[Dusted]

was 13. Didnt get into extreme stuff til '95 and i guess i got into DM a few years before BM.

[Karan]

I was 21 and was more into the death metal side, although some few black metal was appreciated...nowadays, quite the only "reasonable" thing I see, hear and read is that the line dividing both styles is no longer an issue...people enjoy both good black or death metal..the few that there is left that is...and there is no problem if you play one or the other style and enjoy both...that division in the 90s was ridiculous but at the same entertaining for what it was...
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Unbound celestial assassins...

[obscureinfinity]

[God Slayer]

I was 13 years old and listened to Metallica and Soundgarden every day. I found out about Death Metal through a Possessed "Seven Churches" cassette tape I got for free at a local shop. I found out about black metal in 1994. I always liked both genres a lot for different reasons and still do.
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Helcaraxë - Death Metal
Sunshine Ward Recordings

[nonwave]

i got into death metal in '93 through deicide's "legion". i first heard second wave black metal in fall '94. i didn't see them as some kind of opposing genres, but just a bunch of good shit to listen to. i still like both about the same, although there's a huge saturation point that has been long surpassed in both idioms. new shit that sounds good to me in either camp is pretty few and far between, but i like more modern "death metal" than "black metal". i fucking hate all the atmospheric/southern lord/lo-fi/hipster bullshit that modern black metal entails. when modern death metal is mediocre, it's still way better than that horseshit, as far as i'm concerned.

needless to say, i'm not into extreme metal to express my "feminine side".
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http://www.ugEXPLODE.com
The finest in unrelieved tension since 1991

[grindmonkeyagain]

[Tormentor]

Second wave Black Metal was still very underground and unknown in '93 for several reasons (I'm 43 and sort of remember this):

1) It was banned in most of the metal press (like Metal Maniacs) because they were supposedly neo-nazi fascists burning down churches. If you didn't see that issue of Kerrang you might never have known the Norwegian scene existed, unless you were following the underground zines. Kerrang scarcely existed here in North America on top of that.

2) Without the internet it was the information dark ages, so we only knew vague stories about this Black Metal revival.

3) Black Metal (stuff like Bathory) was considered passe and was NOT the trend in the early 90's. The new Death Metal and CNN Thrash was gettng ALL the attention in the media. Undergound Black Metal was almost completely ignored. Mayhem, Sarcofago and Tormentor were not the household names like they are now.

4) During the dark years (the huge backlash around 1995) there were VERY FEW metal fans in North America, and only a small percentage of those guys knew Black Metal even existed. So it was still largely unknown even then.

It just seems like the release of Lords Of Chaos made Black Metal the biggest thing in the metal scene by far.

[grindmonkeyagain]

[nonwave]

[Werewolf]

[Tormentor]

[Tormentor]

I'm talking about an expression you've obviously never heard of, called THE DARK YEARS. Poser.

[Stalinorgel]

What Tormentor describes was also more or less the case in (continental) Europe, with some slight alterations (for example "Lords of Chaos" was already old news when it was puplished).

It wasn't before 1994/95 before the whole story was leaked to a wider audience outside the UG, for example through (old) German magazine Ablaze.

Edit: Clearly it was the success of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir that made BM popular among the regular metal-heads in ca. 1996/97, no doubt about it.

[krakentorso]

In 92 I was starting to hear about samael, darkthrone, beherit, imp.naz etc. and early 93 ( I was 14) was the time when I actually started to buy some BM from Nuclear blast mailorder (burzum, mayhem dsp vinyl etc.) but I was collecting both DM and BM and never claimed to hate DM now. at that time I painted band logos from imp.naz and mayhem but also therion and immolation on my leather jacket.

[Hellpig]

In 93 I was Death Metal all the way ... didn't get into BM before 94 and that only lasted a few years honestly. Played the shit for ages but didn't listen to much BM after 96-97 ... and still don't, with very few exceptions!