deathcore prequel

**Eminem – Lose Yourself**
Lose Yourself is a song that kickstarted my whole music listening career. It was the mom’s spaghetti that sealed the deal. I have completely lost myself in music since then, literally. I was a wee 6 year old boy sitting in front of the tv where a German music channel was up and Eminem just released this song from the movie 8 Mile that came out around that time. There was something mesmerizing about it. I loved the music video showing Detroit, that feeling as if I traveled there. Not soon after there was also Without Me and Sing for the Moment playing in the tv and I asked my dad to download whatever was the latest album that Eminem released, because I couldn’t get enough with just what German channel was giving me. And from here on I was listening to the whole The Eminem Show and I was hooked. I got myself a CD on which I burnt my favourite tracks, got myself an MP3 player, and Eminem consisted of the bulk of the tracks that made it in. Life was never the same. Yes, I did mostly listen to American rap after that and some other radiocore music, but my obsession just started.


**Evanescence – Bring Me To Life**
Bring Me To Life is yet another track that I first saw on the TV. However, my parents were equally interested in this music and it was sometimes playing from my dad’s local files and we had it on CD that my dad played a lot during road trips, especially when traveling on some holidays. Included on this CD there were also the next 2 tracks on this playlist. What else I can say about this is that Evanescence is the band that sparked my interest in such gothic aesthetics and Amy Lee might have been my sexual awakening. I still have an Evanescence poster hanging in my room.


**Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood**
Clint Eastwood from Gorillaz is another track that was playing a lot during road trips and maybe because I always had trouble with falling asleep during those due to excitement, this music became what I now associate with that excitement. It brings immediate memories of those times. Much simpler times. That’s the first instance of me really enjoying such meandering, spooky-sounding music. Gorillaz to this day remains my most resilient band that I keep coming back to all the time. Much of the things contained here are bands of the past, however Gorillaz is very much present to this day for me.


**One-T – The Magic Key**
The Magic Key is sort of an anthem of my childhood. I really loved the MV and the song itself too. Around this time I got access to internet and I was looking for more One-T’s tracks that I enjoyed. But nothing will ever beat this particular track for me. Very sentimental. Can’t find words to describe what I’m feeling when listening to it.


**Gnarls Barkley – Smiley Faces**
Gnarls Barkley is a band that sort of tapped in to my liking for funk music. I also really liked Black Eyed Peas and that’s pretty much it. I found this music very catchy and enjoyable and happy. Also this track in particular reminds me of holidays when I was crushing on one girl, but it really mostly reminds me of couple of days when I woke up much earlier before everyone else did, went outside when the sun was just rising, I played music on my MP3 player and kinda danced to it. I remember another song I listened to at the time was something from One Republic, but nothing brings back that memory as good as this song. I listened to more Gnarls Barkley, obviously the song Crazy, as well as Just a Thought which became more of a track for modern days.


**Timbaland – Bounce (feat. Dr. Dre & Missy Elliott)**
Bounce is a track that I discovered through a movie soundtrack. Soundtracks, mostly to movies, tv series and games were a big part of my music discovery. This particular song appeared in Step Up soundtrack which I loved. I listened to a lot of them and that was also around the time I fell in love for the first time. So it reminds me of those feelings, that particular feeling in my stomach. So yes, soundtracks were pretty important to me. Most notably Step Up OSTs, Need For Speed soundtracks, and many other tv series (Skins, Misfits, etc.). Also that Dr. Dre verse always taps into my liking for Eminem, as their style is somewhat similar.


**UNKLE – Be There (feat. Ian Brown)**
UNKLE is yet another band I found through soundtracks, and they in particular appeared both in tv shows and in NFS game. This particular track, however, used to be my all-time-favourite. I found myself really enjoying trip-hop as a genre. Part of it might have been started by finding DJ Shadow’s song on Toonami trailer that was on Cartoon Network that I always watched at my grandparents’ house. DJ Shadow also worked with UNKLE on that particular album. I love the atmosphere here, that catchy beat, that atmospheric music, just Idk, I like it a lot. At the time I found myself enjoying a lot of music from the UK. Which in big part is due to me watching a lot of British tv shows.


**NERO - Innocence**
NERO is YET another band I found through the same means. However, here I can pinpoint the exact cause and effect. I discovered this particular track in the tv series called Misfits where there was an episode with a lot of dubstep music and I blame it for starting my dubstep phase. It didn’t last very long but it left a mark on my taste. I mainly listened to UKF stuff, but this track is certainly a stand-out. A certain quality started popping up, that particular dense sound that I think reached the highest point for me in a song by Gemini – Blue, which I absolutely loved. I am however including NERO for their influence on my taste.


**Korn – Falling Away From Me**
Vibe switch. Right into a track that probably influenced my taste the most. I listened to a lot of hip-hop and some adjacent genres the most, with some dubstep here and there, and of course radio music. I had no interest in rock or metal besides what my parents listened to (Evanescence, Rammstein, Nightwish). I only remember reading some teenage music magazines where bands like Korn or Slipknot were mentioned and I just thought to myself “how can anyone enjoy that? It’s so aggressive and unpleasant to listen to” and I felt the same way when I saw SOAD’s “Chop Suey!” on the tv when I thought about it as an anti-music. One of those days I was hanging around the internet looking at some crap when I found a video about police violence, and this track was playing in the background. It felt so powerful together and I weirdly could not get that track out of my mind. First time I found a metal track and enjoyed it on my own, without any influence of my elders, though knowing and liking Rammstein prior to that might have played part. Sure, I thought about it as anti-music, but there were some single tracks I enjoyed. Either way, Korn started a big transition for me from mainly hip-hop music to more rock-influenced music, starting at rapcore, which is to follow.


**Linkin Park - Faint**
Starting from Linkin Park. This particular track, however, was one of those single tracks I enjoyed, but I went back to and started exploring more of the band after having listened to Korn. It clicked right in. This song I discovered on a mashup from the Worms game, with some tricks. This video contained a lot of such alt-rock music which I was coming back to later. But Linkin Park was my biggest discovery through it and when I went to see them live and that track came on, I had incredible chills. So it’s definitely important.


**Hollywood Undead – Dove and Grenade**
Next up, my biggest lfm curse – Hollywood Undead. So many scrobbles, so few interest in them nowadays. But they were that transition from hip-hop to rock, and they fit right in. It was a remix from NFS game of the song Levitate which I thought at first it was Fall Out Boy, because of the vocalist, but then I discovered HU. I paid no attention to lyrics, and musically it was great. It was simple, catchy, and fun. I also managed to make my friend listen to them and we both were talking a lot about their music. Nowadays he listens mainly to polish rap, and I…well. Some other shit. Fun fact: the beat to this song was produced by Castle Renholder, who also provided the same exact beat for Puscifer (side project of James Maynard Keenan of Tool) in one of his songs.


**Bring Me The Horizon - Sleepwalking**
Here is a track that as the first song ever gave me goosebumps upon listening to it for the first time. I discovered BMTH shortly after making last.fm account and it might be my first big discovery through the site. This album was amazing. Not only this song, but Can You Feel My Heart had this enormous effect on me, like I really found something so damn good I could not get enough of. I was absolutely hooked. Later on it served as a perfect music when playing some League of Legends. Now it mostly brings me these memories and I don’t come back to it often, unless for some nostalgia. Absolutely marvelous though.


**65daysofstatic – Drove Through Ghosts to Get Here**
65dos is yet another influential band for my music taste. I remember finding on some Facebook groups for INFJs (yeah, that 16 personality types thingamajig) questions about what music suits that personality type the most and many were like “post-rock” with lots of Sigur Rós and GY!BE posting. I started liking them, but then I discovered 65dos and I found myself enjoying it a lot. They gave me the kick to discover more post-rock bands, among which are MONO that I went to see live. I had a brief period listening to math rock bands too, but it was 65dos that really stuck with me and opened the post-rock gates.


**Have a Nice Life - Bloodhail**
While discovering post-rock I found on the site some bands with funny names and decided to check it out solely due to that. Very clever. But here I am. Simping over majority of those funnily-named bands, one of which ended up having what is now my all-time-favourite album which originated my nickname on discord. More about the band and everything else is to follow on my main personcore.