I, likewise, did not get interested in metal until my early 30's. Before then, the only metal albums I owned were by Metallica, ha ha.
I remember listening to Reign in Blood the first time, and I had a huge fucking grin on my face with all the fast tempos and wheedly-wheedly solos on that record. That was a moment that piqued my interest for louder stuff.

Embarrassed to admit I was well late to Silkworm and Unwound.

Lungfish as well but not sure my mid 90s self would have been up for it...


Also didn't hear any Swans until the 2000s re-boot.

I was in my early 30’s when I finally started paying attention to Captain Beefheart. I’d heard him many times before, but that’s when it clicked.

I only started listening to the Hampton Grease Band a couple of years ago. I love that album.

I never cared about Devo until recently. Same goes for the first couple of B52s albums.

Every time I hear a Burt Bacharach song in the hands of someone truly great, I notice that everything he writes fits my ~conception of music to a tee. It's a similar thing to Stravinsky, but the harshness and exotic-side of that particular maniac had me hooked since I was a teen; Bacharach makes cloying teeny 70s music. And yet - and yet! The pacing, the deliberate delivery, the rhythms, just a masterclass in writing good music.

But I never seek out anything more!

LBx wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 2:43 pm Embarrassed to admit I was well late to Silkworm.

Lungfish as well but not sure my mid 90s self would have been up for it...

I get ya. as a PDX kid I ignored SKWM because in my mind they moved to Seattle to "Make it", and I HATED SEATTLE back then. (pretty sure I've confessed this to Tim)

I bought "Indivisible" when it came out. DID NOT FUCKING GET IT. 2 years later I bought the entire catalogue completely obsessed.

So yeah Lungfish.

There's some bands where I didn't really hear them until after I'd absorbed so much other music that I'd have probably loved it when I was 12/13 but hearing it in my early 20s it just sounded kinda flat. So I was too late to discovering the Misfits or Jawbreaker to really get into either band.

Contemporary jazz.

I love stuff like Coltrane, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, etc., but it's only been in the last ten years or so that I realized there are artists making jazz right now that are worth paying $30 to $40 to go and hear.

Also, Afrobeat. I knew of it, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I gave it a real shot, and while I know that I am about the last person on Earth that music was created for, it speaks loudly and clearly to me like almost almost nothing else.

Pentangle. Got into them in my early 30s but had previously never been interested in that type of stuff. Steely Dan is another one I was late with, when I first heard the Aja album, I thought it was the lamest crap ever but I am a pretty big fan now. Sade another one I self-consciously avoided in the 80s because it was so "yuppie-smooth" and I was into Slayer; really like her/them now though (still love Slayer too BTW). Generally speaking, I was big into thrash and hardcore back in the day and was a more "general" metalhead before that so I tended to dislike stuff that was more mellow and smooth; getting into stuff like Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder in my mid-teens opened me up to smoother stuff but my interest in "harder"/noisier stuff has never left me either though, there's no conflict there for me nowadays...

BTW, I can't recall many examples of me "outgrowing" anything, I still dig the corny Mötley Crue albums I dug when I was 8. I may not be in the mood to hear them more than once a year but that's most music; key is that when I DO get in the mood to hear them, they still deliver...

Oh Lungfish.

One of my fave, never really checked them until ten years ago or so, in my mid/late 30's.

Funny, Indivisible was also my first approach. Grabbed me rightaway.

We'll allways be late for something, too much music and too little time.

Vibracobra wrote: Tue Dec 09, 2025 3:07 am Oh Lungfish.

One of my fave, never really checked them until ten years ago or so, in my mid/late 30's.

Funny, Indivisible was also my first approach. Grabbed me rightaway.

We'll allways be late for something, too much music and too little time.

i wasn't ready, for sure.

My musical taste is so all over the place, and the people in my life have such a variety taste (this community definitely included, but not limited to), I feel like I'm never late to discover something, I just discover it at the right time.

I saw the Brotzman 10tet+2 in 2000. I was very xenophobic about jazz and basketball at that time. (24 still trying to wrap my head around a lot). SO I loved William Parker and Hamid Drake, thought Vandermark and all the Euros were something not. I dunno, I wasn't ready for it. I was still wrapping my head around Ornettes post "Free Jazz" stuff, and Sonny Sharrock. Nowadays, I dig it, and get it to the best of my ability.

I haven't OUTGROWN anything, I just put stuff aside for a while. I set Unwound aside after "Leaves" (which I still don't dig) until Vern passed. Now, I remember why it was Fugazi/Unwound/Archers of Loaf top 3 obsession, for a few years.