Following a band/artist from the beginning

[Zydar]

Is there a band or an artist where you've been a fan since practically day one of their career? Where you started listening to them around the release of their first album and been following them ever since? Maybe even saw them live before they had an album out? I'm talking about the type of band/artist who has been around for quite a number of decades now - like Metallica, DT, Iron Maiden, Yes, Rush, Kiss, Springsteen etc.

I'm trying to find one for me, but since I mainly listen to stuff from the 1960s-1980s, there's no way I can say that it applies to me Even newer bands like Haken I discovered two albums into their discography and then started to follow them. I started listening to Oasis early on, but that was around the time of their 2nd album, so that doesn't count either.


Do you have any examples that applies to you?

[Adami]

Don't think anyone who's been around for many decades.

Been there for Alter Bridge from the start, and that's 2 decades now?

[Stadler]

WOW, great question. I have to think about that a bit...

[Zydar]

Maybe I could lower the bar a bit, "a number of decades" sounds like there should be lots of old geezers here on DTF

[Zantera]

There are some for sure.

Linkin Park got me into music and Hybrid Theory was the first album I ever owned. They're not necessarily among my favorite bands but I have a lot of appreciation for them and nostalgia and I've been with them all these years, even though they're currently on a hiatus for obvious reasons.

A couple of names that pop up in my head as artists I like a lot and have been with since their first albums: Kimbra, Submotion Orchestra, The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Black Country New Road, Bruit < and Squid.

[Adami]

Maybe I could lower the bar a bit, "a number of decades" sounds like there should be lots of old geezers here on DTF

Luckily there are!

We already have a number of people following DT from WDADU. I think even a few following Metallica from KEA or even prior.

I have no doubt we'll have a person or two say they've followed the Beatles from their days in Germany or taught Cab Calloway how to scat.

[Skeever]

A few that come to mind:

- The Mars Volta: this used to be a proud feather in my cap, but I stopped liking them after the 3rd album...
- Haken: bought "Aquarius" on a blind-buy at Vintage Vinyl when it still existed
- Periphery
- Tesseract (at least from the first EP)

[Zantera]

A few that come to mind:
- Periphery

I forgot about Periphery! I'm also on that boat of finding them through their debut album.

[romdrums]

Nine Inch Nails for me. Trent was in a band with my first drum teacher called The Exotic Birds, and my Dad and I actually met Trent when he worked at a keyboard store in Brookpark, OH called Pi's Keyboards. So, when I heard that Trent had a new project called Nine Inch Nails, I was all about it, and grabbed a cassette copy of Pretty Hate Machine as soon as I could. Still a fan!

I know DT had put out WDADU prior, but I think those of us that got into DT with I&W can count that as well.

[coz]

"Weird Al" for me, thanks to my brother buying his debut album.  We listened to the hell out of that.  Then "In 3-D" came out.  We went to meet Al at Sound Warehouse and saw his show at the old Rainbow Music Hall here in Denver.  Both places long gone.  I still love his music to this day.

[pg1067]

Closest for me are YYNOT (which may or may not count) and DT (which I started following more or less immediately after I&W was released).

[SoundscapeMN]

do they have to have had a long career? like a certain number of releases in their catalog?

All started in the last 25 years

The Dear Hunter
The Reign of Kindo
Kimbra
Pure Reason Revolution
In Vain
East of the Wall
Bend Sinister
Hotel of the Laughing Tree
Local Natives/Cavil at Rest
Warpaint
Foals
Mutemath (not active anymore)
House of Fools (not active anymore)

also how to do solo artists/side projects apply when they had previous bands?
Steven Wilson
Amanda Palmer
Liquid Tension Experiment

[Lonk]

I think for me, the only band that meets the criteria is Disturbed. While I'm not nearly as interested with their music, I certainly keep an eye out for what they are doing. I guess Plini as well.

There are a lot of bands I was following early in their career but lost interest afterwards.

[billboy73]

The one that first comes to mind for me is Nile.  I remember seeing Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka when it first came out in my local music shop in 1998.  I had heard about them, as they are from South Carolina (the upstate area, I am from the lowcountry of SC).  I thought I'd give it a chance, as I had started getting into death metal.  I loved it from when I first put it on.  It was one of the most brutal things I had heard.  One of the things that stood out was the Egyptian lyrics were so cool and a cut above the usual gore lyrics of death metal.  I have bought all of their subsequent albums on release day, and seen them live 5 times.  They are one of my favorite death metal bands.

[MoraWintersoul]

I've only started listening to bands formed later than the 80's in 2006 with Sonata Arctica (who were four albums in) and seriously wading new releases in 2010, so I'll have to think about this. What a great question!

[emtee]

I guess the "still follow" descriptor might throw things off a little for me. But since the beginning;

Heart - still follow, buy and listen.
Dokken - been on board since the beginning but didn't buy the latest album.
QR - been on the train since the EP with a few derailments but still follow and buy.

[Samsara]

Alter Bridge is the first one that comes to mind. I was on board from the first song they released.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Haken - I heard their demo Enter the Fifth Dimension back in '09, but I can't remember how or where I heard it, but I loved it and bought the first album the day it was released.

The Dear Hunter - I was already into Casey's other band The Receiving End of Sirens, so when the first Act album was released I was all over it.

The Mars Volta - Similar to The Dear Hunter, I was already into At the Drive-In, so this was a logical next step.

Coheed and Cambria - Bought The Second Stage Turbine Blade on a whim a couple months after it released and have been a fan since.

Riverside - I heard Loose Heart on Progulus back in early '03, was an instant fan.

I'm sure there are a lot more....

[LithoJazzoSphere]

This is a surprisingly difficult question.  On one hand, I could say Secret Garden, since my father bought their first album when it came out in 1996, and I took over the CD at some point and continued listening to it.  But I haven't really continuously followed them beyond the next few albums, and haven't even heard their last few yet. 

On the other, I feel like there has to be something in the late 90s/early 00s, but scanning through some of my lists I can't find any that I got into on their first album and have continuously followed since then (and the artist hasn't fizzled out by now).  I guess for now that leaves someone like either Delain or Kate Havnevik, who both released their debuts in '06, I discovered them in '07, and have pretty consistently kept up with their new releases as they've come out. 

[Nel]

I discovered Animals as Leaders because they sent me a friend request on MySpace. 

[Stadler]

Flying Colors, maybe?

EDIT: there are more than I thought:
Bruce Dickinson solo
Blackmore's Night
Velvet Revolver
Twisted Sister
Temple of the Dog
Stevie Ray Vaughan
The Cars
Night Ranger
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Gov't Mule
Fish
Dio
Ozzy Osbourne (Blizzard was a game changer for me)
Cinderella (saw them open for David Lee Roth right when they released their first record; it's still my favorite)

Oh, the biggest one:  ASIA

I saw Queensryche and Bon Jovi on their debut tours as opening bands, but I can't honestly say I got into QR until Operation Mindcrime, and never really got into Bon Jovi.

Honestly, there's probably just as many bands that I got into the first album and lost connection with them.  Live, Train, Motley Crue

[Grappler]

Halford
Ashes of Ares
Blaze/Blaze Bayley
Cavalera Conspiracy
Soulfly
Witherfall
Poisonblack
Hail of Bullets


These are all bands where I enjoyed the debut when it was released and have followed since, though some may have disbanded.

[MirrorMask]

Side projects are a bit of a cheat I guess 'cause you were already interested in the main band to begin with. I could say I followed James LaBrie's solo carrer from the beginning which is actually true, but the only reason I know James is obviously DT and I started to follow them properly only when they were about to release Scenes from a Memory.

With Sonata Arctica I don't remember if I got into them only with Silence, their second album, or I already got notice of them with the debut Ecliptica.

Another minor cheat is Cellar Darling, which is made up of ex Eluveitie members.

Halestorm come close as well, I came aboard with their second album.

There's a local folk metal band, Folkstone, that I've followed for dozens and dozens of concerts, and it was basically the beginning as well even though they were gigging already since a year or two, and were not far from releasing their second album when I started to follow them; case in point, my second concert of them was the release party of the second album.

[Mladen]

I don't know if Flying Colors count, as the band members were around for quite a while.

Vola is probably the one that does count. I'm listening to them since the debut came out in 2015. 

[Dream Team]

I was on board for Metallica's and Dio's debuts in 1983 as well as a whole bunch of other metal and thrash from that decade. Can't think of any others atm.

[lonestar]

I came across Nemophila when they had only two singles out and had done two live shows before the pandemic hit. During the shutdown they released weekly cover videos and amassed a huge YT following to where their first live show post pandemic sold out in hours.

Since then, they've released 3 albums, done a USA tour and played Aftershock, done multiple Japan tours, and recently headlined at the infamous Budokan.

It's been a treasure to watch their hard work pay off, and to have seen them 4 times now.


In the time I've been following the band I've been a part of...

- their first album release
- seeing their first show post pandemic on stream, a tremendously emotional event
- attended their first show outside of Japan, and their first where the audience could speak (Japan was very strict with their covid protocols)
- their first outdoor festival, and until the Budokon event, their largest crowd. At this show we had their first moshpit, and their first crowd surfer which I proudly passed to the security at the rail.
- the first two shows of their first US tour
- along the was I've procured 12 shirts, 1 hoodie, all the girls picks and the drummer's sticks, two setlists, one signed.

[ariich]

Haken - I heard their demo Enter the Fifth Dimension back in '09, but I can't remember how or where I heard it, but I loved it and bought the first album the day it was released.

Were you on DTF at that point? If so it was probably me.

There are loads of bands I've got into with their first album, which is what most replies seem to be about. Too many to be worth listing really.

But in terms of Zydar's actual question in the OP, Haken is the obvious one for me, for obvious reasons. I knew their pre-demo demos and was one of about 15 people at their first ever gig.

[TAC]

I was on board for Metallica's and Dio's debuts in 1983

Yup..

Also:
Armored Saint
Anthrax
Queensryche
Flotsam & Jetsam
Bruce Dickinson solo

[dparrott]

I was fortunate enough to have gotten into 90s British alternative in the beginning, like Blur, Oasis, Radiohead etc.  I got all of their first albums and most of their singles.  An album and new b-sides almost every year.  That was a fun time.

NWA/Eazy E - I lived north of LA when they first came out, and the local rap radio station was playing them before they got popular.

[nick_z]

Nice thread!

Let's see...

- Alter Bridge (yep, from the beginning too)
- Ghost
- Anathema (incidentally, I bought but wasn't terribly into their debut, Serenades, despite the fact that even now it's considered an important record for the death/doom canon. But more or less starting with their second full-length, The Silent Enigma, I was fully on board)
- Moonspell (I always keep tabs on what they are doing, but they don't excite me as much as they used to anymore)
- Pain of Salvation (this is cheating a bit - I bought One Hour By the Concrete Lake when it came out, and it was the first album of theirs to be released in Europe. At the time, Entropia was Japanese-only, I believe)
- Saviour Machine (although their discography is not very extensive, in the end)
- Threshold
- Enchant
- Nightingale
- Dark Tranquillity
- In Flames (lost interest, though)
- Muse
- Opeth
- Nevermore
- Novembre
- Pearl Jam (kinda lost interest here as well)

Close, but not quite:

- Dream Theater (discovered with I&W)
- Amorphis (Tales from the Thousand Lakes)
- Dredg (El Cielo)
- Katatonia (Brave Murder Day)
- Evergrey (Solitude Dominance Tragedy)
- Paradise Lost (Gothic)
- Mastodon (Leviathan)

More might come to mind later...

[Jamesman42]

Off the top of my head, The Warning. I remember their Ted Talk video and how great "Survive" was, and I casually followed them for a while. 7 years later and they just get better and better. Maybe one of my favorite bands these days.

[jingle.boy]

From my 1st phase of musical discovery (ie, mid 80s)

Poison
Slaughter
Winger
Firehouse
Europe
Harem Scarem
Hareline
Skid Row
GnR
Tesla
White Lion
Mr. Big

From my 2nd Phase (bands that have more 2+ albums)
Circus Maximus
Flaming Row
Rhapsody
Borealis
Damnations Angels
Neonfly
Hemina
Magnus Karlsson's FreeFall
The Ferrymen
Mindmaze
Lords of Black
Noveria
Dec Burke
Evership
Ad Infinitum

[Skeever]

- Dredg (El Cielo)

I've got this one also!

[SoundscapeMN]

I got into dredg around Catch Without Arms, but I don't consider that anywhere near the beginning.

I know people though who became fans before Leitmotif came out..like the Orph EP. And I gotta believe from their perception, El Cielo was hardly "the beginning" really. They certainly grew in popularity around that time, but that album came out more than 5 years after they were a band.

[Stadler]

I was fortunate enough to have gotten into 90s British alternative in the beginning, like Blur, Oasis, Radiohead etc.  I got all of their first albums and most of their singles.  An album and new b-sides almost every year.  That was a fun time.

NWA/Eazy E - I lived north of LA when they first came out, and the local rap radio station was playing them before they got popular.

Jealous