Was never really into music growing up. My folks were into synthpop, reggae and 80's rock. My Mom was an old punk with an ear for New Romantic music (the natural progression of a lot of early 80's British punks).

I liked some of the synthpop stuff like Ultravox, Q Lazzarus, Soft Cell, Visage etc... but not to the extent I made any attempt to listen to it.

When I was about 14 pop punk became pretty popular Blink 182, Green Day, NoFx, Millencolin, New Found Glory etc... which I listened to and got me into Kerrang and subsequently more rocky stuff like Muse, Nikelback, POD and then I started going to rock nights where Pantera and Rage Against the machine were frequently played. At this time I was also listening to the likes of Eminem (my sisters influence) and Linkin' Park. I like the anger in some of Eminem earlier stuff probably moreso than most of the rock/pop punk I was listening to.

After I left secondary one of my close friends started a band that quickly evolved into a black metal band (he'd been wearing Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir shirts for a while, but I'd never really paid much attention...), around the same time I picked up a copy of Terrorizer magazine on impulse with a CD full of unsigned British acts like Send More Paramedics, Thus Defiled and Skaldic Curse... I was pretty hooked from there. First getting interested in Thrash, then Black Metal and Death Metal. From zero interest I was part time performing vocals with my friends black metal band in about 9 months.