How did you first encounter this music? - The Inifinite Edition

Tell us about your first encounters with the Progressive Metal, Avant-Garde Metal & Post-Metal subgenres. How did you lose your Infinite virginity?

Progressive metal - My first progressive metal experience was through hearing tracks from Voivod's "Dimension Hatröss" & "Nothingface" albums on late-night metal radio programs in the very late 1980's. 

Avant-Garde Metal - The first genuinely avant-garde metal release I heard was the lone studio album from Norway's Ved Buens Ende..... which was entitled "Written In Waters". It was released in 1995 but I picked it up through tape trading after hearing "The Carrior of Wounds" on the 1996 Blackend Records compilation "Blackend: The Black Metal Compilation Vol. 1" which I picked up at my local record store.

Post-Metal - I first heard post-metal through tracks from Neurosis' "Souls At Zero" album being played on late-night metal radio programs around 1992/93.

Progressive Metal: Since I was a huge Rush fan when I was younger, ITunes kept recommending me Dream Theater and I eventually cracked and downloaded some. It was the first time I had heard truly technical and expansive music played at that scale and skill level, and I loved every second of it. I listened to Octavarium, Change of Seasons, Metropolis Part 2, and Images and Words for a very, very long time, with tracks like "Dance of Eternity" making my jaw drop every time I heard it.

Sadly I can't say I enjoy Dream Theater that much anymore, I've definitely grown out of it and found other Progressive Metal bands I enjoy much more, but I can't deny that their old stuff is still fantastic. I'm sure that DT has been a huge influence on many more people besides me when it comes to The Infinite's genres. 

I didn't have any notable experiences with Avant-Garde or Post-Metal until very recently, so sadly I can't say too much on those. 

When I was in my old epic metal taste, someone told me about this progressive metal band Dream Theater, and I enjoyed it enough to start finding progressive metal bands to add to my epic metal arsenal. A few of the epic metal bands I've listened to before then have some progressive elements, but these other progressive metal bands include Ayreon, Symphony X, Evergrey, Pain of Salvation, Transatlantic, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra (those two "Trans-" bands actually more toward rock than metal). When I made my grand switch to a heavier modern side of metal, just like The Horde, The Infinite is still strong within me, and I kept my progressive side. But now I'm finding bands from the more extreme territory of progressive metal. My progressive search is in good progress!

I remember being shown Queensryche and kinda explained Operation: Mindcrime but not really understanding but still loving how it sounded and that a concept album was super cool idea. The first album that really got me though was as I was getting into harder music in high school eventually got around to Between The Buried and Me Alaska. I was so blown away by this interesting sound. It was all over the place and loved it. 

I used to read a bunch of music/metal magazines (RIP) and they would used to rave about Dir En Grey especially after Uroboros. I could not do it. That album is terrible to me and took me until recently to like anything that could be considered avant-garde until I found Diablo Swing Orchestra Pandora's Pinata. It's freaking Polka Metal. It's so wierd, but I loved it for some reason and had to show all my metal friends and nobody could understand why it was so good.

Alcest Souvenirs d'un autre monde.  I don't know how I found this album but it captured me and I still have to go back to it once in a while if I'm just in that kind of mood.