeal to me. Still, I didn’t dismiss the music, figuring that it might eventually click for me.
The band that did it was Arch Enemy. If I remember right, we were driving to a movie one night and a live album with the original singer (Johan Liiva) of the band was playing. The song Dead Inside came on which is originally off of the Burning Bridges album. For some reason, the harsh vocals worked for me. And when the solo kicked in, I was blown away. Things clicked. Not only have I been an Arch Enemy fan since then, but that night led me to discover other great bands such as In Flames, Nightrage, At the Gates, Carcass, Children of Bodom, etc.
Oddly enough it seems the older I get, the heavier my tastes become. Don’t get me wrong, I still listen to a lot of non-metal music but heavy metal is what mostly dominates my selections these days.
So, enjoy the song that started everything off for me and then another from their new album Khaos Legions.
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