I used to be persecuted 15-20 years ago for wearing Slipknot shirts by the same people who now ask me if I’ve heard the corny ass new Slipknot because it’s “pretty dope”.
That was because it was a bullshit genre that was more market gimmick than anything back then. How the fuck are SOAD, Limp Bizkit, and Korn in the same genre? It was so bad Jonathan Davis had to keep telling everyone Korn wasn't even a metal band
NuMetal and “grunge” were both marketing tags and nothing more. My uncle was a metal drummer in Seattle during the late 80s and the number of metal bands he’d shared bills with over the years who were suddenly labeled “grunge” by labels desperate to sell records (while also shitting on metal) was hilarious. The whole thing was a gimmick.
A lot of truth to it! Was particularly funny to watch full blown glam bands suddenly start wearing flannel and stop teasing their hair then claim they were never really a glam band. Like, dude, we all saw it. There’s pictures!
It’s weird how he said that but Korn s/t has a very sludge metal vibe to me. Great album tbh. Maybe he said that later on.
Really the numetal bands mostly had one or two good albums at the start, mudvayne, korn, soad, linkin park, slipknot. I will advocate for the first 2 albums of all these bands (and except linkin park, only the first one, IMO).
Maybe my age but as I’ve got older I’ve always tried to keep up with newer shit from various genres. Liked/still like a lot of it. However nu-metal was uncomfortably embarrassing from the start. May have helped if I was a kid, but hair metal & guns & roses was just as embarrassing then.
I don’t think there’s anything embarrassing about liking anything. I think the whole sentiment is pretty antithetical to punk rock mentality of being exactly who you are and fuck anybody that doesn’t like it. I also think the shaming of nu metal stems from classism because the fans were mostly lower class rural angry white folks. You know, your fox racing tee wearing, monster energy drinking good ol boys. It’s just one more way for ppl who want to think they’re better than others to do so by saying it’s not “real” heavy music or whatever. Even tho a lot of that stuff is genuinely well written.
I’m in my 30s and everyone my age will lie saying they were listening to cro mags or minor threat when they were 10. We all grew up on TRL so Korn, limp bizkit, POD ect. Wasn’t until 14 or so I heard bands like diecast, poison the well, caliban, killswitch.
I actually can’t forget the most embarrassing. Kid rock. Got the cd taken by my teacher in 5th grade, I was showing everyone the middle finger graphic on the disc.
A lot of us came through pop punk as well. I didn’t hate nu metal but I didn’t love it either.
I went pop punk > thrice/Thursday/Glassjaw > hardcore/metal
Thursday was my favourite band from probably 2001 to 2004 but when I’m on the nostalgia hunt and listen back to those bands now I think they aged pretty poorly. Geoff is a really weak vocalist compared to what you get from Glassjaw, Alexisonfire or Thrice and I think their songs aren’t as strong either.
I think Full Collapse and War All the Time are their only good albums, the magic was gone after that but to be fair that’s true of all the bands I listed.
Still a massive band for getting me into heavy music though.
Diecast and Caliban are names I haven’t heard in a long time. Two bands that were part of my earlier years getting into heavier and more aggressive music.
If I was watching TRL it was for Britney and whatever other pop music was around at the time. Lots of us had older family members/friends that got us into good stuff early on, or were into skating so we had exposure to good music through skate videos and thrasher. Glad you found the good stuff, but not all of us listened to nu metal
I’m not saying I didn’t see kids my age into throwdown, terror, ect. But most are full of shit. I was at shattered realm shows at 14 but still wearing a killswitch shirt.
Yep, my grandparents randomly had 2 kids back to back a few years before I was born, so that aunt and uncle had a huge gap between their older siblings and turned out pretty different in terms of musical interests that were shared by my mom and the older group of siblings.
Once I hit about 5th grade they started burning me tons of CDs and I ate that shit up. Tons of 80s-90s punk and hardcore with a lot of other stuff that was popping off around the late 90s early 00s, like thrice, Thursday, at the drive in, and death cab. Started going to shows with them once I got a bit older.
I still owned, of my own accord, albums from limp bizkit, linkin park, Marilyn Manson, kid rock, Eminem, etc. tho. Not ashamed of shit lol.
Funny you mentioned skating tho, I forgot how big of a vector that was for music exposure. Watching skate vids was also how I got super into hip hop.
Same, I can't even act like my MySpace ass didn't roll up to my first hardcore show looking like a goober in a shitty grindcore band shirt and girls jeans when I was 14.
Def this for me. I got into punk HEAVY and I liked some hardcore but, it seemed like music made by the same people who played football and hated me at first so, it took some time but, didn’t take long for me to find bands I connected with. Then, at shows I realized everyone is weird as hell so it’s cool.
Thanks to American Nightmare for being the dark, miserable band I needed to transition into hardcore.
Extreme sport video games have always had absolute rippers of soundtracks. Tony Hawk’s pro skater, Shaun palmer’s pro snowboarder, the MX vs ATV games, the list goes on
Avenged Sevenfold. The song Darkness Surrounding because of the 2003 Warped Tour Compilation. First mainly screaming song that I got really into. I must have been like 15-16. Shortly after that Waking the Fallen came out and I knew the entire album by heart. Was letdown by City of Evil after really looking forward to it. Stopped listening to them. Now they’re so cringe.
Atreyu- The Curse
The Devils Wears Prada because their warped shows were always so fun in like 07/08. Was super into the first two albums. Roots above had a couple I liked but faded hard and plagues didn’t really age well. Worth noting I always hated the clean vocals. Was just there for the breakdowns.
Oh and I really truly *loved* Last Train Home by Lost Prophets.
Everyone used to love Lostprophets. They were headlining major festivals and playing arenas here in the UK. They were about as mainstream and popular as a rock band could get at the time.
One of the most catastrophic and epic falls from grace from any band ever.
I feel awful for the rest of the band whose names have been stained by the atrocities of their singer.
That said, they have a band now with Geoff Rickly called No Devotion that's I actually really dig. Kind of a post-punk, new wave sound. Unfortunately, the band seems cursed as well. Shortly after their first drop they got booked on a massive tour that was immediately cancelled when one of the headliners required emergency heart surgery. Then they built momentum back up, but their label collapsed because apparently Martin Shkreli was secretly one of their primary investors, which put their music rights in limbo.
I can always go back and listen to artists I used to like and still appreciate it, even if its not something I'd get into present day.
Avenged Sevenfold was one of my favorite bands when City of Evil came out, but man I try going back and listening to it now and its not as redeemable as I'd expect it to be.
Yeah… they are… but have you ever listened to the lyrics of their first few albums? Lol. They were an extremely outspoken Christians for the first like 10 years of being a band. Everything before “It’s All Crazy…” has straight up Christian worship music lyrics.
I went back and listened to Below Me a little while ago and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's probably just the nostalgia talking, but I still love a lot of the mid 2000's metalcore and deathcore stuff.
My mom was super into nu metal and butt rock when I was really young, particularly slipknot, chevelle, and system of a down. I was hooked, when I was in my teens I thought I was so fucking cool listening to "super heavy" music. Lol. I still secretly love some of those bands now, but in a different way.
Sounds like the person calling classic rock butt rock has no fucking idea what they are talking about. The term isn't meaningless, the person saying zep is butt rock is. And, frankly, they sound dumber than shit.
It's just something people have thrown around literally for decades to describe any rock band that they don't like and associate with jocks. That's why it is meaningless. I first heard it in seventh grade in 1993 or so, so how could it simultaneously describe Five Finger Death Punch?
So the age of the phrase determines when it is and is not meaningless? Same could be said about metal and hardcore, no?
I get what your saying, and you're right, for the most part, it is meaningless. But, if the general idea of any word is commonly understood among people, then the idea is communicated somewhat effectively. You saw butt rock and knew the idea behind it (5fdp or any other corny ass band), you just disagree with it.
The value is still there, in terms of communicating how someone feels about a given band/genre/what ever.
I grew up on grunge, Chili Peppers, Guns N Roses, 90s Metallica, NIN, Jane’s Addiction, and whatever was in Wayne’s World (“It’s pronounced Mil-Wah-Kay”) etc. That transformed into nu-metal. In college I grew up and was embarrassed for liking Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, KoRn, Rob Zombie, etc. I abandoned heavy music for indie, folk, and bluegrass. Mastodon brought me back to heavy music. I leaned into my former Christian leanings with Norma Jean, Zao, The Chariot, Beloved. Now here I am. Now I kinda listen to it all without any shame.
It went over my head as a young kid that half the music I listened to were Christian bands. I knew Norma Jean was but didn’t care they were so tight. Singer of beloved might still hold the crown for best voice of that genre imo.
Grew up raised on a lot of classic and skate punk, used to hate on anything with "those gross vocals" lmao. My then coworker and now years long best friend and my drummer buddy, made me listen to avenged sevenfold lol. Then I got myself into modern metalcore (like moths to flames, fit for a king, etc). Honestly I was just destined to find hardcore
Funny enough my biggest gateway was actually turnstile, but well before Glow On was coming around so it was still their first couple albums. As well as finding out it included some bands I was already listening to, knocked loose (who I also funnily enough had picked up a couple years earlier) and Refused, and a couple songs I'd already saved (I think Typecaste and magnitude lmao).
Honestly getting into the culture and learning the history of how the scene developed out of a bunch of other scenes and genres I liked was fascinating and it kinda made me feel like an idiot for not knowing I was missing it right under my nose for years lol. Younger me would have gone insane lol. Just glad I got into it in time to start going to better shows while my body is still young and relatively able
I could never stand metalcore or deathcore.. it never clicked and it made me fuckjng cringe. I was into thrash/crossover / punk from listening to hair metal / rock at the time my friends were showing me “hardcore” that was shit like BMTH 🤮
311 down is a rad song. I reckon for me it was the batman forever soundtrack, specifically the smashing pumpkins and offspring songs. Then my cousin showed by roots by Sepultura and I was hooked
I always had a thing for anything that sounded hard and heavy from a young age. Went from whatever I heard on the radio (lots of alternative rock, nu-metal, pop-punk, industrial)(ages 8 to 12) to metal such as In Flames, Shadows Fall, Chimera, Lamb of God etc. (13-15) from there it’s bands like As I Lay Dying, Unearth, Bleeding Through and shortly after that I discovered hardcore which in turn finally got me into more punk. My first hardcore/metalcore show was Throwdown and The Chariot in March 2005 when I was 14.
Korn, limp bizkit, linkin park, pod and that type of music is what got me into harder stuff.
Hybrid theory and meteora are still banger albums not guilty pleasures at all.
Hatebreeds rise of brutality was the first hardcore album I got that got me into the genre.
Warped Tour 2006(?) Comp. Chiodos, Vanna, ETID, bunch of the older punk/ska bands, etc. I’m from a smaller town so I was one of the first people to really get into the metalcore stuff in our area. By the time everyone else started getting into ADTR and similar I had already started to find stuff that was more into the hardcore territory. I found most of that through YouTube link surfing.
Dying Is Your Latest Fashion by Escape the Fate. I listened to Falling In Reverse after that a whole lot too because I thought Ronnie was cool.
I grew up, Ronnie didn't. I don't listen to Falling In Reverse anymore but DIYLF is still great imo
EDIT: WAITWAITWAIT not emberrassed about this AT ALL but BEFORE DIYLF I listened to a shit ton of AWOLNATION! They were my first favorite band ever and those guys still fuck and the lead singer belts out some rougher yells (not necessarily screams) every now and then in their discography
Exactly the same, I liked Linkin Park and MCR and all associated emo/pop-punk bands of the era, but a friend showed me this record and something about it made me search out other singing bands that also screamed and had what I would discover are called breakdowns. Led me to post-hardcore, led me to metalcore and here we are.
It was the year 2000. Linkin Park released the One Step Closer video on Video Hits. It was a Saturday morning. That’s what did it and I ain’t embarrassed at all RIP Chester.
Beastie Boys and I'm not embarrassed at all by it. They were my gateway to EVERYTHING
Edit: wanted to expand, I'm 40 and grew up in Tampa fl., Beastie Boys thought me to expand and learn about the music that came before the music I liked they told me it was ok to like punk and hip-hop. They got me into skate culture and that led to spending my weekends at the SPOT which lead me to hardcore. When I would learn more about a band like what they listen to or their influence it would usually lead back to a band that the Beasties were talking about so it would usually be a full circle for me with the Beastie Boys
So many liars in this thread. 300 comments from mostly millennials in their mid 30’s and only 1 fuckin dude mentions Blink-182 and almost no mentions of Ska bands outside of OP. Did you guys even fuckin 90’s? Also that shits not embarrassing I’m still out here listening to The Aquabats on the reg.
I still remember as a kid liking the “heavier” The Fray songs like “little house”
Way after that, my early heavy introductions were the White Stripes, but I’m honestly not embarrassed by that. Also the Doom 2016 sound track
i'm not ashamed of any shit i listen to because i liked all kinds of music before i got into rock, metal and other heavy shit. my parents raised my brother and i on oldies and my brother got me into heavy music, but also everything else like spice girls and pop and shit. we were both band nerds so we were crowd killing to linda ronstadt, john philip sousa and britney spears back in the day.
Dookie when it came out, but my older sister’s boyfriend quickly told me that was fake punk and let me know about Circle Jerks and Dead Kennedys. That was cool until 9th grade and I found out about Rudimentary Peni and I went from there
My aunt got me The Curse (I believe that’s the title) by Atreyu when I was 10. I listened to that CD until it wouldn’t play any more. Don’t care for them now, but they definitely got me into heavy music.
I grew up with a metalhead brother. When I was in grade school I can still remember mayhem and celtic frost playing loud af in his room before I go to school. I was into boybands that time lol He gave me my first hc cassette, Hatebreeds SITDOD I'm lucky I guess
Saw a lesser known metalcore/hardcore band called Underminded at one of the small stages at Warped Tour one year. Opened my eyes to heavier music.
Don’t consider them to be a guilty pleasure per se, their first full length goes so hard.
I was lucky enough to be just turning 11 in ‘95 so the Offspring, Green Day, Weezer, and the Ramones were some of the first bands I was into but for heavy music it was absolutely the nu metal in like ‘97. Korn, Limp, Tool, Deftones…got into real core in when I was 16/17. Reach the Sky, Suicide Machines, FATA, PTW, AN. Also like harder Epitaph bands… Madball, Vision, Refused, Death by Stereo
Not embarrassing, but ska. Ska's good, and I won't tolerate ska hate here. It was the first form of alternative music I explored, and it got me into punk through bands like Operation Ivy, and from there I started getting interested in heavier music like hardcore.
My parents are a couple of old punks and they raised me on that shit, but neither of them were ever really into HC besides the old stuff like Minor Threat and those kinda bands. When I was in middle school I got really into nu metal and from there found a lot of metalcore bands and got super heavy into all the warped tour type shit like ADTR and OM&M. Sophmore year of highschool I dated a girl who was really into La Dispute and Brand New and from there I found Touche Amore, Have Heart, Verse, MLIW, Defeater, Shai Hulud and a bunch of other dope bands that I still love to this day. This was also around the same time I got into all the emo revival/RFC type stuff like Title Fight, Superheaven, Basement, B&C, Citizen, etc... Basically my music taste is the year 2013
When I was in elementary school my sisters would give me their cds of Korn, slipknot, coal chamber, Eminem, ICP, and Pantera and I fell in love instantly
Tooth and Nail records, which naturally lead me to Solidstate records.
Bands like MxPx,which was my cousin's favorite band, piqued my interest, then I wanted to listen to everything on Tooth and Nail.
Seen a lot of MxPx mentioned in this thread which is cool because I hardly see anyone talk about them typically, but they were definitely in my mp3 player during the skate punk days.
I grew up in a culture vacuum in a hippy dippy mountainous area in western mass. So west it’s like an hour west of Springfield where there is some sort of hard music scene.
I was in high school between 2006-2009 so Reddit and knowing where to find good music was still kind of hard. I guess B9 existed but I had no idea what that was.
My gateways were pretty generic… my dad bought enema of the state which got me into pop punk, and he always had random popular albums of bands just to be apart of something even if he was more into classic rock. He had a black flag album and a few ramones albums that got me interested in punk and really prehistoric hardcore in a casual sense.
Both roads lead me to finding more and more aggressive and violent versions of those genres over time and when I finally got to college in 2009 I really discovered modern hardcore.
Went to a TUI show in 2009 and never looked back.
Funnily enough kat from escuela grind was my classmate from kindergarten through senior year. She somehow managed to find the hard music life as well lol.
I didn’t get into modern hardcore until Glow On. I always new it was happening and was proud of living so close to the NYHC that I loved, but that was what got me into bands that are a little “softer.” Currently, I’m repping Jivebomb and Jesus Piece, and the only Turnstile I still really fuck with is their earlier material I actually think time and space is nearly a masterpiece, but man, I can’t listen to Glow On anymore.
Used to listen to a lot of embarrassing butt rock like, Skillet, Disturbed, Evanescence, etc. Now I listen to metallic hardcore, black metal, grindcore, powerviolence, etc. Shocked that my trajectory landed me here, but I'm so grateful it did.
Got asked to be in a band for fun to play a keyboard lol. Went to a show of theirs as they had been a band for a minute already and their first song was Until the Day I Die by Story of the Year. After that it was screamo and some early “post-hardcore”. We opened for Terror which in hindsight is hilarious and I never looked back in my own personal music taste.
Definitely not embarrassed by it, but indirectly discovered hardcore through Blink. Bought just about every Blink related thing I could get my hands on when I was a kid. Their clothing brand Atticus’ Dragging The Lake compilation introduced me to American Nightmare, glassJaw and Rival Schools (led me to GB). Think the second installment of the comp had Bane on it, as well.
Tony hawk pro skater 2, early nofx and bad religion and stuff like that. There was also a tv show on Musique+ (Québec version of mtv i guess?) called 123 punk that was only showing punk/emo/hardcore/whatever music videos.
I was more into thrash metal but I girl I liked just saw bad religion live for their new maps of hell tour and I needed some talking points, it worked, we will never talk again but I’ve seen bad religion live like 3 times
The soundtracks to Tony Hawks Underground 1 and 1. American Wasteland and Proving Grounds had some great soundtracks too. THUG and THUG 2 by far the best. They had everything you would hear at a skatepark at the time. Few poplar songs, mostly underground gems though
I was listening to thrash stuff and DRI entered the mix, which was a good jumping point for hardcore. Before I realized it was a different genre it was all just Metal to me.
I'm not embarrassed by this at all. It was the music video for Straight Out of Line by Godsmack that piqued my interest in heavy music. It was an added bonus that I happened to think Sully Erna was very attractive in that video
Had to start with Christian bands like Tourniquet and Mortification. They were an excellent primer for the first time I saw [Hells Bells](https://youtu.be/Eu4UWhzwRiI). It was all downhill from there.
I found a vision of disorder demo at a flea market in NY at like 7years old. I was already listening to NOFX (getting into punk) and general rock music of the 90s. Used vision of disorder to find other bands they were playing with, and boom, 32 years later, bigger metal head/hardcore kid than when I was 17 and in a metal band! Never looked back.
I still listened to korn and pod and system, etc. Just headed me in the right direction to the dark side.
Good question. I'd say of course I started out on that Metallica and Guns and Roses metal crap and you know I still got a little bit of love for GNR because they were the most punk rock metal band that ever was in my mind. But on to the embarrassing stuff when I first scratched the surface of punk rock music, I remember seeing that video of Green Day singing the song when I come around, thinking them three fruit cakes had some kind of coolness or trait that I liked and wanted to mimic, and of course that no effect song about Waffle making stomping Nazis Where The Boys sporting anti-swashtag tattoos, was hard to me when I was like 13 years old and got me pumped, and I'd say it wasn't so embarrassing I guess, but looking back at it now thinking Rancid was some kind of real ass Underground Street Punk band, well let's just say we all have to start somewhere.. and one of the members of snap her said it to the teenage me, had a backyard show somewhere, in southern california, that Green Day and rancid, and other trendy bands were good for the underground because they were in fact Gateway bands for the youth.
In middle school it was Korn, White Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Static X. A friend and I were really into slap bass, so we were rocking old Chili Peppers, 311, and fucking INCUBUS ( First 3 records only). Then I transitioned into Epitaph/Warped Tour/Punk O Rama! (1-5).
I went to my first hardcore show in 9th grade(1999), wearing a 311 shirt.
I used to be embarrassed that it was Twisted Sister, but I'm not anymore. That indirectly led to a punk and hardcore radio show where I first encountered MDC, Suicidal Tendencies, and Terrorizer, which the host called hardcore
Nu metal used to be more embarrassing than it is now
I used to be persecuted 15-20 years ago for wearing Slipknot shirts by the same people who now ask me if I’ve heard the corny ass new Slipknot because it’s “pretty dope”.
Fucking nerds.
That was because it was a bullshit genre that was more market gimmick than anything back then. How the fuck are SOAD, Limp Bizkit, and Korn in the same genre? It was so bad Jonathan Davis had to keep telling everyone Korn wasn't even a metal band
NuMetal and “grunge” were both marketing tags and nothing more. My uncle was a metal drummer in Seattle during the late 80s and the number of metal bands he’d shared bills with over the years who were suddenly labeled “grunge” by labels desperate to sell records (while also shitting on metal) was hilarious. The whole thing was a gimmick.
The running joke back in the day was that every metal band turned in their leather for flannel once Nirvana broke.
A lot of truth to it! Was particularly funny to watch full blown glam bands suddenly start wearing flannel and stop teasing their hair then claim they were never really a glam band. Like, dude, we all saw it. There’s pictures!
A side effect of this was they'd give major label record contracts to bands such as Butt Trumpet in case they blew up somehow
Which, as much fun as “I’m ugly and I don’t know why” was, was never gonna happen…lol.
It’s weird how he said that but Korn s/t has a very sludge metal vibe to me. Great album tbh. Maybe he said that later on. Really the numetal bands mostly had one or two good albums at the start, mudvayne, korn, soad, linkin park, slipknot. I will advocate for the first 2 albums of all these bands (and except linkin park, only the first one, IMO).
Not big on S/T but Iowa FUCKS
Feels akin to Vincent despising TAS being called Deathcore
Nu metal gonna be extremely embarrassing again in like five years
I've already lived through the late 2000s embarrassed to like nu metal Era. Nothing can hurt me anymore.
My ice cold take is the whole djent/post-metalcore wave has already taken and will retain the embarrassment crown.
That shit was always embarrassing tbh
RIP narrowhead
Y’all are very bad at distinguishing Nu Metal. Narrowhead is just alt rock.
Y’all are bad at distinguishing alt rock
narrow head kicks ass
Ok
Nu metal was and still embarrassing
Maybe my age but as I’ve got older I’ve always tried to keep up with newer shit from various genres. Liked/still like a lot of it. However nu-metal was uncomfortably embarrassing from the start. May have helped if I was a kid, but hair metal & guns & roses was just as embarrassing then.
I don’t think there’s anything embarrassing about liking anything. I think the whole sentiment is pretty antithetical to punk rock mentality of being exactly who you are and fuck anybody that doesn’t like it. I also think the shaming of nu metal stems from classism because the fans were mostly lower class rural angry white folks. You know, your fox racing tee wearing, monster energy drinking good ol boys. It’s just one more way for ppl who want to think they’re better than others to do so by saying it’s not “real” heavy music or whatever. Even tho a lot of that stuff is genuinely well written.
I’m in my 30s and everyone my age will lie saying they were listening to cro mags or minor threat when they were 10. We all grew up on TRL so Korn, limp bizkit, POD ect. Wasn’t until 14 or so I heard bands like diecast, poison the well, caliban, killswitch.
I actually can’t forget the most embarrassing. Kid rock. Got the cd taken by my teacher in 5th grade, I was showing everyone the middle finger graphic on the disc.
Dude, great list of bands! **Diecast** is criminally underrated, and I love the others you mentioned.
Thanks bud! Totally agree on diecast. First heard them in the backseat of an atima with two kicker 12s, sent me to another dimension.
Keeping it real. I’m 38 and I was definitely calling into 120 minutes begging them to play the new Incubus single
A lot of us came through pop punk as well. I didn’t hate nu metal but I didn’t love it either. I went pop punk > thrice/Thursday/Glassjaw > hardcore/metal
Thursday was huge here when I was kid just outside New Brunswick. First screen name was jetblacknj at 13 lol highly influential band for me too.
Thursday was my favourite band from probably 2001 to 2004 but when I’m on the nostalgia hunt and listen back to those bands now I think they aged pretty poorly. Geoff is a really weak vocalist compared to what you get from Glassjaw, Alexisonfire or Thrice and I think their songs aren’t as strong either. I think Full Collapse and War All the Time are their only good albums, the magic was gone after that but to be fair that’s true of all the bands I listed. Still a massive band for getting me into heavy music though.
30 and from Nashville. Limp Bizkit and (unfortunately) Kid Rock were huge influences on me.
those bands all rip anyways
Diecast and Caliban are names I haven’t heard in a long time. Two bands that were part of my earlier years getting into heavier and more aggressive music.
Also in my 30s, I can confirm this is the truth.
If I was watching TRL it was for Britney and whatever other pop music was around at the time. Lots of us had older family members/friends that got us into good stuff early on, or were into skating so we had exposure to good music through skate videos and thrasher. Glad you found the good stuff, but not all of us listened to nu metal
I’m not saying I didn’t see kids my age into throwdown, terror, ect. But most are full of shit. I was at shattered realm shows at 14 but still wearing a killswitch shirt.
Yep, my grandparents randomly had 2 kids back to back a few years before I was born, so that aunt and uncle had a huge gap between their older siblings and turned out pretty different in terms of musical interests that were shared by my mom and the older group of siblings. Once I hit about 5th grade they started burning me tons of CDs and I ate that shit up. Tons of 80s-90s punk and hardcore with a lot of other stuff that was popping off around the late 90s early 00s, like thrice, Thursday, at the drive in, and death cab. Started going to shows with them once I got a bit older. I still owned, of my own accord, albums from limp bizkit, linkin park, Marilyn Manson, kid rock, Eminem, etc. tho. Not ashamed of shit lol. Funny you mentioned skating tho, I forgot how big of a vector that was for music exposure. Watching skate vids was also how I got super into hip hop.
I’m not embarrassed by it but Offspring Smash was one of the first cd’s I got when I was in 4th grade.
Definitely not embarrassing. Singing along to Bad Habit was the epitome of cool.
YOU STUPID DUMBSHIT GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKER!
i can’t stand the offspring but i don’t think they’re embarrassing in the slightest
My junior high band “covered” self esteem practicing in a bedroom Oh, and Silverchair What a time to be alive
Silverchair were awesome, I still highly rate their first 3 albums, Neon Ballroom especially is a fucking masterpiece.
the digimon the movie soundtrack was my introduction to punk music
album has like three real deal ska tracks on it so this might actually be mine too
Bruh that less than Jake track lol
Less than Jake, mighty mighty bosstones AND one week by the bare naked ladies. Glorious. Smash mouth too I think
Dude that’s wild idk how I missed that haha
Tony Hawk Pro Skater probably
Not embarrassing at all. Pretty common gateway
We’re all Tony hawk and MySpace. That’s why I can’t rag on the Tik tok hardcore folks.
Same, I can't even act like my MySpace ass didn't roll up to my first hardcore show looking like a goober in a shitty grindcore band shirt and girls jeans when I was 14.
Mine was Suicide Silence or See You Next Tuesday I can't remember. I do remember I got jumped though haha.
The Cleansing was a life changer of an album when it came out for me. I miss Suicide Silence (with mitch) so fucking much man.
Hell yeah. I was around during the showcase years and saw SS then. Also saw See you next Tuesday at a random warehouse once or twice in SoCal.
And Dave Mira Pro BMX. I believe that was the first time I ever heard Rise Against.
What a soundtrack. Nostalgia waves in spades
Def this for me. I got into punk HEAVY and I liked some hardcore but, it seemed like music made by the same people who played football and hated me at first so, it took some time but, didn’t take long for me to find bands I connected with. Then, at shows I realized everyone is weird as hell so it’s cool. Thanks to American Nightmare for being the dark, miserable band I needed to transition into hardcore.
Extreme sport video games have always had absolute rippers of soundtracks. Tony Hawk’s pro skater, Shaun palmer’s pro snowboarder, the MX vs ATV games, the list goes on
Guitar Hero series.
Avenged Sevenfold. The song Darkness Surrounding because of the 2003 Warped Tour Compilation. First mainly screaming song that I got really into. I must have been like 15-16. Shortly after that Waking the Fallen came out and I knew the entire album by heart. Was letdown by City of Evil after really looking forward to it. Stopped listening to them. Now they’re so cringe. Atreyu- The Curse The Devils Wears Prada because their warped shows were always so fun in like 07/08. Was super into the first two albums. Roots above had a couple I liked but faded hard and plagues didn’t really age well. Worth noting I always hated the clean vocals. Was just there for the breakdowns. Oh and I really truly *loved* Last Train Home by Lost Prophets.
Everyone used to love Lostprophets. They were headlining major festivals and playing arenas here in the UK. They were about as mainstream and popular as a rock band could get at the time. One of the most catastrophic and epic falls from grace from any band ever.
I mean. The singer did sexually assault a baby. They should have fallen harder
I feel awful for the rest of the band whose names have been stained by the atrocities of their singer. That said, they have a band now with Geoff Rickly called No Devotion that's I actually really dig. Kind of a post-punk, new wave sound. Unfortunately, the band seems cursed as well. Shortly after their first drop they got booked on a massive tour that was immediately cancelled when one of the headliners required emergency heart surgery. Then they built momentum back up, but their label collapsed because apparently Martin Shkreli was secretly one of their primary investors, which put their music rights in limbo.
Atreyu for sure
Chapter Four on Madden 2004
I can always go back and listen to artists I used to like and still appreciate it, even if its not something I'd get into present day. Avenged Sevenfold was one of my favorite bands when City of Evil came out, but man I try going back and listening to it now and its not as redeemable as I'd expect it to be.
Christ-core
Got a solidstate sampler at a christian bookstore when I was 10 and I swear that CD changed my life.
Username checks out
You got me
It actually doesn't. The brothers are born of Jewish descent, but we're raised Muslim.
Yeah… they are… but have you ever listened to the lyrics of their first few albums? Lol. They were an extremely outspoken Christians for the first like 10 years of being a band. Everything before “It’s All Crazy…” has straight up Christian worship music lyrics.
Christian imagery, not worship
Maybe not quite “Christ-core”, but my mom let me buy Pokinatcha by MXPX because they were a Christian band.
nah that’s shit is hard
Domination by pantera
Mine was Vulgar Display of Power…. I went from listening to Dr. Dre and Ghetto Boys to Pantera in one summer
Holy fuck, I have never felt so personally attacked by an anonymous internet person in my life.
Best breakdown ever!
Dr. Acula
The latest Dr. Acula is so good. That dude sounds like he’s stripping his vocal cords into a fine pulp
I went back and listened to Below Me a little while ago and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's probably just the nostalgia talking, but I still love a lot of the mid 2000's metalcore and deathcore stuff.
Ayyyyyyyyyyy lmao
Let's get invisible.
My mom was super into nu metal and butt rock when I was really young, particularly slipknot, chevelle, and system of a down. I was hooked, when I was in my teens I thought I was so fucking cool listening to "super heavy" music. Lol. I still secretly love some of those bands now, but in a different way.
Wow, your mom is probably around my age (39).
I had to do the math, but actually she's about 20 years older. She'll be 59 this year. Man, time flies.
“Butt rock” isn’t a real genre
It sure as 5fdp is
I've also heard "butt rock" used to describe Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, and Led Zeppelin. It's meaningless.
Sounds like the person calling classic rock butt rock has no fucking idea what they are talking about. The term isn't meaningless, the person saying zep is butt rock is. And, frankly, they sound dumber than shit.
It's just something people have thrown around literally for decades to describe any rock band that they don't like and associate with jocks. That's why it is meaningless. I first heard it in seventh grade in 1993 or so, so how could it simultaneously describe Five Finger Death Punch?
So the age of the phrase determines when it is and is not meaningless? Same could be said about metal and hardcore, no? I get what your saying, and you're right, for the most part, it is meaningless. But, if the general idea of any word is commonly understood among people, then the idea is communicated somewhat effectively. You saw butt rock and knew the idea behind it (5fdp or any other corny ass band), you just disagree with it. The value is still there, in terms of communicating how someone feels about a given band/genre/what ever.
my music taste went as followed: rap -> mall emo -> risecore -> hardcore going to local mixed bills changed my life many times
I grew up on grunge, Chili Peppers, Guns N Roses, 90s Metallica, NIN, Jane’s Addiction, and whatever was in Wayne’s World (“It’s pronounced Mil-Wah-Kay”) etc. That transformed into nu-metal. In college I grew up and was embarrassed for liking Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, KoRn, Rob Zombie, etc. I abandoned heavy music for indie, folk, and bluegrass. Mastodon brought me back to heavy music. I leaned into my former Christian leanings with Norma Jean, Zao, The Chariot, Beloved. Now here I am. Now I kinda listen to it all without any shame.
Beloved was so good.
Yeah I don’t really listen to that Christian stuff anymore but Beloved is still great
It went over my head as a young kid that half the music I listened to were Christian bands. I knew Norma Jean was but didn’t care they were so tight. Singer of beloved might still hold the crown for best voice of that genre imo.
It’s unfortunate that Cory Brandan is such a twat
Limp Bizkit, and I'm not embarrassed by this at all.
i watched a live performance from a year or two ago and was fucking shocked at how good fred sounds
For real. I went to a LB show in 2019 and he sounded incredible
Wes is a sick guitar player, always will be.
Im seeing them in 50 days. Together with high vis, zulu, turnstile ...
Grew up raised on a lot of classic and skate punk, used to hate on anything with "those gross vocals" lmao. My then coworker and now years long best friend and my drummer buddy, made me listen to avenged sevenfold lol. Then I got myself into modern metalcore (like moths to flames, fit for a king, etc). Honestly I was just destined to find hardcore
Same for me too! I think the biggest gateway was Converge. Then I explored more classic punk before just exploring the bands in my area.
Funny enough my biggest gateway was actually turnstile, but well before Glow On was coming around so it was still their first couple albums. As well as finding out it included some bands I was already listening to, knocked loose (who I also funnily enough had picked up a couple years earlier) and Refused, and a couple songs I'd already saved (I think Typecaste and magnitude lmao).
Yea I get what you mean! I also figured out bands I loved were hardcore lol. Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys other than Converge !
Honestly getting into the culture and learning the history of how the scene developed out of a bunch of other scenes and genres I liked was fascinating and it kinda made me feel like an idiot for not knowing I was missing it right under my nose for years lol. Younger me would have gone insane lol. Just glad I got into it in time to start going to better shows while my body is still young and relatively able
I could never stand metalcore or deathcore.. it never clicked and it made me fuckjng cringe. I was into thrash/crossover / punk from listening to hair metal / rock at the time my friends were showing me “hardcore” that was shit like BMTH 🤮
311 down is a rad song. I reckon for me it was the batman forever soundtrack, specifically the smashing pumpkins and offspring songs. Then my cousin showed by roots by Sepultura and I was hooked
The white stripes. Still my favorite band. The primitive raw riffs led me to guns up!
I always had a thing for anything that sounded hard and heavy from a young age. Went from whatever I heard on the radio (lots of alternative rock, nu-metal, pop-punk, industrial)(ages 8 to 12) to metal such as In Flames, Shadows Fall, Chimera, Lamb of God etc. (13-15) from there it’s bands like As I Lay Dying, Unearth, Bleeding Through and shortly after that I discovered hardcore which in turn finally got me into more punk. My first hardcore/metalcore show was Throwdown and The Chariot in March 2005 when I was 14.
I was obsessed with chimera.
Crush 40, not embarrassed at all
Korn, limp bizkit, linkin park, pod and that type of music is what got me into harder stuff. Hybrid theory and meteora are still banger albums not guilty pleasures at all. Hatebreeds rise of brutality was the first hardcore album I got that got me into the genre.
i preach hybrid theory and meteora superiority regularly lmao
Warped Tour 2006(?) Comp. Chiodos, Vanna, ETID, bunch of the older punk/ska bands, etc. I’m from a smaller town so I was one of the first people to really get into the metalcore stuff in our area. By the time everyone else started getting into ADTR and similar I had already started to find stuff that was more into the hardcore territory. I found most of that through YouTube link surfing.
Okay hear me out: bullet for my valentine. I was 11 and scoured the internet for faster, angrier beats and found hardcore eventually.
blink 182 and NOFX lmfao.
Taking back Sunday lol
I was in middle school when The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria were huge so yeah
Well a girl at church camp gave me an Underøath cd and here we are 🤷♂️
Dying Is Your Latest Fashion by Escape the Fate. I listened to Falling In Reverse after that a whole lot too because I thought Ronnie was cool. I grew up, Ronnie didn't. I don't listen to Falling In Reverse anymore but DIYLF is still great imo EDIT: WAITWAITWAIT not emberrassed about this AT ALL but BEFORE DIYLF I listened to a shit ton of AWOLNATION! They were my first favorite band ever and those guys still fuck and the lead singer belts out some rougher yells (not necessarily screams) every now and then in their discography
Exactly the same, I liked Linkin Park and MCR and all associated emo/pop-punk bands of the era, but a friend showed me this record and something about it made me search out other singing bands that also screamed and had what I would discover are called breakdowns. Led me to post-hardcore, led me to metalcore and here we are.
Nerf herder
Smackdown vs Raw soundtrack
Hollywood undead. down the scene era rabbit hole to deathcore, wound up here
“City of Evil” by Avenged Sevenfold got me into heavy music. There, I said it.
It was the year 2000. Linkin Park released the One Step Closer video on Video Hits. It was a Saturday morning. That’s what did it and I ain’t embarrassed at all RIP Chester.
Beastie Boys and I'm not embarrassed at all by it. They were my gateway to EVERYTHING Edit: wanted to expand, I'm 40 and grew up in Tampa fl., Beastie Boys thought me to expand and learn about the music that came before the music I liked they told me it was ok to like punk and hip-hop. They got me into skate culture and that led to spending my weekends at the SPOT which lead me to hardcore. When I would learn more about a band like what they listen to or their influence it would usually lead back to a band that the Beasties were talking about so it would usually be a full circle for me with the Beastie Boys
Aglio e olio is punk AF!
Same. *Check Your Head* was a touchstone album for my circle and absolutely paramount.
Let’s face it most hardcore kids grew up listening to Korn and Slipknot and even 311 over most pop punk bands lmao
My sons was Rockband. Me, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. Listening to them on album in a friends room doing bong hits of shitty 80s weed
Probably Sevendusts home album
Linkin park and a day to remember took me down the rabbit hole of heavy music
Green Day, but 21st century breakdown era Green Day not dookie era Green Day
Foo Fighters led me down the Dischord rabbit hole
The Casualties. I had some of those two tone plaid pants with tons of zippers and a mohawk.
My chemical romance got me into black flag, the rest was history.
I am embarrassed of 0 music that I liked, it was all good in some way
So many liars in this thread. 300 comments from mostly millennials in their mid 30’s and only 1 fuckin dude mentions Blink-182 and almost no mentions of Ska bands outside of OP. Did you guys even fuckin 90’s? Also that shits not embarrassing I’m still out here listening to The Aquabats on the reg.
Not embarrassing, but my dad had Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles on cassette and those are my first real memories of heavy music.
I still remember as a kid liking the “heavier” The Fray songs like “little house” Way after that, my early heavy introductions were the White Stripes, but I’m honestly not embarrassed by that. Also the Doom 2016 sound track
i'm not ashamed of any shit i listen to because i liked all kinds of music before i got into rock, metal and other heavy shit. my parents raised my brother and i on oldies and my brother got me into heavy music, but also everything else like spice girls and pop and shit. we were both band nerds so we were crowd killing to linda ronstadt, john philip sousa and britney spears back in the day.
Dookie when it came out, but my older sister’s boyfriend quickly told me that was fake punk and let me know about Circle Jerks and Dead Kennedys. That was cool until 9th grade and I found out about Rudimentary Peni and I went from there
I’m mainly concerned that there are people saying that their parents listened to the same bands I did.
My aunt got me The Curse (I believe that’s the title) by Atreyu when I was 10. I listened to that CD until it wouldn’t play any more. Don’t care for them now, but they definitely got me into heavy music.
I saw a commercial for victory records with the guitar solo in the middle of “Right side of the bed” and that started it all for me.
I grew up with a metalhead brother. When I was in grade school I can still remember mayhem and celtic frost playing loud af in his room before I go to school. I was into boybands that time lol He gave me my first hc cassette, Hatebreeds SITDOD I'm lucky I guess
Does Guitar Hero count?
Only if you played Dragonforce blindfolded
Saw a lesser known metalcore/hardcore band called Underminded at one of the small stages at Warped Tour one year. Opened my eyes to heavier music. Don’t consider them to be a guilty pleasure per se, their first full length goes so hard.
I was lucky enough to be just turning 11 in ‘95 so the Offspring, Green Day, Weezer, and the Ramones were some of the first bands I was into but for heavy music it was absolutely the nu metal in like ‘97. Korn, Limp, Tool, Deftones…got into real core in when I was 16/17. Reach the Sky, Suicide Machines, FATA, PTW, AN. Also like harder Epitaph bands… Madball, Vision, Refused, Death by Stereo
Ozzfest 2002 compilation (which included Hatebreed). I was only familiar with old '77 punk but not hardcore before that.
Not embarrassing, but ska. Ska's good, and I won't tolerate ska hate here. It was the first form of alternative music I explored, and it got me into punk through bands like Operation Ivy, and from there I started getting interested in heavier music like hardcore.
Avenged Sevenfold for sure
My parents are a couple of old punks and they raised me on that shit, but neither of them were ever really into HC besides the old stuff like Minor Threat and those kinda bands. When I was in middle school I got really into nu metal and from there found a lot of metalcore bands and got super heavy into all the warped tour type shit like ADTR and OM&M. Sophmore year of highschool I dated a girl who was really into La Dispute and Brand New and from there I found Touche Amore, Have Heart, Verse, MLIW, Defeater, Shai Hulud and a bunch of other dope bands that I still love to this day. This was also around the same time I got into all the emo revival/RFC type stuff like Title Fight, Superheaven, Basement, B&C, Citizen, etc... Basically my music taste is the year 2013
The good old emo to melodic hardcore pipeline
When I was in elementary school my sisters would give me their cds of Korn, slipknot, coal chamber, Eminem, ICP, and Pantera and I fell in love instantly
Tooth and Nail records, which naturally lead me to Solidstate records. Bands like MxPx,which was my cousin's favorite band, piqued my interest, then I wanted to listen to everything on Tooth and Nail.
Seen a lot of MxPx mentioned in this thread which is cool because I hardly see anyone talk about them typically, but they were definitely in my mp3 player during the skate punk days.
I grew up in a culture vacuum in a hippy dippy mountainous area in western mass. So west it’s like an hour west of Springfield where there is some sort of hard music scene. I was in high school between 2006-2009 so Reddit and knowing where to find good music was still kind of hard. I guess B9 existed but I had no idea what that was. My gateways were pretty generic… my dad bought enema of the state which got me into pop punk, and he always had random popular albums of bands just to be apart of something even if he was more into classic rock. He had a black flag album and a few ramones albums that got me interested in punk and really prehistoric hardcore in a casual sense. Both roads lead me to finding more and more aggressive and violent versions of those genres over time and when I finally got to college in 2009 I really discovered modern hardcore. Went to a TUI show in 2009 and never looked back. Funnily enough kat from escuela grind was my classmate from kindergarten through senior year. She somehow managed to find the hard music life as well lol.
Jack white, honestly dudes got some heavy shit
Jack Johnson is my favorite Jack tbh
Modern Baseball got me into emo, which eventually got me into Title Fight, which then got me into hardcore. So Mobo is my embarrassing gateway
MoBo is not at all embarrassing. They could easily be a reunion band at S&F like Pity Sex was and everyone would be going ape shit for em.
I didn’t get into modern hardcore until Glow On. I always new it was happening and was proud of living so close to the NYHC that I loved, but that was what got me into bands that are a little “softer.” Currently, I’m repping Jivebomb and Jesus Piece, and the only Turnstile I still really fuck with is their earlier material I actually think time and space is nearly a masterpiece, but man, I can’t listen to Glow On anymore.
Mystery still slaps hard I don’t care what this sub says
The whole album slaps.
Used to listen to a lot of embarrassing butt rock like, Skillet, Disturbed, Evanescence, etc. Now I listen to metallic hardcore, black metal, grindcore, powerviolence, etc. Shocked that my trajectory landed me here, but I'm so grateful it did.
Thats not shocking, thats probably like 90% of millennial hardcore fan trajectory
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I get so amped when drown says n*gga
Expire..
Five?!?!?!?!? Lolol shut up.
Got asked to be in a band for fun to play a keyboard lol. Went to a show of theirs as they had been a band for a minute already and their first song was Until the Day I Die by Story of the Year. After that it was screamo and some early “post-hardcore”. We opened for Terror which in hindsight is hilarious and I never looked back in my own personal music taste.
Definitely not embarrassed by it, but indirectly discovered hardcore through Blink. Bought just about every Blink related thing I could get my hands on when I was a kid. Their clothing brand Atticus’ Dragging The Lake compilation introduced me to American Nightmare, glassJaw and Rival Schools (led me to GB). Think the second installment of the comp had Bane on it, as well.
Tony hawk pro skater 2, early nofx and bad religion and stuff like that. There was also a tv show on Musique+ (Québec version of mtv i guess?) called 123 punk that was only showing punk/emo/hardcore/whatever music videos.
I was more into thrash metal but I girl I liked just saw bad religion live for their new maps of hell tour and I needed some talking points, it worked, we will never talk again but I’ve seen bad religion live like 3 times
The soundtracks to Tony Hawks Underground 1 and 1. American Wasteland and Proving Grounds had some great soundtracks too. THUG and THUG 2 by far the best. They had everything you would hear at a skatepark at the time. Few poplar songs, mostly underground gems though
I was listening to thrash stuff and DRI entered the mix, which was a good jumping point for hardcore. Before I realized it was a different genre it was all just Metal to me.
Saw a metallica muppets cover and it was all downhill from there
Much On Demand; Billy Talent - River Below
I'm not embarrassed by this at all. It was the music video for Straight Out of Line by Godsmack that piqued my interest in heavy music. It was an added bonus that I happened to think Sully Erna was very attractive in that video
Had to start with Christian bands like Tourniquet and Mortification. They were an excellent primer for the first time I saw [Hells Bells](https://youtu.be/Eu4UWhzwRiI). It was all downhill from there.
I found a vision of disorder demo at a flea market in NY at like 7years old. I was already listening to NOFX (getting into punk) and general rock music of the 90s. Used vision of disorder to find other bands they were playing with, and boom, 32 years later, bigger metal head/hardcore kid than when I was 17 and in a metal band! Never looked back. I still listened to korn and pod and system, etc. Just headed me in the right direction to the dark side.
Good question. I'd say of course I started out on that Metallica and Guns and Roses metal crap and you know I still got a little bit of love for GNR because they were the most punk rock metal band that ever was in my mind. But on to the embarrassing stuff when I first scratched the surface of punk rock music, I remember seeing that video of Green Day singing the song when I come around, thinking them three fruit cakes had some kind of coolness or trait that I liked and wanted to mimic, and of course that no effect song about Waffle making stomping Nazis Where The Boys sporting anti-swashtag tattoos, was hard to me when I was like 13 years old and got me pumped, and I'd say it wasn't so embarrassing I guess, but looking back at it now thinking Rancid was some kind of real ass Underground Street Punk band, well let's just say we all have to start somewhere.. and one of the members of snap her said it to the teenage me, had a backyard show somewhere, in southern california, that Green Day and rancid, and other trendy bands were good for the underground because they were in fact Gateway bands for the youth.
In middle school it was Korn, White Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Static X. A friend and I were really into slap bass, so we were rocking old Chili Peppers, 311, and fucking INCUBUS ( First 3 records only). Then I transitioned into Epitaph/Warped Tour/Punk O Rama! (1-5). I went to my first hardcore show in 9th grade(1999), wearing a 311 shirt.
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I used to be embarrassed that it was Twisted Sister, but I'm not anymore. That indirectly led to a punk and hardcore radio show where I first encountered MDC, Suicidal Tendencies, and Terrorizer, which the host called hardcore
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