Bands that blew your mind...

[nataservant]

...when you first heard them or when you listen to them now. Why?

for me it's

Ensiferum; when I first heard them they just amazed me at how they put folk, death, viking, and power metal together and crafted it into a work of art.

Opeth; when I first got a hold of Opeth, I wasn't too impressed because of the slow parts (that was when I was mr.fast heavy metal) but after my tastes started evolving, I really fell in love with thier mixture of deep vox and sudden turn of acoustics and melodies. Simply genius.

Blind Guardian; I was fully against powermetal about a year ago, but then I heard Ensiferum and thier song, "Eternal Wait," the chorus just hooked me so I was determined to hear some more in that vocal style. I got a hold of "Nightfall On Middle Earth," and amazing epic album on the story "Silmarillion" by JRR Tolkien. I have been a powermetal and Blind Guardian fan ever since.

Soilwork; I have been a Pantera fan since my venture in to metal. I asked about any bands that had a sort of similar scream that Phil Anselmo could produce. I buddy refered me to Soilwork. The first album I bought was Steelbath Suicide. It was such a beautifully brutal album that I had to by every one of thier releases. To me it is one of the best albums I've purchased.

Pantera; yes Pantera, about 6 or 7 years ago, I listened to all kinds of garbage, one day a friend of mine put on "Vulgar Display Of Power," it had to be (at the time) the most extreme shit I've ever heard, the kick ass drum beats, Dimebags riffing, screaming guitar solos and harmonic squeals, and of course Phils awesome voice. After I heard that album, I knew my destiny, it was to find metal and everything that belong to it. I owe my metal life to Pantera and I they will always have my fanship.

Now, what about you...?

 

[AjDeath]

Well, Pantera was my gateway band also, I thought they were the fuckin be all end all, then my friend and drummer put on some Death and it totally floored me, I went out and bought all of their records and was amazed how someone could evolve their music that much without a very drastic change in styles, they remain my favorite band.

Same thing with Cynic, Focus is THE allbum of alltime.

Recently it has been Opeth, I never listened to them until maybe six months ago, they really push me to be the best guitar player I can.

Other bands that blew my mind-Carcass-Heartwork, Old Sepultura, Nevermore, TestAmenT, Anthrax, Crowbar, Cryptopsy, SRV, Sting(esp. Mecury Falling) and myriad clssical composers

 

[MightyDrynwhyl]

my dying bride, atheist, maudlin of the well, and mayhem's deathcrush mcd

 

[anonymousnick2001]

Yeah, I first heard Pantera way back about 2 years ago. Vulgar blew my mind. I remember looking at the back cover while listening to "Fucking Hostile" and just saying, damn, these guys look so cool!

Sepultura, when I first heard Max was in an older band before Soulfly. I listened to some songs off Chaos A.D. and nearly shit myself.

Opeth, when I listened to a clip of Harvest, and then the song Bleak. I bought the album within two weeks. My first death metal purchase, a milestone considering I hated death metal. I loved the album on first listen, growls and all.

Dream theater, when I bought SDOIT as a wild card and popped in the 42-minute title track. Holy shit was that good.

Godsmack, because their album Awake came out just when i was transitioning from punk/altenative to metal. All the 'big' bands were popular then. Linkin Park, Deftones, Limp Bizkit...ad nauseum. Then, I listen to the radio and this fucking heavy song comes on, wth an amzing solo(still one of my favorites), and an amzing chorus. I was converted then.

Mudvayne, thought they were the biggest slipknot ripoff. Saw their video, and said, this guy's screaming the whole song! The drummer's just hitting random things! Their bass player can't play bass. He's just hitting the damn thing! Until my uncle, a non-metal fan, saw the video, and bought the cD cause he like it so much for the bass and drums, did I listen and fall in love.

Rob Zombie, when I was a young tyke playing Twisted metal III and heard the awesome music blasting through the speakers. Been a fan of everything he's done for five years now, except for the shitty movie...



I think the biggest one of all was U2. Seeing the video for Beautiful Day, and then hearing all of their other songs from my uncle, who had all their CD's...my favorite band to this day. So much innovation, catchiness, and wholesome soul.

 

[Cannibalistic]

Band that blew me away... let me think, Probably Carnivore.

 

[ffanatic]

Pain of Salvation

 

[Life Sucks]

Suffocation
Pestilence
Testament (the first metal band I got into after Megadeth and Metallica)
Dismember

 

[Naggamanteh]

My first metal ever was CoF: The Principle Of The Evil Made Flesh. I heard it in my sister's taperecorder and I loved it. After that it was Therion, the album Vovin and also the track To Mega Therion... I was stuck with bullshit bands for some time... until one day I heard BRODEQUIN. That (and some other bands) is my current benchmark right now, we'll see what more the future holds for me.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Vehemence
Opeth
My Dying Bride
Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane
Atheist
Cynic
Today is the Day
Absu

 

[Shell Shock]

Metallica back when.. Pantera, though I never liked their slow-going stuff (Cowboys and half of Vulgar are my favorites, Driven's fucking boring). Alastis, Crematory, and Tiamat gave me a taste of doom.. Then I kinda fell asleep, oblivious to European metal for a very long while, until I found Threshold, Andromeda, Pagan's Mind and other newish prog-metal acts.. Got interested, obviously.

Now I'm very much into today's metal scene..

 

[nataservant]

I have to add Finntroll, I mean when I first heard Midnattens Widunder I was wondering if they were serious, but after the second listen I couldn't take the album out of my cd player. I mean who else can make an accordian sound great in metal.

 

[Perpetual Demise]

Well here is one topic I can really respond to! I have had countless bands that have utterly influence my life in ways I would never have expected... I shall start with a little bit of history...

When I was about 10-11 years old, I really got into music... I picked up a copy of a Stained CD (can't even remember the name of the CD now) and I fell in love... I then went to pick up CDs from bands like Creed and Cold (a band I love to this day.) I was a depressed little fat anti-social dork... this kind of music went well with such an outlook on life... In any case, I stuck with that for about a year or so... Then came my angry stage.

Ever teenager goes through the stupid stage of being angry at everyone, and expect that the world bow before their every whim, and that they are "owed" something because they feel they are a step above the rest... They all, however, learn that the world owes them nothing... Anyway, to fuel this new mood, I picked up CDs from bands like Limp Bizkit and Slipknot (something I am not ashamed of to this day.) I worshiped those bands for about two years... Then came an accidental CD swap and a whole new world of music, that I hold true to this day...

So I am at my friend's house, and I bring over my Limp Bizkit - Signifigant Other CD (yes, the near-rap album) and put it in his Cd player to play, taking the other CD out (a strage red Cd with a face coming out of what looked like a pool of blood) and put it into my CD case. Anyway, I leave his house, forgetting to put my Cd back into the case, and bring home this bizarre looking CD... It is Cradle of Filth's "From The Cradle To Enslave" (the worst release ever by this band) but I did not know that at the time... Anyway I pop it into my Cd player, play 30 seconds of a song, and turn it off in disgust and go to sleep... At about Midnight, my curiosity overcame me, and I put the CD back on... suffice to say I slowly fell in love... It then followed with every other Cradle of Filth CD, nd sicne then has moved onto bands all across the metal spectrum, from Black Metal elite such as Emperor, Immortal and dimmu Borgir, to Symphonic Black Metal Vesperian Sorrow, Nokturnal Mortem, Death Metal like Cryptopsy and Nile and Cannibal Corpse, to Grindocre such as Origin, Hate Eternal, Power Metal such as Blind Guardian, Dragonforce, Symphony X... and COUNTLESS others that would take days to write... allof this because of one shitty Cradle of Filth E.P.

 

[skeptik]

Well the most recent was Vital Remains.

 

[Esteban]

Iron Maiden - The first metal band I heard and still my favorite, I listened to The Trooper and I couldn't believe it, the galloping bass, awesome riff, soaring vocals, etc.... mind blowing.

Symphony X - Michael Romeo's guitar tone and the epic compositons of this talented band are impressive, The Divine Wings of Tragedy got me into prog metal.

Mago de Oz - This spanish band makes a perfect mix between folk, celtic and metal; great stuff, their albums haven't left my cd player for months.

Anathema - Judgement is one of my favorite albums, so emotional.

Evergrey - It took me at least 10 listens to appreciate how great In Search of Truth really is, now they're one of my favorite bands, and Tom Englund is the most emotional vocalist in metal IMO.

Dark Tranquility - Always hated bands with death vocals until I listened to these guys.

Children of Bodom - Alexi Laiho is a guitar god, the solos are so good, unbelievable. This band's sound is aggressive yet very melodic, difficult combination to achieve.

Sentenced - There's something about this band that I just love, haven't figured it out yet, but The Cold White Light is one of my favorite albums.


I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but those are the ones I can think of right now

 

[NocturnalSun]

Children of Bodom - What's not been said about them yet? I mean they're fucking amazing. They're soothing and aggressive at the same time. it's amazing that Alexi has only been playing for ten years and he's THAT good.

In Flames - The minute I heard Cloud Connected, I was hooked. I know it's not their best song, but I found that out once I got all of their albums starting from Lunar Strain. O yeah and I met Bjorn (guitarist) at the San Antonio, Texas gig they played with Mudvayne last year!!! that was WIKKED

Dimmu Borgir - Very dramatic opera like tones and riffs that I've never heard before. It really knocked down some music boundries I had originally.

Cradle of Filth - Her Ghost In The Fog is still the best song ever, Dani Filth impressed me sooo much with his sikkk wailing voice

Dark Tranquillity - What intrigued me most about them is Mikael Stanne's deep, echoing, eerie voice. He can go for hours on end doing very throaty songs. Also, the lyrics blew me away. This truly is one of the greatest bands that ever lived. Anyone could tell right from Of Chaos and Eternal Night

Steve Vai - haha what guitarist doesn't know of Steve Vai!!! he is the best shredder on earth and a true guitar virtuoso. His songs are so diverse too. They show that one person can have many different sides to him/her. very impressive, especially with the G3 (Vai, Satriani, Petrucci)

o and one more.... A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms has got to be one of my top 3 albums EVER. Maynard never fails to impress me in anything he does, but A Perfect Circle is a step above the rest. The vocalwork is passionate, simple, and warm. The guitarwork impressive, complex, and very melodic. Can't wait for Thirteenth Step to come out

 

[futile]

In Flames
Dimmu Borgir
Opeth

 

[Terrifyer]

The first Metal bands I got to hear were Cannibal Corpse and Cradle of Filth, man when I firts heard them I was shocked.... those Bands are still among my favorites

 

[Lethe78]

Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction:

Back in '92, I was listening to a lot of mainstream rock, and getting into grunge, specifically Nirvana and Pearl Jam. One day a friend of mine and I were listening to music, and he put this cd in. The second I heard "Sweating Bullets" start, I was enthralled by the evil sounding twin guitar intro.
Dave Mustaine sounded like the most tr00 vocalist I had ever heard. The brilliant guitar work combined with intelligent lyrics was superiour to any of the "radio metal" that was popular at the time.



Pink Floyd - Animals:

All I can say about this album is that it is one of the most under rated albums of all time and let's face it, with Pink Floyd, you can't go wrong.



In Flames - Whoracle:

This cd totally made me understand what the word "metal" meant!!! The melodic guitar work and "understandable" death growls (as opposed to the Cannibal Corpse style, where it is impossible to discern a single word, possibly not helped by the fact that they sound as if they were recorded inside a closet with the microphone on the opposite side of the door as the singer), changed my perception of death metal in general.
It wasn't loaded with the cliché's gr1m makeup with false evil expressions on the musicians' faces. They weren't about the blood and gore and eternal misery that the other bands [with which I had been familiarised]. It was just what I associate with awesome "real" metal.




Opeth - Morningrise:

This was odd, because at first, I didn't like much of what I had heard (from any of their albums). But after listening to "Morningrise" a few times, something clicked, and it totally changed they way that I listened to music. It also changed the way I go about song writing in general.
Mike's ability for word manipulation creates an interesting collage of multi-syllabic sentence structures, cleverly spiked with poetically elusive meanings.
Chock full of unorthodox riff changes and more often than not complicated song structures made Opeth's originality unlike anything that the "metal" world has ever really seen before (I assume; like I am the authority regarding such things ) .
One moment there will be badass double bass, growls, and all that is tr00 and gr1m, and suddenly, it magically metamorphosis's somehow into acoustic guitars and *GASP!!* "singing".
The final product pure and simply, musical wizardry which sets the highest standard for music in general.


Short and sweet.

 

[DiscipleOfPlato]

Hmm...some of this requires quite a bit of reminiscing. I'll start at the most recent.

Ephel Duath- I bought "The Painter's Palette" a few months ago, and it absolutely floored me. The beautiful, intricate jazzy melodies interspersed with the intense screams and heavy riffage...honestly one of the most refreshingly creative albums I've heard in a long time.

Death- This one came as quite a surprise to me. I never really was such a big fan of the sub-genre, but this particular band is simply amazing. Brutally heavy and yet they're technically awe-inspiring at the same time...great stuff.

Symphony-X- "V: The New Mythology Suite" was all I needed to be blown away by this awesome band about two years ago...

And going much further back...

Dream Theater- Purchasing "Images and Words" was probably the most prominent taste-altering musical decision I've ever made. They were the band that opened the door to prog-metal for me, and their music hasn't lost a single ounce of stillborn amazement to me...quite possibly my favorite band.

Some others I'm too tired to write about:
Opeth
Iced Earth
Queensryche
Amorphis
Tool
Fates Warning

 

[OrestesMantra]

Opeth ~ Probably a year ago I was into radio-rock, nu-metal stuff like creed, disturbed, korn, deftones, etc and I thought I was mr. hardcore-rawker-4 lyfe. Then I began to visit the IGN boards metal forum and all I heard was praise for the weird band called "opeth" that had a bit artsy O as a logo. So I downloaded a few songs and wasnt impessed. I only heard grunting and noise and that it was crap. This impression lasted for probably a month or so. I cant recall why I gave them another shot, but damn, It sure changed my "metal-career". I discovered the brilliance of Blackwater Park(STill my alltime favorite album.Period) and soon began reading metal reviews, metal forums, checking out new bands, listening to insane amounts of new music. From that one band Opeth I now am an avid fan of every kind of [good]metal.

THANK YOU OPETH