Five albums that changed your life

[Krilons Resa]

I'm borrowing this from another forum since I found it interesting. Throughout the years on RC, I know we've had favorites lists, etc...but not a list of albums that CHANGED YOUR LIFE. So, let's try it out, shall we?

Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Well, I was in grade school and my mother would buy me a cassette if I hit certain grades every time my report card came out. Since she wouldn't buy me Iron Maiden, but would buy me GnR (go figure hah), this was the first album that was relatively heavy that I got hooked on and wore out the cassette.

Tool - Aenima
i was hooked on this album from early on in high school and was my intro to more complex and darker music. i do think lateralus is their masterpiece though.

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
another album I was hooked on in high school and another intro to REALLY dark music.

Radiohead - Kid A
this album is so dear to me for the simple fact that it got me through a severely difficult time in my life. I remember when I first purchased it in college, being completely pissed that I wasted my money on it, and playing frisbee with it in the dorms. That is until a couple years later when I dropped into severe depression and this record totally clicked with me. I dont listen to it much nowadays because it brings back the feelings of said time in my life.

Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane
The album I was really hooked on while recovering from my depression and getting my life back in order back around '03/04. The emotional depth of this album is profound.

No specific albums but growing up, when my father would pick us up on weekends, he would play Classic Rock ala Sabbath, Zep, The Who and Prog Rock ala Jethro Tull, ELP, Yes, etc 24/7 and that seriously contributed to my love for music and prog as well.

 

[lurch70]

I'm borrowing this from another forum

cough ... FaceBook

 

[Tranquillian]

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
I bought this off my cousin in 1990 (on vinyl of course) and it was my first metal album. A friend of mine had earlier the same year properly introduced me to Iron Maiden by dubbing their albums to cassette. For the next couple of years I hunted down every Maiden vinyl I could find in local shops and the only mailorder I knew of. I don't think I bought any records by any other band for the next 2 years, but I ended up with about 40 Maiden vinyls. The first cd I ever bought was Fear of the dark, before I even had a cd player.

Entombed - Wolverine Blues
The videos for Hollowman and the title track used to be on Headbanger's ball quite often at the time this album came out. I had previously heard tracks from Left Hand Path and Clandestine on the local radio but it was perhaps too raw for my uneducated ears. Wolverine blues was an album I could get my ears around properly, and it wet my appetite for more death metal. I actually borrowed the cd from the library and dubbed it to cassette long before I bought it.

Agalloch - Pale Folklore
I used to hang around on irc, on what was some kind of blind guardian channel iirc. Erik and Lutz used to hang around there too and it must've been one of them who introduced me to Agalloch. This must've been in 2001 because I bought "Of stone wind and pillor" from The End when they still had it in stock. Agalloch remain an awesome band (on their albums anyway).

Dissection - The Somberlain & Storm of the light's bane
I was a late comer to black metal, after the turn of the century. All the corpse paint turned me off because I considered it silly. After buying these albums, and worshipping them ever since, my fondness for black metal has turned it into my favourite genre.

In Flames - Whoracle
I bought this in 98 when I was recommended to listen to it by a friend.
The album that started me on the path to discovering better bands within the Gothenburg scene, like Dark Tranquillity and later At The Gates. In Flames really is a great gateway band. Since Colony it's all gone downhill for the band.

 

[Krilons Resa]

cough ... FaceBook

I know what yer talking about, but no. You're wrong.

 

[Johanna]

I'll do this later, just reserving my spot.

Me too, gotta think a bit. Most abvious is Metallica - Ride the Lightning.

EDIT: says Hell Mike the rockenroll rövhöle

 

[MFJ]

hmmmmmm I'll elaborate more, but

Vintersorg - Odemarkens Son
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Opeth - Blackwater Park
In Flames - The Jester Race
Comus - First Utterance

 

[Ellestin]

^
one in common

I'll post more later, too.

 

[Tranquillian]

I updated my post above.

 

[einride]

i don't know but here's four

bruce dickinson "balls to picasso" (being the first heavy album i remember liking at all)
tiamat "wildhoney" (being super transcendent and atmospheric and the album that made me realize what kind of music it is i live for)
tiamat "a deeper kind of slumber" (being the album that has helped me through a lot of emo bullshit and probably my most frequently listened to album, period)
emperor "in the nightside eclipse" (being the album that made me first worship satan)

 

[Demilich]

Opened my mind to the dark side and to the full potential of THE METAL RIFF!

Gave me my appreciation of thrash and generally fast music.

Turned me on to progressive structures, extreme vocals, heavy/soft dynamics, etc. Wish I'd known how many far better albums out there reflected these qualities.

Gave me my appreciation for strange music, and for acid folk in general. Has probably been largely responsible for leading me to check out all the other Brit music of the 60s that I listen to now.

The first ISB album I got into. My appreciation for this proto-prog/psych/folk band has altogether changed the way I approach and appreciate music, something I didn't really think would happen again. The musicianship and songwriting abilities of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson as well as their contrasting styles and personalities continue to blow my mind to this day.

 

[Crimson Velvet]

Metallica - No Life till Leather: A gift from my uncle, depressingly many years ago. Can of worms, Pandora's Box, etc etc
Bathory - Blood Fire Death / Mayhem - Deathcrush: Honestly, I can't even remember anymore which one I heard first. Anyways, Norwegian black metal teen how original yay
And roughly six years later, probably something by Dark Tranquillity. I had heard At the Gates earlier, the world-changing experiences with them didn't come until some age-related maturation had set in.
And that's basically it, I reckon. I've all over the map and back since, and couldn't possibly boil it down to a couple of choice titles. Oh, Burzum changed my life in '94, but it was still within my preferred parameters.

 

[Vittra]

I believe between Amon Amarth and Meshuggah, these were the first 2 "Metal" bands I listened to. I grew disinterested with Meshuggah early on, and although I may not listen to Amon Amarth much these days (for various reasons), I must praise them as being my gateway into metal, which has become the mainstay for the rest of my life.

One of the first Black Metal albums I had listened to. It provided me with an entrance point into the dark, ugly, savage and brutal yet strangely beautiful world that is BM, a world that has by far become my favourite. This album is shelved and listened to infrequently, intentionally, as it amplifies the effect that it is if I am listening to it for the first time, every time I hear it.

To me, Black Metal is about feeling, atmosphere, thought, intelligence.. raw yet melodic, the ability to find and discern beauty in filth and ugliness.. in evil. In a world where metal is considered extreme to the masses, some black metal is considered extreme even to those of us that revere the general genre.

Although "melodic" black metal in specific is now something I rarely listen to, my love of this album keeps my respect for it intact, and is I reminder of how I have come to this point.

In some cases, lyrics can amplify an album or song and help it transcend from simply just good to excellent. In my opinion, Vittra is one such case. The lyrics are some of the better written/more inspired ones that I have read.

Dissection remains my favourite band, tied only with Drudkh, to this date.

Dissection represents more than just music to me, and changed my life in the most profound way more than anything else this list mentions.

With this album came my interest into Satanism, and other topics which seem to make the general masses squirm with fear. The evil Dissection exuded was obvious yet felt more subtle than other bands of it's time. The MLO and Jon's beliefs were intriguing and interesting to learn about, and the the idea of what the MLO represented was both seductive and yet terrifying. It was passage into experiencing the darker currents of the world, unseen by most and understood by less.

Most importantly, my true appreciation for those with intelligence (and hatred of those who lack it), as well as my hunger for knowledge and understanding, the desire to absolutely crush and remove ignorance from my life, stemmed from this album and from Dissection. From this revelation likely stems the strong sense of misanthropy that I developed and cultivated, but so be it.

It was from this point on that I had decided that I much rather live truely knowing what goes in in the world around me and be disappointed with what I saw and felt, than to be supposedly "blissfully ignorant", or even worse, simply stupid.

A lot of bands creating music along the styling of Blackened Folk have a lot to thank Agalloch for, regardless of it Agalloch itself never earned this title and was instead dubbed "Dark/Folk Metal". Falls of Rauros is one such band that comes to mind.

Pale Folklore remains unique to this day, and is one of the major influences to me that and opened my eyes to lighter music within the sphere of metal, yet retaining dark qualities. In a way, I can owe my pursuit to finding such bands as Caïna due largely to the impact Agalloch had on me.

It is not so much what this album itself represents to me, as much as what it represents to me as a whole. It marks a recent awakening in me of sorts, which signified an expansion in terms of my musical tastes insofar that I am now willing and interested in progressive and psychedelic music, and perhaps even folk. It is something I am branching into now at a very slow but steady pace, as I now explore it slowly myself, and take the excellent recommendations given on these very forums in regards to these styles of music.

 

[Tranquillian]

Vittra, you have excellent taste in music.

 

[M.Lehto]

It's really hard to say and about half of these I hardly ever listen these days, but at the time, they made a huge impact:

Guns'n'Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn
Opeth - Orchid
Ulver - Trilogie
Dream Theater - Awake

 

[cthulufhtagn]

i would have to include master of puppets and we sold our souls for rock and roll

also probably the mantle, 1349 "beyond the apocalypse" (first black metal album i ever got into) and my arms your hearse.

honorable mention to mellon collie and the infinite sadness and to nas "illmatic" for being the album that opened my mind to hip-hop and still being the greatest album evar in that genre

 

[Vittra]

Vittra, you have excellent taste in music.

 

[Demilich]

I wish I had felt that articulate when I wrote mine!

 

[Plastic Nathrakh]

Vittra just got me to check out Dissection finally.

Also, I want to touch Doomcifer's naked body for exposing me to Pain of Salvation. I've never heard anything like Remedy Lane. Refreshing.

 

[Dick Sirloin]

LOVE THE COMUS LOVE IN THIS PLACE, though I don't think it changed my life per se.... but may be a top 5 album ever

GENESIS - Selling England By The Pound
METALLICA - Ride the Lightning
MAYHEM - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
THE BEATLES - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
THE SMITHS - The Queen Is Dead

 

[Para-Void]

Maaan, I wanna do this list so bad, but it's really hard to put down everything into 5, and choosing between albums whom you have a pure emotional connection, or are just were a gateway to new music.

Nirvana - Nevermind. Not cool, but can't ignore this one. Got me passionate about music for the first time.
In Flames - Jester Race - It's either this one, or Blackwater Park, who got me into european metal and a more complicated song structures.
The Cure - Disentigration - Made me get closer to the 80's, dark rock, shoegaze
Radiohead - Ok Computer - Discovering Radiohead, a whole new world.
Eliott Smith - S/t - Pure emotional connection, helped me overcome stuff.

Meh, not fair. I could write something different in every hour.