Influential Albums

Tallant wrote:Very nice list, good variety too. Didn't know you liked stuff like Scholomance and Glassjaw.

thanks dude, glassjaw is very essential for me. also i gotta add
with honor - s/t ep & split: both speak volumes to me that i can't put into words
killswitch engage - alive or just breathing:started a long trip down metallic hardcore/metalcore highway & another album with spoke to me.(too bad they blow with howard)
grade - under the radar: back when screamo(if you wanna call them this) was good, 10th grade winter jam

*sighs*

This is gonna be the hardest thing I've ever done (thats what she said), and I'll probably forget shit, so bear with me.

Yes - Close to the Edge was probably the first taste of non-commercial music that I had. My dad is big into Yes, and he introduced them to me at a young age. This is still among one of my favorite albums, and it is one of the inspirations for my playing guitar and piano. I don't think it had any effect on me listening to Metal, but it definetely platned a seed of respect for Progressive music.

Code of Ethics - Soulbait was the first album recommended to me
by someone outside of my family. CoE is a Christian Alternative band
that, if I remember correctly, used screaming everyonce in awhile. From
that, I heard about other Christian bands such as Skillet and POD and
such. I don't really remember the finer parts of this album, as it was
so long ago, but I remember the memories, if that makes any sense.

Nuclear Assault - Survive was the first taste of Metal that i ever had beyond radio shit like AC/DC and such. My brother-in-law is a big thrasher, and one time when I was at my sister's house after they got married, he was asleep and she was gone to the store. I went into his study to play computer, and instead got side-tracked looking through his CDs. Alot of it I had never heard of, so I just picked a random one and stuck it in. To be honest, I was suprised, as I had never heard anything aggressive like that before. I was fairly young at the time, not even a teenager, so I don't remember my exact opinion on the first listen, but after I went back home, I forgot about the album and the band.

At this point, its very hard to see a transition musically. My family moved from Ohio to Florida, and I had no friends down here. I was homeschooled, so I didn't have alot of contact with other kids my age or older. I played alot of video games at this point in my life, and until I was 13, I had no extra musical influence other than my parents. Not much history here, except the fact that my family rented out our extra room to Bible school students, one of which happened to be Jacob McManness, an old friend from Ohio who was 19 at the time I was 13. We were good friends, and he got me into some albums that I'll mention next.

From Autumn To Ashes - The Fiction We Live was my first taste of "Hardcore"-ish stuff. Jacob shared them and a few other bands that weren't anything like FAtA with me, which I won't go into alot of detail about, but this band really stuck out to me. It was the screaming and the aggression that caught my attention along with the melodicisity. The albums in between this and the next "hard" band were branches into other genres, but this is possibly the band that I can attribute my getting into Metal to.

Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica, which I slaughtered the spelling of, had an effect on me as well. I'm not sure how, but it will always remain in my memory.

Radiohead - OK Computer was a very influential album for me, believe it or not. It, as well as the aforementioned Modest Mouse album were both ones I heard from Jacob. Like I said before, I'm not exactly sure how this album influenced my musical taste in particular, but I know it had some effect. Now that I think about it, this band might have somehow been the reason why I love Doom and Drone and such. Don't ask me how exactly I arrived at this conclusion, but it makes sense to me. I know...I'm a dumbass.

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That's Part One of a Two Part OVA set. I'm dead tired...I'll finish the rest tomorow, I guess. I hope you enjoyed yourself reading this, and I'm sure it only casts more confusion regarding my shitty taste in music.

An attempt at Part II...

I will now skip forward all the way to the year 2005. At this time, I was Modding at a gaming forum from the game Ambroid. It was there that a conversation about Metal came about, and honestly, I was mainly listening to alot of Mallcore and barely any Metal. I joined in on the conversation, and was recommended several bands and given a good site to find them at. I proceeded. It was these albums that greatly influenced me.

Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake was possibly the heaviest thing that I had heard up to this point in my musical experience. I loved the shit out of this album, and still do. Not much to be said about it, as the places it led to are rather obvious.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries was the first "real" Metal that I really fell in love with. This album was easy for me to get into because of my background in Proggy stuff such as King Crimson and Yes. I loved the vocals, and the growls amazed me. I had to hear more like this.

I then asked my good friend Ada about his taste in Metal, as he was sort of "revered" as a God of Metal at that forums. He said Doom was his particular cup of tea, and I asked him for recommendations. He sent me to another site with a list of albums, and I dug in.

Candlemass - Tales of Creation is still, to this day, one of my favorite albums. The pure emotion, beautiful singing, and heavy riffs blew my mind, and made me fall in love with this genre known as Doom. Although Tale of Creation isn't exactly the "purest" of Doom albums, its a good starter, and one that I often recommend to those who have no knowledge of Doom. I fell in love with Candlemass on a huge scale, and that led to a couple other albums.

Reverend Bizarre - In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend was the slowest, most heavy thing that I had heard up to that point, and is also still a huge favorite of mine. This album was not recommended to me by Ada or anyone else, it was one that I downloaded out of curiosity because of an article/review that I had read of the band. I'm so glad that I decided to download that album and the others by RB.

I'm skipping alot of material at this point, by the way.

Wormphlegm - In an Excruciating Way.... Yes, the one-track EP with a ridiculously long song title. Also a recommendation/experiment of Ada upon me. It was my first delve into Funeral Doom, and I loved it. It was so eerie and horrifying to me, as the first listen was under a pair of headphones, cranked up volume, and in bed with the lights turned off half-asleep. Oh god...I can still remember that first scream after the sewer noises scaring the fucking shit out of me, and then I remember being amazed at how awesome it was. The entire song is a journey into the depths of Hell, with no escape. Excruciating slowness and that entire genre was completely new to me, and unheard of, but I still loved it.

Morgul - All Dead Here.../The Horror Grandeur are still absolutely brilliant albums to me. They are so heavy and despairing, yet subtle and beautiful. I have no idea how this influenced my taste, but its so awesome and deserves mention in my album list.

I have to leave soon, so I'll make this into a trilogy.

That was Part II, and I'll write Part III either tonight or tomorow.

Jester wrote:Candlemass - Tales of Creation: Although Tale of Creation isn't exactly the "purest" of Doom albums, its a good starter, and one that I often recommend to those who have no knowledge of Doom. I

I think the self titled is a lot more easy to get into, especially for those who are already into heavy metal since it's a great mix of slower and faster stuff.

Interesting list so far btw. ^^

Thanks.

Andddd...yea that could be true. I don't think that the self-titled was out yet when I first heard Candlemass, however. And, you're right, because I've recently been recommending Metal to my best friend, and for Doom, I gave him the self-titled Candlemass and he liked it. He doesn't like Heavy Metal that much though...if at all.

I think Tales of Creation is more for people with backgrounds in more fantasy based stuff, or the more emotional ones. The self-titled was awesome, but I didn't feel very much emotion.

Haha, I just realized I only have the first three and the last two albums on my computer, so I don't even know about Tales of Creation.

Part I

Tom Petty- Full Moon Fever- When I was young and wrapped up in the boy-band phase, my fatherwould play this album to me during his tireless efforts to snap my phase. The songs on this album are incredibly sentimental to me, as they represent many early father/son moments (as cheesy as that sounds).

Linkin Park- Hybrid Theory- The first album I ever went out and bought on my own. For four years, I played this album endlessly–to the point where I had it on me wherever I went. After getting into metal, I gave this one a rest. For whatever reason, I just can’t get into it again.

Our Lady Peace- Happiness Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch- I remember the day I purchased this album, and I remember listening to it so much that day that by the end of the day, I had nearly all of the words memorized. This purchase turned me into a devout Our Lady Peace fan, and I still hold them high in my mind to this day.

AFI- Sing The Sorrow- One of two albums I purchased before getting into classic rock and metal. This may be AFI’s "sell-out" album, but I still love it today despite the "emo" turn they took. Oh well, guilty pleasure I guess.

The Distillers- Coral Fang- The last album I purchased before classic rock and metal engulfed me (not to give the impression that I haven’t purchased any non-metal albums since...because I have). This album represents the end of an era in many ways, but I still have a soft spot for many of these songs.

...

I was 13 years old at this point, and my parents bought me my first guitar. I had guitar lessons every Friday night, and they were given by a man named Ray. Ray was really into classic rock and early metal, most of which I had never heard of. Despite his efforts to persuade my musical opinion towards what he was more familiar with, I was wrapped in my own world, trying to play the music I was into at the time. Every Friday before these lessons, my younger brother had Karate lessons. My mother would drive me to my guitar lessons, but stopped to pick up my brother on the way. She would go in early to catch the end of his lesson each time, so I would be left in the car with only the radio to amuse me. I eventually found my way to the classic rock station, where I slowly began to fall in love with bands like Led Zeppelin, Guns N Roses and Black Sabbath. After informing my teacher of the nifty tunes I had heard before his lesson, he excitedly began to show me various songs to play. This led me to investigating a few albums:

Led Zeppelin IV- After raiding my dad’s music collection for anything I had heard on the classic rock station, I stumbled upon this little album. It was a gradual process, but I eventually became completely wrapped in this album’s hard rock, but more specifically in its more mystical side. At this point I became convinced that the old stuff was the only way to go, and I gave the boot to all the aforementioned albums (for a few years anyway).

Guns N’ Roses- Use You Illusion I- I remember being so obsessed with this album that I actually dreamed of being the members, and it genuinely saddened me that the original lineup had split. Seriously, "Don’t Cry" still gets to me.

Black Sabbath- Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath- Here it is! The album that changed my life. It was October 17^th 2004 (yeah, I remember the date), and I was in Music World with my dad. I had a ten dollar bill in my pocket, and I was looking for something cheap. As I came upon the Black Sabbath section, I scanned the back of each disc looking for "Iron Man". To my dismay, I couldn’t afford "Paranoid", so I bought this for three dollars less. I remember instantly loving every song upon first listen which is very rare for me. After doing some research I discovered that general consensus considered Sabbath the first Metal band. Being the hormone-ridden teen that I was, this excited me. I began to do research, and the rest is history. I fell into the genre over time, and I haven’t looked back since.

I will post a Part II (which will chronicle the most important metal albums for me) later. Hope this was enjoyable.

Everlost wrote:Haha, I just realized I only have the first three and the last two albums on my computer, so I don't even know about Tales of Creation.

=P

You should get it and give it a listen. Its pretty epic

@ Lord H: Great list. I remember when I downloaded that Our Lady Peace album ( I guess you had recommended it or something)

Its good. =]

Ok, I'll put it in my way too big "to listen" list. :p

Oh yea...I'm the same way. =P

LordHangnail wrote:
Tom Petty- Full Moon Fever- When I was young and wrapped up in the boy-band phase, my fatherwould play this album to me during his tireless efforts to snap my phase. The songs on this album are incredibly sentimental to me, as they represent many early father/son moments (as cheesy as that sounds).

AFI- Sing The Sorrow- One of two albums I purchased before getting into classic rock and metal. This may be AFI’s "sell-out" album, but I still love it today despite the "emo" turn they took. Oh well, guilty pleasure I guess

Woo!

Yeah! Tom Petty and AFI are quite good.

I've seen Petty & The Heartbreakers a good number of times when I was little because my parents are classic rock freaks. I also saw Steve Miller Band a bunch, Lynyrd Skynyrd like 4 times, Chicago like 4 times, Aerosmith a few times, and The Eagles a few times.

Wow. You should count yourself pretty lucky then. I'd love to see Skynyrd or Chicago.

I've personally held up a lighter during "Free Bird" on multiple occasions.

Chicago rules. "TWENTY FIVE OR SIX TO FOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUURRRRRRRRRR!"

Chicago = awesome.

also this ep/song http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=3569407596412893792&hl=nl
It is the most beautifull song in metal.
The piano solo is the best you will ever hear.
This should release some emotions in your cold black hearts.