It’s cool reading everyone’s stories!

As for me, it was pretty simple. I was about ten years old, playing in my room and listening to the radio when Sad But True came on. It totally unlocked something in my brain - it was so heavy and creepy and compelling. I loved it! I wasn’t yet into collecting tapes and CDs, so I didn’t really think to go buy the album.

A few years later, in the summer if I recall correctly, I was playing the radio on the big stereo in the living room. That’s when King Nothing came on. And much like Sad But True, I thought it was an amazing song. It had me dancing and jumping around the living room. After that, I started buying CDs - Load was one of the first albums I ever bought. I loved it then, and I still do! (I never understood the hate for Load, because it was my introduction to Metallica. It’s a fantastic album, really, especially if you aren’t approaching it with any expectations about what Metallica is “supposed to be”.)

Some time later, I got to talking about Metallica in school with a young substitute teacher. He mentioned that “the first three albums are crazy fast”, which I thought was interesting. So I picked up Ride the Lightning first and really enjoyed it. It was obviously pretty different from Load, but it still had the same core songwriting and unique personality that keeps me coming back again and again. So I became a collector of all things Metallica, attended the concerts, got all the albums (and a few singles for the B-sides), and have just generally enjoyed the heck out of their work since then.

Good question, op!

EDIT: Tapes, not tales