Big time. I was introduced to metal as a kid in the 80s. It was mostly thrash and some pre-metal stuff (early sabbath, etc). Then as I entered my teens grunge happened (I’m from north western Washington) which broadened my horizons for heavy music. Then I found death metal and, to a lesser degree due to limited access, black metal. At the same time I got into punk and hardcore and industrial. All through this I listened to other stuff too, I’ve always been a scattered music enthusiast.
I will listen to metal until I die but I do it less and less as there seem to be fewer bands coming out that do anything fresh with it. I love some stoner/ doom but it’s popularity has kinda stunted metal’s growth for the last decade or more in that it went from an interesting experiment with form to metal for people who are too lazy to put the work into learning how to play metal and it’s all started to sound the same.
The intensity of metal and the ethos of punk got me involved in underground electronic music a couple decades ago. It seemed like a natural progression for someone who loves a genre that was in its death throes. Mutate or die.
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