The most important band to you, musically?

[labrekk]

"Lighter" Metal:
Iron Maiden and Accept.
(one of my friends in elementary school was into these bands, and since he was the "cool kid", I followed suit).

"Heavy" Metal:
Voivod and Celtic Frost.
(85-87 was when I got into the "heavy" stuff thanks to those two bands. For the next bunch of years I listened primarily to thrash and death metal ... took me a while to find my way back to "classic metal" and hard rock).

We pretty much have the same "pattern". I started to get into metal with Ozzy, Dio, Accept, Maiden and Priest in 1983-1984. Then a couple years later, I got into thrash with Destruction, Slayer, Exodus, Sodom, Kreator, Celtic Frost, Voïvod (saw them live at least 20 times!)... The local scene was very prominent with thrash bands in these years, lots of local shows and international artists too (Possessed, Dark Angel, Kreator, Slaughter (from Canada, not the other one), Venom, Slayer....) Then, I got into punk/hardcore with Bad Religion, NoMeansNo, SNFU, Dayglo Abortions, 7 Seconds, DRI, Suicidal Tendencies and the likes. I found my way back to classic metal and then into power metal around 1991 or 1992.

 

[johan68]

Saxon in the early eighties turned me on to metal. I was in Italy on vacation when I was about 11 and heard Wheels of Steel for the first time. No looking back since then.

Then in the mid 80's I went to see Marillion at the Hammersmith Odeon. I was in London to see Tygers of Pan Tang but had a day off and went to see Marillion on a whim. I have been a obsessed Marillion fan ever since and have now seen them some 40 times. That Hammy show was the most defining moment of my "music listening" career.

 

[AirGuitarLoonhouse]

For me the most impressionable albums/tapes/CDs that formed my musically tastes:

-1980-1983 Rush - wanted Moving Pictures but my parents got me the first Rush. My friend had Moving Pictures and I then got Signals, Caress of Steel, Fly By Night, 2112 either on vinyl or dubbed from a friend. My first albums.
-1983 - 1984 Def Leppard Pyromania (my first tape), then got their first 2
-1985 - 1986- Iron Maiden Powerslave and Live After Death and Metallica Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets
-1986 - Tesla - Mechanical Resonance
-1987 - 1988 - Queensryche - Rage For Order and Operation Mindcrime (one of my first CDs)

 

[Bryan316]

Hmmmm.


Gotta be careful here, and be truthful.


MetallicA.

By leaps and bounds.


They're why I started playing bass. They're why I got an actual desire to listen to music, to find bands, to pay attention to different genres and whether I liked a style or not. I will STILL play old MetallicA riffs when I pick up the bass and get warmed up for practice or gigs or soundchecks or testing a new bass out in a store. Easily, the most influential band for me, and Cliff Burton is my most important bassist to study when I started learning to play.

Of course, now I have Steve Harris and Geddy Lee and Geezer Butler and John Myung and all kinds of new discoveries.... but really, it comes back to Cliff Burton and MetallicA. Kill Em All and Master of Puppets. There's not a song, NAY! not a lyric, NAY! not a damned SECOND on those two discs that I don't have permanently committed to memory and can bust out at a moment's notice.

In fact, I think tomorrow's gonna be a Kill Em All kind of day! AT MAXIMUM VOLUME!!!

 

[nomisofsiman]

Soundtrack to my teen angst and coming of age years? Corrosion of Conformity, Iron Maiden, Amorphis, Everlast, Disturbed, Elton John, and Rage Against the Machine. They're all still very important to me musically, and I can't dare to pick one of the bunch.

I realize two of those doesn't really fit; just go with it.

Interesting. I'll take your word for it, but I must say it is amusing to see "Soundtrack to my teen angst" and "Elton John" in the same sentence.

 

[cslebn]

I'm 25 and in high school and early college years I was more into punk rock. The band that was most important to me was without a doubt The Alkaline Trio. Then in 2004 or 2005 my friend Chris introduced me to Rhapsody and Gamma Ray. Then with the help of the internet I discovered many amazing power/prog metal bands that I did not even know existed. Then I got a job a record store where we blasted Budgie, Black Sabbath, Atomic Rooster, Rush non-stop. From there I discovered NWOBHM/traditional, doom, and stoner metal. If I had to name the most important band to me it would probably be Sabbath or Gamma Ray.

Liar. Trio is still the most important band to you. Btw how's that pop/punk album coming?

For me I was influenced oddly by my parents. My dad was streaming REM, Yes, Rush, and King Crimson (ah yes); while my mom played broadway and motown. To this day I still love Les Mis, PTO, and Jekyll and Hyde. Basically the two started to combine so the complex elements of King Crimson merged with the symphonic nature of broadway and became metal.

My gateway has to be TSO. I had been doing all the classic rock (sabbath - metal really, rush, yes, KC, genisus, BOC, etc) but this was something that epitomized the merger of the two styles. From there ModernWizardry's dad recommended Dream Theater to me and it only went on from there.

As far as musically important to me though I also consider that the music I listen to most when I want to play or learn songs, and that's a different st of bands (whom I love very much). That list is more like Andromeda, Arch Enemy, Vanden Plas, Redemption, Threshold, Evergrey, Sieges Even, and Pain of Salvation.

Modernwizardry should also add Coheed & Cambria to his as they were the music of high school (SSTB) and early college (IKSSE3) that we loved. Though I think the best thing about them is for me they were a gateway to 3 who we were exposed to for the first time at a Co&Ca show at the Agora in Cleveland when they were just a no name opener. Those guys blow me away every time.

 

[cslebn]

I need to add Modernwizardry's dad gave me a cassette of Uriah Heep's the Magician's Birthday for the long guitar solo. Mick Box just rocks

 

[Angrafan]

I am 26... Angra was my first musical love. I remember seeing their "Make Believe" video on MTV around 1997 and I was totally blown away... Savatage was pretty important too, i just loved them!

But the band that had the biggest impact on my life was The Gathering ... It's funny, because I've known them since 1998 or so... I had a few of their albums... I thought they were good, but never one of my favorites.

After a few years of not even listening to any of their new releases,around 2003 or so, I picked up If_Then_Else... I just fell in love with the song Amity.. it was the most beautiful think I had ever heard!

After that my life changed... Not only the Gathering became my favorite band, they also opened so many new doors to me, musically... I naturally started going into a new direction, my sensibilities changed quite a bit... I started looking for new things in music...

 

[TwizstedJesus]

This is a totally awesome question! I remember being in a punk band and the drummer had started buying underground metal stuff. He brought a steady diet of stuff like Slayer "Reign in Blood" (which I didn't care for) Anthrax "Fistful of Metal"(it was okay) Metallica "Ride The Lightning" ( very good in parts),but the cassette that hit me hard was Helstar "Burning Star". I remember standing at the mic during practice and doing the Castle of Iga scream just fucking around lol. So my road to metal started there.
In my many journeys to the record stores (McCrorys record den, if anybody remembers that chain), I bought a variety of Metal Blade things like Hexx, Lizzy Borden "Give 'Em the Axe" & Fates Warning "The Spectre Within", along with Merciful Fate and King Diamond. The cassette that opened my eyes wide was Fates Warning "Awaken The Guardian". I was listening to Stephen King's "It" while listening to this cassette, and hearing it today brings back fond memories of this time.
My true progressive journey started with Fates Warning "No exit" and Watchtower "Energetic Dissassembly" I received the Watchtower cassette in the mail from a tape trader friend in Buffalo NY and it blew me away. When I got my hands on "Control & Resistence" I was a hooked progdog. Dream Theater solidified my penchant for progressive music with their 1st CD, and I never looked back again.
Its always awesome to review musical influences and read of others influences. People have taken many strange paths to get where they are and its always an interesting read

 

[Smitdawg]

For me when I was growing up, the bands that made the most impact on my life would have to be Metallica and Heart.

In High School, I couldn't get enough of Master of Puppets, and that is a big reason I am into metal today, although other genres.

And Heart I have always felt to be amazing artists. They are why I am so into female fronted bands. In fact, the reason I first discovered ProgPower USA was because I saw that Epica was going to be performing there, so I had to see them. And I ended up having a great time and came back the next year because of After Forever.

 

[Bryant]

Hmmm....... I guess I feel for some of you. I didn't have a "rough time" in high school other than pretty typical hormonal teenage stuff going on. I also didn't have parents who were against any kind of music. When I was a kid, I listened to my Mom's stuff. She has 8 tracks of Elvis, The Beatles, John Denver.....pretty typical stuff. The first "album" I ever bought with my own money was AC/DC "Back in Black." I was 11 and heard "You Shook Me All Night Long" on the radio. Those guitar sounds and that guy screaming his balls off just blew me away. In 1985, at age sixteen, I was introduced to Accept's "Metal Heart." It had the AC/DC effect X1000. Even to this day, that guitar tone, Wolf's solos and Udo's ear-piercing screams blow me away. I couldn't play them loud enough. They were THE band that took me through my teenage years and into adulthood.

Bryant

 

[Orfanos]

MANOWAR.

Should I say more?

 

[J-Dubya 777]

When I was a kid, I didn't have my own music, nor any way to play any music I might have had. My Dad had a lot of stuff from the 60s and 70s that was all over the place. I checked a lot of it out and the one thing that hit me immediately was The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper. I used to listen to that all the time when I was a little kid (when I say little, I mean like 5 years old). That was the first time that music really "spoke to me," and I've been listening to music constantly for the rest of my life. So for me, it would have to be The Beatles. I'd follow that up with KISS, as they were for me when I was in Jr. High School, and all males my age in the US, my introduction into hard rock/heavy metal.

I started with the Beatles too (Around 7 or 8), and still listen to them a lot to this day. My sister is 11 years older than me, so I got a lot of exposure to Hendrix, Cream, Deep Purple, etc. in my impressionable years, BUT it all started with The Beatles, then Kiss, Nugent, Rush, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, & the NWOBHM. The only side fork in the road was Zappa. Zappa is to this day, my ultimate music deity....

 

[nailz]

NWOBHM - what is this?

 

[MysticX9]

NWOBHM - what is this?

New Wave Of British Heavy Metal - after the initial blast of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, UFO, etc, you had the "new breed" of bands that were influenced by the originators, such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, Diamond Head, Tygers Of Pan Tang, and tons more...

 

[Savage Pumpkin]

So, I was browsing facebook, as I am wont to do at work, and a friend of mine posted a link to a song from the 90's which got me thinking about that time and how I still maintain it was the most important time for music and ultimately, the best decade for music, ever (results may vary, naturally). I got to thinking about how that was the time I started realizing that music was more than entertainment for me, it was a soundtrack to life, the art that truly mattered to me, the way I could connect to everything and disconnect from the world at the same time.

The most important band musically to me was The Smashing Pumpkins in the 90's. Their music was the sound of my teen angst and hormonal confusion, my feelings painted with sound, my anchor to sanity through some really rough times (I know it sounds cliche and ultimately it is, but for those of you who don't know, I'm gay and was buried so deep in the closet in High School I couldn't find my way out). Their music gave me an outlet for my inner demons and Corgan's lyrics took me to places of acceptance and gave me hope that I was not, in fact, alone in the world or in my head. Hindsight I, of course, blew my teenage issues completely way out of proportion, (but what teen doesn't?) but with music, I was able to cope.

I will always credit Alternative Rock to leading me to metal, for which I will always be greatful, and also helping me feel the energy of the world, but The Smashing Pumpkins will always have a special place in my musical heart.

Interested to hear others' thoughts on the subject! Go!

As much as I love power metal and progressive metal, my number #1 band that to this day I could listen to 24 hours a day is Def Leppard. I still agree with the majority that some of their albums are less than good. But there are a couple if not three tracks on those albums that are good. I got into the band during Hysteria. I love that album! I then backtracked and got the first three. "On Through The Night" was my first after "Hysteria" and I fell in love with the rawness and youthful energy of it. Then it was on to "High And Dry" and "Pyromania". Out of all the bands albums "Hysteria" and "High And Dry" are about equal for different reasons. I think that "Hysteria" was the best of their commercial sound and the layers of guitars. "High And Dry" was the best of the hard rock sound. Some of my favorites from the 2 albums are:



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Smp59V1A8&feature=PlayList&p=93493BFF8C17E333&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=9[/ame]

 

[Diamond45]

As far as it goes with Def Leppard - Anything up to and including Hysteria is good - anything after that is either so-so or really bad.

 

[FatesFan]

The most important band to me has to be Fates Warning. I know, big surprise right. I discovered them in High School when Night On Brocken came out and have been a fan ever since. Most other bands and styles of music have come in and out of my life but Fates has always stuck with me over the entire catalog. There is not a bad album for me in the entire catalog. However, it is important to say that I like someone else said was turned on to E.L.P. ( more specifically Karn Evil 9 ) at a young age and was blown away. I would not call myself an E.L.P. fan as I only own and am only familiar with Brain salad surgery but I think that started my love for prog. This led to to Kansas eventually. I was also turned on to E.L.O. at a young age and also have a soft place in my heart for them. I do recall the first time I heard Iron Maiden and I was blown away and they ( along with Priest ) were the "it" bands for me for a long time. But the modern catalog of both bands does not do a lot for me. So it has to be Fates for me.

 

[FleshAndBloodTheocracy]

From an under-20 year old's perspective...haha

The first band's that I liked that were heavier/different than what the radio was playing were Linkin Park and Skillet. (Hybrid Theory and Invincible, respectively).
Then, when Collide came out (Skillet, 2003) and it was WAY heavier than Invincible and my dad realized I was getting into heavier music, he gave me Metallica's Master of Puppets...best thing the man ever did for me. Haha. Anyway, from their, I got there discography, and started getting into metal bands, first with obvious ones (Maiden, Dream Theater) and then expanded from the sound I liked (prog)...I found Nevermore, Pain (Peter Tagtgren), Symphony X, Theocracy, and the like. I LOVED them, especially the latter two, which incorporated more than just keys, but also orchestration (also, Skillet's Comatose in 2006, about the same time frame, loved the strings). So, my one friend on a different message board reccomended Nightwish (my present-day favorite band) and I LOVED them. From there, I got into symphonic bands like Epica, Delain, HB, Within Temptation, etc.

So I'd say the most pivotal bands for me, the ones that I based my discovering/sampling off of, were
Linkin Park/Evanescence/Skillet (2000-2003) - Metoera/Fallen/Invincible and Collide
Metallica (2003/2004) - Master of Puppets/Justice
Dream Theater (2005) - Awake/Train of Thought/Systematic Chaos
Nightwish (2007) - Century Child, Once, Dark Passion Play

 

[Jasonic]

Cool, thought I seriously never heard of SKILLET?
When I first read it, I was like, "Cool, there is a band called SKITTLES"!!!

All kidding aside, this is a good thread, and many cool stories.