Thanks so much for your participation and time. 

When I first got into metal (via heavy rock) it resonated with me in a way that other music I was being exposed to just wasn't. Certainly I was not getting on with the music my parents exposed me to and what was popular at the time was generally annoying pap. Then Metallica came out with a new album and everything changed.

Ironically that album was St. Anger. 

Here was an album that when I look back in hindsight I realise has a lot of issues. But when you were in your teens and never really found your outlet before, that album kicked all kinds of arse. It's aggression was, to me, unprecedent at the time, when the heaviest thing I must have heard at that stage was Evanescence, whom I also liked but didn't allow me to make the connection to metal as a genre the way Metallica did. It was an album that no one I knew seemed to get (my best friend of the time memorably called me a 'grunger' for listening to it). It certainly wasn't the sort of music my folks would have had me listening to even though my Dad thought his taste erred toward the heavy. Even more so it wasn't the sort of music my circle of friends were listening to, which included acts like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Blink 182, Green Day and Feeder. All acts they seemed to also expect me to like and reacted flabbergasted when I didn't. In some way Metallica offered a form of rejection of social expectations, which continues to some extent to this day.

Building on that, I don't go in so much with every aspect of the metal culture. I have long hair, which now I'm in my 30s I'm seriously considering doing away with. I don't want to end up looking like Devin Townsend did before he shaved it all off. Similarly I don't go in for tattoos, piercings or anything like that. My limit is a few band t-shirts which given that I live in England, I don't get that many opportunities to wear. I'm very far from what non-metal think when they think what a metalhead is. 

The metal community on the other hand is a different matter. While every community has outliers who let the side down, the metal community has always been a place of acceptance, united by a genuine love of the music. I don't get to enjoy this in person that often, but online is a different matter. A platform like MMA (and other sites in the past) allows me to connect with fellow metalheads from all over the world. And it is through these interactions that I know metal is a very welcoming community. While NSBM types can kindly fuck off, most metalheads and musicians really don't give a damn about things like race, gender identity, age or all the other things that may make people feel excluded from a community. 

But the bottom line is that it's a form of entertainment. We wouldn't listen to metal if we didn't enjoy it. That's not all it represents for me, but it is the root of it. It's entertainment. It's also art. And a culture, a non-physical place I belong and can state my opinion within without feeling like an outsider. Sometimes its an outlet for anger, its heaviness and aggression actually being a calming influence. Other times it's actually comfort music. 

And as an overall genre of music it is so incredibly diverse that even after listening to metal for close to 20 years I'm still finding new sounds and genres and it also has staying power. There are very, very few metal bands I once liked but soured on. 

I started seriously listening to heavy metal in 1987. By "heavy metal" I mean Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Twisted Sister, although I'd been in to Twisted Sister since the release of Stay Hungry in 1984 without realising what it is. Not particularly metal by today's standards, but that's where it began.

I started identifying as a metalhead in 1988, and started growing my hair to be like the bands. I started buying metal magazines in 1989, and realised there was a community of like-minded people out there. I started at university in 1990 and met some of these people and got to see a few bands live. I felt I'd found my niche (belonging) and have pretty much been there ever since.

I'm not terribly musical (I can sing a bit) so metal as a creative outlet for me was out until I figured out that writing about metal was also creative. I still do it, which is the main reason I joined this website.

A quick run through the other points:

Emotional support - I've always been reasonably emotionally stable, but there's definitely times when just the right metal song can make you feel better, like after a stressful day at work.

An outlet for discussion - That's what we're doing right now!

An art form - Anyone who denies the artistic merits of metal doesn't know what art is.

A lifestyle - Sort of. It doesn't define my entire being, like it might if I was in a band full time or something, but it's a major component.

A platform for political change - Metal is a lot less political than punk, but there's an element of it there. Anti-war, anti-religion, anti-corruption, environmental consciousness, social consciousness etc, have all featured in the music I've listened to over the years, but I don't think it's ever influenced me politically other than to reinforce the point you should be good to other people.

A safe space - Very similar to emotional support. 

A culture of expression - yes, I suppose it is. When I write reviews and things, it gives me an outlet to express opinions and ideas. They aren't necessarily earth-shattering, or always even sensible, but there's an outlet nonetheless.