Top Whatever Albums/Singles, that changed you.

chin_grin

Right kinda directly combating all the "what are the top albums of x category" threads that I'm (inadvertently) adding to.

But this one's different! How? Glad you asked. This one adds personality to it.

I want to get away from the generic, "pick albums that we're gonna fight over because my type is better than your type!"

What I want to do is to describe your favourite type of music, and the single or album that got you in and on the way to what you listen to now! Also how you felt when you heard it, like empowered or in awe or terrified! (When I first heard Dying Fetus......I really had to learn to change my ear to that sort of music).

For me I was a very late bloomer when it came to rock and metal in general.I did have the usual Metallica and Nirvana interests, but they were only a stop gap.

I remember hearing '5 Minutes Alone' (Pantera) and going "holy crap! The energy the heaviness....WANT!". So it spiralled from there and I started to get deeper in to the Nola, sludge and doom genres. Like YOB, Kylesa, Wreck of the Hesperus (Irish band), Crowbar, Black Shape of Nexus...........list goes on!

Also the second 'awakening' was when a friend loaned me a Dying Fetus album, (Stop At Nothing). Blown away! As I said earlier it was alien to me. And also being a drummer I thought it had to be a drum machine............had to.

PS: I do like most metal genres but I'll stick with "favourites" for now.

GLaDOS

Metallica - Ride the Lightning. First album that really got me into metal, still my favourite Metllica Album, although I don't listen to them much these days.

Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side/A Night at the Opera/Follow the Blind. Got these three at the time and were the ones that really got me into Power Metal, which is what I mainly listen to now along with prog.

Ayreon - The Human Equation. First concept album I really got into, still my favourite album in terms of pure concept. Also an incredible album in terms of originality, Arjen Lucassen is a genius.

Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane. Was an album I could really identify with and really spoke to me. Very personal album for me.

mike65

Thats easy - Deep Purples Made in Japan. Spent most of a summer listening to it. Before that I'd had a couple of hard/heavy/metal albums but that was the one, it dictated the next 10 years or so of my spending power.

Anyone who has it doesn't need it explaining, but for those who don't - its the Hammond C3 that does it.

damonjewel

Iron Man - Black Sabbath just stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it I must have been only 10 years old but it started a long affair that is still going strong

Velvet Underground and Nico (Andy Warhol) - Just amazing, edgy gangly guitar tunes about drugs, an electirc viola that cut through everything, Then some of those smoky sultry vocals that only Nico can deliver. I think I had bought the entire VU catalogue within weeks of hearing it.

Relics - Pink Floyd, My Dad had borrowed it from my uncle, again I was just a child but its weirdness just opened me up to a different world

Doo right - Can, Heard it at a party and it hooked me totally on its groove, showing me the way to the Cosmos

jenizzle

I was a very late rockin' bloomer. My first really favourite album was Californication by RHCP (I only listened to pop and dance before this) and something struck me! I went to see them 4 years in a row and thus my love for live music was born.
Whilst trying to rock myself up a bit more, I went on the hunt for Nevermind but came across Vs. by Pearl Jam (this was in '02 I think?). I had heard Daughter before and thought the opening track 'Go' was too heavy (lollerskates :rolleyes:). I only had it on tape and the rewind button broke yaddayadda I soon fell in love with the whole album and thus my Pearl Jam love started. From there I had to get more, got into AiC and very much enjoyed the heavier sound that came from Dirt so I got some music from the lads I went to college with and my love of metal came from that. Nevermore, Pantera, Opeth, Agalloch... I'm still quite a commercial metal fan compared to some but I do enjoy doom now

ride-the-spiral

Tool - Lateralus - Introduced me to metal, but i didn't really have a clue so i never really thought of it till after i stopped listening to it. Even now i can go back and marvel at how well it's written.

In Flames - Jester Race - Got me into heavier metal and really just opened me up to all the great death metal bands. I still write in the vein of this album and still consider it a landmark.

Between the Buried and Me - Colors - After i began listening to In Flames i stayed listening to generic metalcore and melodeath (Not that its bad ). My basic concept of songwriting was verse - chorus - verse and i was getting a bit sick of it. And then i heard this. It took me quite a while to appreciate it but once it hit me it hit me hard. I realised so many different things about composition, musical concepts, musical progression and just the appreciation of an album rather than a collection of songs. Remains my favourite album and probably will for awhile.

Meshuggah - obZen - Although i had liked a fair few progressive and experimental bands, my least favourite aspect of the genre was the odd timings. This changed that. I would have never thought a band could base their whole sound on dissonance and odd time signatures and still manage to sound good but Meshuggah really opened my ears to rhythmic complexity.

Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory - A concept in the more conventional sense (Not that Dream Theater have ever been conventional) Brilliant songs which segue together perfectly and a great story to go with. I feel surprised everytime i listen to this album because it feels much shorter than it is, nothing seems dragged out (Except maybe that solo section of Beyond this life...)

Sorry for the long post... :pac:

chin_grin

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Meshuggah - obZen - Although i had liked a fair few progressive and experimental bands, my least favourite aspect of the genre was the odd timings. This changed that. I would have never thought a band could base their whole sound on dissonance and odd time signatures and still manage to sound good but Meshuggah really opened my ears to rhythmic complexity.

Sorry for the long post... :pac:

No need to apologise!

Yeah that was another third eye opener (sigh! Sorry!). I heard "New Millennium Cyanide Christ" from Meshuggah and knew that they were effing amazing. Check out Chaosphere! Everything before that is brilliant too (Destroy Erase Improve), but they got it bang on with this album.

ride-the-spiral

chin_grin wrote: »

No need to apologise!

Yeah that was another third eye opener (sigh! Sorry!). I heard "New Millennium Cyanide Christ" from Meshuggah and knew that they were effing amazing. Check out Chaosphere! Everything before that is brilliant too (Destroy Erase Improve), but they got it bang on with this album.

Yeah I've got their Discography My favourite album's probably Catch 33 or DEI but obZen was the first one i heard

cedomination

I was a bit late to metal,the only thing could hold my attention when I was younger was catchy riffs (CKY,Korn,that kind of stuff). I remember somebody online recommending the song "Omerta" by Lamb Of God so i downloaded it with some really bad P2P app and when i first played it I was seriously like ->:eek:
I think it was the slower songs like Omerta that really stuck with me,and to this day I still love slow,crushing songs (Ov Fire And Void by Behemoth springs to mind)
Anyway, I then heard Six Feet Under,who led me to stuff like Cannibal Corpse etc.

I posted a thread on here asking for recommendations and through that found Amon Amarth,Dismember and a few others. (thanks to everyone who posted in that thread)

Albums that changed my opinions and stuff:

Napalm Death - Scum - First grindcore album I bought,also album from start to finish and probably the reason that I love grindcore more than any other "extreme" genre.

Kataklysm - Prevail - I wasn't too mad on Death Metal. It was sort of a "heard one band,heard them all" thing to me,but the opening track blew my face off and opened my ears to more death metal.

Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works First time I heard this every track seemed the same to me but the more more mainstream songs on it (Black Bubblegum/Milk Lizard) made me listen to it a bit more and I slowly realised that there was so many layers to each track that I never heard the first time round. now they're my favourite band.

Max Power1

ALbums that changed my musical outlook -

Metallica - The Black Album.

This was the album that got me into metal. I had previously been listening to tripe like Nirvana and LimpBizkit.

Slayer - Hell Awaits, Megadeth - Killing is my Business

Got into both of these at the same time. My interest in fast thrash music grew., and led to me getting into bands such as venom, kreator etc

Deicide - Stench of redemption -

First death metal album i got into, and it changed my outlook on "cookie monster" vocaled bands, which i would have not even bothered to listen to beforehand. The mixture of heavy drum beats, melodic but fast heavy guitar parts combine well with Bentons vocals, almost like a percussion instrument in parts. It just fitted with the music. I would probably consider their eponymous debut, "serpents of the light", and "once upon the cross" to be their best albums, but Stench is right up their too.

GrizzlyMan

Good question!

Got Sepultura Arise when it came out and just blew me away! still does..... after that just kept getting into the whole Trash/Death scene....but Then I got Something Wicked by ICED EARTH, it turned me into all genres of metal........like Blind Guardian, Ensiferum, Skyclad, Dissection etc
God how I love Meeeeeetttttaaaaaaaalll:D

JBnaglfar

Opeth - Still Life

Although I had listened to Tool, Metallica and such before, it opened the door to extreme metal and I haven't looked back since

Somnus

Metallica - Master of Puppets The album that got me into metal proper. Before I had listened to System of a Down etc. But when my friend gave me MoP to listen to it blew me away. I remember sitting in my room and just thinking "Wow. That is amazing." Loved the energy in Battery and MoP. Love Sanitarium as well, still one of my favourite Metallica songs.

Opeth - Blackwater Park The first Opeth song I heard was Bleak and I was like :eek: Couldn't believe how great it sounded. So layered, just like a wall of sound. And showed me how well quiet acoustic sections work in metal. The contrast between the acoustic and heavy parts of their music makes it so dynamic.

Tool - Lateralus Always think of Tool as a love 'em or hate 'em band. My friend got me into them just before their last gig here. Definitely one of my favourite bands. I think their music is just amazing, and it gets into me unlike any other band,although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Always thought it's like going into a trance listening to them or something. All the instruments and vocals are perfectly mixed on that album and Aenima so they've just got such a great atmosphere.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Was drinking in my friends house,just chilling out, and he stuck this on and Shine on You Crazy Diamond absolutely blew me away. I had listened to Dark Side a few times before then but it hadn'y had the same impact. This album really opened my eyes to Floyd and to older music in general. Especially less heavy stuff.

Dream Theater - Awake/Train of Thought Two very different DT albums. ToT got me into Dream Theater. At the time I was more into metal so when I heard As I Am I loved it. It's a classic DT album now though I think, so many memorable, relatively straight forward songs :P Got Images and Words after, but it took me a while to get into it. But when I listened to Awake I instantly loved it. It's one of the most atmospheric albums ever. And that's why I put it above Scenes from a Memory. The band in general opened the door to prog for me.

Great thread by the way! It's good thinking back to when I first heard all those albums that really introduced me to something new.

Nephilim Wolf

[FONT=&quot]Fields of The Nephilim - The Nephilim - [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Before I heard of Fields I was mostly listening to Joy Division as far as gothic rock goes. I was in Freebird records in 2004, and I spotted an unusual looking album on cassette that had a brown cover like an old ancient book. This really intrigued me a lot, so I looked it up on allmusic.com and what it described sounded very interesting. So the next day I went back into Firebird’s and bought it. When I got home I put on on the stereo and by the time it was over I new I just heard an album that was very very unique and well crafted. From there I bought all the albums except for Zoon and Fallen. I also bought the rather excellent comeback album 'Mourning Sun' from 2005. Since then I've discovered a lot of truly fantastic gothic rock bands like The Mission, All About Eve, Opened Paradise, Elusive, NFD etc etc.


Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time - This was probably one of the first proper heavy metal albums that I heard way back in 1992. When I put it in the cassette deck I was amazed at how much better and sophisticated it sounded compared to other metal bands. I eventually got the other albums; although they are class this will always be my absolute favourite.


Rush - Exit Stage Left - A college mate gave me a lend of this awesome album in 1998 and I was blown away by it. At the time I was looking for rock/hard rock that was a bit more interesting and adventurous than bands like AC/DC, Whitesnake etc. I was truly amazed by the musicianship and the song arrangements. I remember cycling home from Parnell Square to Tallaght listening to this quite a few days in a row, and going different routes like passing by Kilmainham Jail and few other interesting places.


Type O Negative - October Rust - Another college mate gave me a lend of this album in about 1999 or 2000. I must have listened to this album about 10 times before I gave it back to my mate. I was just blown away by all the gothic arrangements, and the way some of the songs are quite eerie and sorrowful. I didn’t really know what gothic metal sounded like until I heard this album. Soon afterwards I bought 'Bloody Kisses' which is almost as great, and eventually bought 'World Coming Down' which for me was Type O Negative's last great album.


Paradise Lost - Draconian Times - I think I may have discovered this album sometime after 'October Rust'. I was in HMV on Grafton Street one day and I seen an album with very interesting and imaginative artwork. So I decided I would take a chance on it, and buy it without hearing it and hope for the best. This turned out to be an excellent decision for me. That night when I was lying in my bed I had a proper listen to it and I was extremely impressed with what I heard. Everything about the album was amazing and awesome, the arrangements, the guitar riffs and sound, the lyrics, the drumming and the vocals. I've heard very few gothic metal albums that can match this album. The only few that come to mind would be 'Wildhoney' by Tiamat, 'Arcane Rain Fell' by Draconian and of course 'October Rust' by Type O Negative.


Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse - This was one of the very first black metal albums that I heard. At first the blasting drumming and the fast guitaring took me aback, but I soon got into it. I always come back to this album due to the amazing song structures and complexity. I've actually never heard any other symphonic black metal album that can compare to this, except 'Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and Dusk And Her Embrace, but that's about it. The only other Emperor album that can easily compare to this would be 'Anthems to The Welkin at Dusk', but thats about it. The other albums are pretty good, but they really lack the sheer atmosphere and majesty that '[/FONT][FONT=&quot]In The Nightside Eclipse[/FONT]' has.
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Nea

Megadeth – In My Darkest Hour
My introduction to metal was from Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and GnR all those years ago. My first boyfriend (ahh) gave me a loan of a mixed video taped from MTV back in the day music was played on it. Said tape had loads of stopping and starting on it but I caught about 15 seconds of the beginning of In My Darkest Hour. Kept playing that 15 seconds over and over. Begged and borrowed till I could run down and buy a copy of So Far So Good (on tape of course) Thus began my love affair with Thrash.

Soundgarden – Hands All Over
In a mates house one afternoon he popped on the Louder Than Live video he borrowed from a friend. Hands All Over just stopped me in my tracks, it was so different to what I was listening to and Cornell’s voice was amazing. Cue running to buy Badmotorfinger and a love affair with Grunge music (and Chris Cornell)before it was actually called grunge.

Rammstein – Ich Will
Waking up on a mates couch after being out on the piss over Christmas. Someone walked in and turned on the telly, cue for me to move. Ich Will came on some satellite station. Well I jumped off the couch. What a riff and the synths were amazing. Off to buy Mutter with a sore head.

Opeth -Deliverance
A latecomer to Opeth, whom I heard so much praise for on this site. Deliverance was the first track that I downloaded to see what all the fuss was about. Well **** me blown away wasn’t the word. Cue mass buying of Opeth albums. They still very much excite me as much as bands did when I was in my teens. Will be seeing them for my 4th time in Oct and am looking forward to it already. So a big thumbs up to all Boardies who bigged up Opeth!

Porcupine Tree - Open Car
As with a lot of PT fans, the association with Opeth is the reason for discovering this amazing band. The chorus gave me goosepimples first time I heard it. Goosepimples are always a good thing! Eagerly awaiting The Incident.

It’s funny how the first 3 tunes were all videos of the artist as I wouldn’t really know more up to date band videos unless it was on You Tube. Scuzz plays that much ****e I would rather have a cd on than waiting forever for a decent tune.

All songs apart from Opeth are still my favourite tracks from said artists.