Metal 101

Onhell

Onhell

Infinite Dreamer
I started this thread because this is something I've been thinking for a while. We all love metal and we (very likely) like to share our joy with others and every convert we gain brings us joy. But... Can you formulate a way to easily convert people? The reason I ask is I've wondered what is the best way to get people into metal. Maiden might be too heavy for most people. For example, I've recently been talking with this girl and she keeps sending me girly pop songs and I told her if she wants me to listen to this, she has to listen to some metal. She grudgingly agreed. I don't just want her to listen to it, I want her to get into it as well. So I told her I would burn her a Cd and that is when the problem arose... What songs do I include?
  After much thought I decided on Power Metal. I consider this sub genre the most accesible as it is the most... "mainstream" if you will with catchy riffs, melodic and easy to "get into".
  But then I thought.. do I want her to get into power metal or metal? should I give her accesible songs or a wide variety. This thought came up when I decided to simply give her a copy of Dream Theater's "Awake". But I thought she should listen to Dreams of Swedenborg by Therion....

So to shorten it... how would you guys go about it?
 
In my opinion, a person is unlikely to be "converted" into a metal fan if they dislike it from the start. I know that I've always loved hard rock and metal from the first time I heard a distorted guitar. The question then becomes: has a person heard the full spectrum of what metal has to offer? I think the best idea is to create a CD with a "wide variety", as you put it: everything from Poison to Opeth. Odds are, she'll dislike most of the songs. But maybe there will be one or two she likes, and that might help you figure out what music to give her next.

As far as what specific songs to add, that's the real tough part.

Metal began with Sabbath, so it would be a sin to start anywhere else. "Paranoid" is the most obvious choice, but I also think it's somewhat atypical of Sabbath (too short and simple). So other good choices might be "Fairies Wear Boots" or "Children Of The Grave". If you want something more melodic and accesible, I think "Tomorrow's Dream" is a vastly underrated song, one of their best.

AC/DC might be more hard rock than metal, but they influenced a lot of metal musicians and deserve consideration. Everyone's heard the famous songs like "You Shook Me All Night Long", so pick something with a harder edge that's not so well known to "girly pop" fans ... like "Sin City" or "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)".

Maybe one more song to represent the 1970's ... some early Priest would do well. "Diamonds And Rust", "Tyrant" or "Starbreaker" are all good choices. If you wanted to pick a band that a "girly pop" fan has never heard, how about UFO? "Rock Bottom" is a great early metal song.

Now we get to the NWOBHM, and that means Maiden. More accessible songs for early Maiden would be "Running Free" or "Sanctuary". If you want something that's really heavy: "Wrathchild".

You need some really scary thrash from the early days of those bands. Good: "Creeping Death". Better: "Wake Up Dead". Best: "Angel Of Death".

Hair metal can't be ignored. Some of the better songs are the Crue's "Girls Girls Girls", Poison's "Nothin' But A Good Time" or Ratt's "Round And Round".

We're Maiden fans, right? You gotta get something from their creative peak in the 80s. "Powerslave", "Stranger In A Strange Land", or "Moonchild" would be good choices.

The 90s are harder for me to figure out. I know that I'd definitely try to get some Iced Earth and Dream Theater in there, but both bands have so many good songs that it's hard to choose. Maybe "A Question Of Heaven" and "Caught In A Web" would do.

I'm not into the whole death metal / black metal thing. Perhaps someone who is could recommend a couple representative songs.

Onhell, I know you're very much into power metal, so I trust you can make good choices there. Two to four such songs should finish up a CD.

---

Just trying to come up with the above suggestions reminds me of the breadth and diversity of hard rock / heavy metal. I'm sure there are many obvious branches of the metal "family tree" that I've overlooked. In fact, I think it would be impossible to fairly represent metal on just a single CD. It might be possible to do so with 4 CDs: one each for the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. I'll try to give this some more consideration tomorrow, and maybe come up with a better list.
 
I think the best thing to do is give her a CD with the most popular songs from the most popular artists from each genre:

Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Iron Maiden - The Trooper
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Judas Priest - Breaking the Law
Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction
Helloween - I Want Out
Children of Bodom - Everytime I Die
Mayhem - Deathcrush (I'm not a fan of black metal so this is basically a guess)
Queensryche - Silent Lucidity
Opeth - Face of Melinda
Slayer - Raining Blood
Iron Maiden - Hallowed be thy Name (2 Maiden, but I'm biased)

If anybody listens to these and is not converted, there is no hope at all.
(these may seem like poor enough songs in terms of the artist's ability, but they can break somebody into the band)
 
Right here's my idea of a good introduction cd:

Diamonds and Rust - Judas Priest
Pleasure To Kill - Kreator
Through Eyes Of Glass - Forbidden
Hail And Kill - Manowar
Fear Of The Dark (Live at Rock In Rio) - Iron Maiden
Templars Of Steel - HammerFall
Road To Hell - Bruce Dickinson
Scavenger Of Human Sorrow - Death
Between The Hammer And The Anvil - Judas Priest
A Tout Le Monde - Megadeth
Fade To Black - Metallica
The Evil That Men Do - Iron Maiden

The reason that I included two Priest songs is that it show the contrasting sounds that a band can have. Hail And Kill is Manowar's best song in my opinion, crashing start, lovely acoustic picking section then full balls on for the rest of the song and is a great heavy metal track. Pleasure To Kill and Throught Eyes Of Glass show two different types of thrash, evil german and bay area, with distinctly unique qualities to each. Templars Of Steel as it is an uplifting, mighty song and was one of my favourties during my power metal phase. Road To Hell as it is a catchy, happy song with a memorable chorus that sticks in my mind after I hear it. Scavenger Of Human Sorrow as it shows Death at their best, in my opinion, evil, technical and brilliant. A Tout Le Monde shows how a song can change from nice and acoustic to heavyish. Fade To Black because I was told to put some Metallica on my list :rolleyes: And finally the Maiden because its Maiden. Fear Of The Dark live at RIR has something special about it, the atmosphere is brilliant, crowd electric and when you hear them chant, it sends shivers down your spine (well mine anyway). The Evil That Men Do is the only real Maiden sort of "love song" and it is a perfect song besides that. Hope my shiting on was some use to you -_-
 
Well, if you want to give her some proper metal, but nothing that's going to scare her off, why not try some Apocalyptica?  If she likes classical music at all (doubtful-she doesn't listen to metal and DOES listen to pop ;)), she might like it.  I would recommend 'Fade to Black' or 'One'.

Other than that, how about this...
Iron Maiden-Flight of Icarus
Judas Priest-Beyond the Realms of Death
Judas Priest-Breaking the Law
Megadeth-Skin O' My Teeth
Metallica-Enter Sandman
Dream Theater-Take the Time
Angra-Judgment Day
DragonForce-My Spirit Will Go On
Blind Guardian-Mirror, Mirror
Iced Earth-Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
Iron Maiden-Paschendale
Dark Tranquillity-The Treason Wall/Lost to Apathy/Lethe (arrghhh....)
and finally
Sepultura-Inquisition Symphony

Explanation?  Well, FoI is quite a commercial rocker, may get her interested.  Breaking the Law shows Priest's commercial side, too, while 'Realms...' is a wonderful ballad, the acoustic section of which may thaw her attitude.  Skin O' My Teeth and Sandman are, in my opinion, the most commercial songs of those bands.  Take the Time is not-too-heavy, yet still brilliant and technical, while Judgment Day (as you no doubt know) is just wonderfully uplifting.  The DragonForce is there in case she turns into a MetalHammer kid (i.e. to see if she'll latch onto their speed like all the media :p).  Blind Guardian and Iced Earth had to get a say, and Mirror, Mirror is very melodic and shit (make sure you tell her what it's about), while Melancholy is just really beautiful.  Paschendale just owns, but I couldn't decide on a Dark Tranquillity track.  Treason Wall has a brilliant melody, but may be a bit too heavy vocally.  Lost to Apathy is their most commercial track to date (being the single off their latest album), but I personally love Lethe's emotion (if you choose this track, be sure to get her the lyrics and tell her about the context).  And the Sepultura is simply there to see if she'll be one of the random people who grow to like metal while being dropped in at the deep end :p.  Be sure to watch her face as the sinister acoustic intro cuts out and the riff kicks in (at full volume, of course).

Well, those are my thoughts.  Naturally, my list is a bit biased towards my musical tastes, and what I view as accessible is not necessarily true of others.  Like SMX said, metal is too deep a genre to represent with one CD, but hopefully if you can get her to listen to some of the songs we've mentioned, you'll break down the preconecption most people have that metal is all 'just noise'.  It's catchy melodies and killer riffs as well! :nana:
 
Is "Inquisition Symphony" not by Apocalyptica?

Judging by your last.fm sig, you are quite addicted to it at the minute :rolleyes:
 
Conor said:
Is "Inquisition Symphony" not by Apocalyptica?

Judging by your last.fm sig, you are quite addicted to it at the minute :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It was covered by Apocalytica (very well, I might add), and yes, I do like it quite a bit at the moment. :D  My neck does not, however... :(
 
Well, it has been a while since I posted this so I thought a "thank you" to you all and an update are in order. So.... Thank you all for you're input, it is rather varied and that is very helpful. However the "project" itself was a failure and it was bound to be one from the start. Turns out I was tricked, she said she would listen to them, because she was trying to be nice. In other words she didn't want to listen to them to begin with, was never open to such a thing and instead of being honest and direct she pulled that "yes" means "no" and "no" means "yes' crap girls often pull.

So the experiment was a failure because to get someone into it they must 1. Be at least OPEN to the idea. It might also be I haven't found a way to get her interested, but I'm not going to keep trying, forcing something on anybody never works.

I remember trying forever to convert my family to Metal and when did it finally happen? When I stopped trying! My brother started digging bands in Spanish like Tierra Santa and Mago de Oz and now listens to Therion and Epica!!! My mom got into it because of the lyrics, she said, "huh, it's not all sex drugs and rock and roll..." And now she enjoys a wider variety of bands. My dad is the last member standing, but I'll get to him too lol.
 
Hey I'm a girl and i was "converted" into heavy metal by borrowing three of my boyfriends cds for a bit and everytime i finished with one id get another. I'd have to tell him what songs i like and why i like them and such, which actually made me listen because i had to tell him about it. Show her the black album of metallica. Dio may work and dream theater. just go lighe metal first. I was only forced to listen to it for a bit before i started to refuse to give his cds back.  :)
 
Ha, well thanks, I did start with DT and she said "They are not my thing." Though I think she just needs to give it time, something people aren't willing to do. I've been told by other people "If I don't like it, I don't like it and I'll stop listening to it." Gees, talk about narrow minded and impatient...
 
One thing of note, giving a newbie to metal stuff like DT, maybe is that a bit to complex a sound for some (if you see what I mean). Should you lure them in with a more "simple" sound first then draw them in slowly.

What a simple sound is, is more open to question. Maybe (showing my age a bit here) the commercial side of Thin Lizzy or UFO, perhaps!
 
try UFO or the Scorpions (either the great 70's stuff or the more 80's out stuff...Scorpions are just all around great) My friend got his girlfriend into UFO and the Scorpions, then after I got him into NWOBHM bands (Angel witch, Tygers of Pan-tang, Saxon, etc) She went on a trip and stole his Def Leppard and Tygers CD's I believe...But you can't go wrong with UFO's Strangers in the Night. Then again it's all a manner of personal taste...Although Early scorpions might be too complex, since Ulrich Roth is a musical genius! :ph34r:
 
Well it isn't like I gave her Octavarium or the Glass Prison. And she simply likes really mellow stuff, I'd have to get her into some rock to begin with lol. Still, I've given up a direct strategy (in other words "here listen to this") I'll just play random stuff whenever she's in my car and let the music do the rest.
 
Onhell, exactly why do you want to change somebody's taste in music?  Let 'em wallow in their filth is what I say.  Not that I discriminate against people with different music tastes, I just say leave the beer to the kings ;)
 
I loved Glass Prision the first time i heard it! But if she wont listen to it meh who cares? I was easy to "convert" because i was listening to nu-metal before the heavy metal. Its probably hard to go from pop to metal. Now this girl are trying to convert her cause you like her and dont want to listen to her crap? Cause that would suck and good luck to you.
 
Conor said:
Yes I did...
Click to expand...

Well then read it again. You'll see i'm not out to change anybody's tastes, merely sharing mine like they are sharing theirs. However I rather they enjoy what I give them to listen and hopefullly expand, not change, their musical horizons...
 
Onhell said:
Well then read it again. You'll see i'm not out to change anybody's tastes, merely sharing mine like they are sharing theirs. However I rather they enjoy what I give them to listen and hopefullly expand, not change, their musical horizons...
Click to expand...
I understood you wrongly then.  Your use of the word "convert" suggests that you are trying to change this person's tastes :rolleyes:
 
Onhell said:
Well then read it again. You'll see i'm not out to change anybody's tastes, merely sharing mine like they are sharing theirs. However I rather they enjoy what I give them to listen and hopefullly expand, not change, their musical horizons...
Click to expand...

The trouble is, you have to remember that if she doesn't like it she's not likely to give it the time taken to get used to it.  Would you spend more than a cursory listen to any of her pop music before discounting it?  I know I wouldn't!
 
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