2) It seems to be personal preference more than anything in my (limited) experience.

Recently discovered Ulcerate, a New Zealand death metal band with a really interesting style. Very atmospheric and reliant on evolution of their songs. Good stuff.

Meshuggah - Marrow

Jethro Tull - Aqualung 40th anniversary vinyl was one of the first records to really wow me with my meagre HD202s. Strapping Young Lad's Alien blew me away as well.

I love Neurosis to death. They took me a while to 'get', but damn it was worth it.

I used to hate extreme metal, now I'm a sucker for weird bands or albums that take a long time to warm to. I've never gone from intense hate to love, I tend to be just unimpressed at first.   The biggest example in my musical evolution is Meshuggah for me. Years ago I had no idea what all...

Deathspell Omega's Drought ep is horribly mastered. Distorts like nothing else I have ever heard.

Sennheiser HD202s right now, as my first foray into the hi-fi world. They're very good for my situation (currently overseas, only got my laptop for music). Going to stick with them till I can get my hands on something a bit better.

Devin Townsend's Deconstruction took me a good while before I could fully appreciate it. I found it too stupid for its own good and it just overwhelmed me. I bought Mastodon's Crack the Skye and Tool's Aenima on the same day which was a mistake, two heavily refined albums which alienated me at...

    The tension and release is magnificent.

Mike Patton... that reminds me. Mr Bungle takes the cake.

Devin Townsend- Terria, Ocean Machine, Ki, Deconstruction Pink Floyd- DSOtM Neurosis- Through Silver in Blood Strapping Young Lad- City Opeth- Still Life, Deliverance, Ghost Reveries Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick Porcupine Tree- Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet

Opeth - Deliverance.

I'm into some pretty weird music, recently I've been listening to Blut Aus Nord, a seriously disturbing black metal band. They disregard anything to do with melody or theory for that matter.     Neurosis, Deathspell Omega and Strapping Young Lad are some of my favourite bands, they can...

Wagner- Tristan Und Isolde overture. Joe Hisaihi's stuff. Isis' Oceanic album makes me a bit teary. Porcupine Tree-Anesthetize. All of this stuff has more to do with the circumstances or overall concept (T+S and Oceanic are pretty sad stories, Ghibli movies make me very emotional).

I agree with starting by ripping *new* music as FLAC. There is a lot of debate over whether FLAC is dramatically better than 320kbps (I think it is) but the clincher is how good your equipment is (mine is not too good :p).

First of all, hey everyone! Looking forward to a good time on these forums. http://www.last.fm/user/mrbean667