I've always been into metal, it's one of the first genres I started listening to when I was younger and I still listen to it religiously.
I started with bands like Hammerfall and Sonata Arctica and Iron Maiden and gradually moved onto heavier and heavier stuff.
My progression in a nutshell would have been Hammerfall -> Black Sabbath -> Metallica -> Megadeth -> Trivium -> Children of Bodom -> Dethklok -> August Burns Red -> Whitechapel.
I still loved other genres on the side as well with a healthy diet of of classic and modern mainstream rock such as Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin and [old] Weezer and Paramore.
My taste for post-hardcore also greatly contributed to my descent into screaming vocals and brutal growls.
I've always thought that screaming required as much skill as singing does (even if you do scream you still have to manipulate pitch and breathe right) especially to a person like me: I can't sing, or scream.
My skills lays with the guitar.
My favorite however would be a combination of clean and screamo vocals.
If everything is done right it usually results in a very complex and aggressive song.
Furthermore, the time when I really, really got into was when I was in high school.
The music scene in my town wasn't very good but there were a lot of metal kids like me and there a few a shows.
The excitement and fun of these shows really awakened something inside.
Some sense of belonging, somewhere I really knew I was meant to be.
Most of the bands weren't very good.
But with the amps turned all the way up, you really couldn't hear it.
Dancing was mashing and hardcore dancing, not for everyone.
I loved it.
I knew this was meant for me.
Now that I listen to a good stream of brutal bands like The Agonist, Within The Ruins, The Devil Wears Prada, Still Remains, and Mychildren Mybride I really look forward to getting to move to a city with a good movie scene and really getting to be part of the lifestyle.