Become a Metalhead
You don't just wake up one day and start liking screamo music.
It's a slow progression… at first your mom is concerned, then you start wearing all black, then maybe ear gauges if you aren't concerned about your professional career.
I considered the theoretical question of how I would recommend one start their metal journey today. But first:
How I got into Metal
When you are young you generally listen to what your parents listen to. For me that was classic rock. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Guns N Roses, ACDC to name a few.
I started playing guitar around 10, and naturally tried to learn all of my favourite songs. I played Stairway to Heaven at my Grade 8 talent show (pic).
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At the time I started to venture slightly into Metallica, which is the gateway band to metal for many. Metallica is approachable metal music, even some radio stations will play their songs. Learning to play those songs on guitar, I found they were generally faster, more fun to play, and difficult.
This sparked my path at the time down the road of metal, searching for more challenging and fun music to play.
You can’t even understand what they are saying!
Even after 15+ years of metal, I sometimes have no idea what they are saying (i.e. screaming).
But I’ll argue that it’s actually irrelevant.
I view the screaming in metal vocals more like another instrument in the band, as opposed to a deliverer of lyrics. The tone of screaming (regardless of the words) complements the overall sound, just like a bass or guitar would. Some examples of this will come later.
A Proposed Progression
I'm going to list 5 steps that take you from light to heavy. Included are other songs to try in the same 'level' if you found your taste.
Finally I'll mention that there are an insane amount of subgenres in metal. They all fall on some spectrum of heaviness, and even I avoid some of the more intense ones. What I've listed here generally falls in the Metalcore category... but even metalcore has subgenres. You can really go down a rabbit hole here, but just ignore the nomenclature and listen to what interests you.
