My gateway metal idols were Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads and Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, all of whom I got to see in concert. And I'm going to just going to say it, "1984" was one of my favorite albums (although not really metal, the cover reminded me of the one on Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell"). Paul Graham's description of high school in one essay was right on the mark for me, I sat at the heavy metal table at lunch when I wasn't truant.

A friend of mine at work mentioned around 1988 that I should listen to 10,000 Maniacs--the name sounded interesting, and (I'll probably get beat up here for saying this) Natalie Merchant's Greek Siren-like voice led me down a more, er "primrose path" musically. Peter Tosh, too.

[On a personal note, I might have been able to get the courage to ask Natalie out back then even though she was totally out of my league--like my wife, and I dated a few women like Lita over the years, but asking Lita out? That's a whole other level of courage. Iommi was engaged to her, by the way, for reference.]

I'm 55 and I still listen to metal especially while working, but I stopped trying new stuff in the early 2000's. So the newest I listen to would be Slipknot or Soulfly. My brother tried getting me to listen to modern "Norse Core" or something, but I didn't get it.

I suspect my wife got into metal through the albums of Bon Jovi, but she denies it.