What album has changed your life?

[shredguitarman]

I've been playing guitar since I was 11 and started out playing blues and 70s style rock ie Santana, Wishbone Ash, Thin Lizzy etc....

But I then, when I was about 14, saw the Seville guitar concerts on TV where Joe Satriani was playing...

Absolutely amazed I went and bought 'The Extremist' with all the money that I had the next day..

My life from that point was never the same and I spent hours after hours learning technique and theory so I could attempt decent versions of all the songs on that album - nothing was more important and I have to admit both socially and academically things went downhill...

But years of practise paid off...

I met some great people...managed to earn a living for a while teaching...and realised I had a purpose in life..to shred with the best of them . And I'm still hoping that ultimate band line up is just round the corner for me!!

I can still remember pulling that record out of it's sleeve for the first time and hearing 'Friends' blast through the hi-fi.... that's as close as I've got to a religious experience yet...and my life was never the same...

What records have had the biggest influence on your life??

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

talking about musical tastes the albums that changed my visions on what music that i would like were Metallica Master Of Puppets and Ride The Lightning those albums turned me more into metal other albums would be Keep The Faith-Bon Jovi don't flame me for this The Chainheart Machine- Soilwork and Black Seeds Of Vengeance-Nile on the musical side metallica turned me take up the guitar and start playing and Symphony X made me take keyboards even more seriously than i had been playing before(currently been playing keyboards for around 11 years)some honorable mentions are Creed's My Own Prison lyrically don't beleive me? and Cacophony's Speed Metal Symphony

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

i have pretty wierd musical tastes don't i?

 

[RED OCTOBER]

Alot of Metallica/ Iron Maiden made me love metal alot. I used to and still do sometimes listen to Maiden all the time. No to long ago, I dont remmeber even how I started listening to dream theater which I first though was too Proggy. but then I bought Awake cause it was cheep and I was amazed. I still think thats one of the best albums I ever heard. All of that crazy prog and malmsteen.. shit just pushed me to study music and try to get somewhere beyond a typical guitarist who plays four diotonic chords, however like my music teacher says that alot of rock.. is entertainment and for instance the guitarist from Rolling Stones and even beatles being untrained musicians had hits and put themselves in history.

 

[Thorns of Sorrow]

The album that changed my life...hmmm...Well, I am going to have to slice that up into different facets/periods of my guitar playing...

Metallica - Ride The Lightning, was the album that made we want to start playing guitar...

Dream theater - Images and Words - Basiclly, this was the album that got me into technical proggy or shreddy type music...I learned how to play every song on that album give or take 2 or 3, and went on to play most or all of Awake. What I took from those albums, was songwriting skills, and the development of my musical ear, as well as making my shred playing listenable and interesting.

I was in ahuge DT phase for the better part of my playing...untill..

Opeth - Blackwater Park- COMPLETELY re invented my playing and musical taste. I fell absoltely in love with this band, I felt so much power, emotion and feeling in Opeth, that NO other band matched. i came to the realization that all the bands I was listening to at the time, I only listened to because of the cool guitar/instrumental parts, for the most part i rarely gave most power/prog more than 3 or 4 full listens before skipping to the solos *shrugs* the music did nothing for me. But when I discovered Opeth I was sucked into the beauty of inventive songwriting, lush melancholic acoustics, and a voice that to this day reduces me to tears. I then got into the wonderful world of Black/Death/Gothic metal and have not looked back since. I enjoy the really extreme technical brutal shit like Origin or Cryptopsy, and I love the slow sad stuff like Katatonia and Anathema.

As of now no album has completely chnaged my life more than Opeth. The style I play now, is a very late Emperor, Nile, Suffocation vibe, with moody elements from bands like Opeth and Katatonia. When I listen to power prog nowadays, I realized its just not my thing at all, I respect the guitar playing, but thats as far as it goes. the music that trully takes me on a sonic adventure are the heavier darker bands.

I still adore DT, in gfact I was kicking it to FII, and Awake most of today I dunno something about them hehe. I also still like Symph X on occasion, no longer am I a fanatic hehe but I still spin them from time to time. When I want to hear progressive rock, I go for the older stuff, Rush, yes, Camel, ELP etc

 

[Orlock]

I think the Black Sabbath's albums put me into the heavy music,and Iron Maiden - Killers amazed me a LOT.
But the thing that real put me into that elaborated music was sawying a Dream Theater whole video (The Images and Words Video) in the guitar school of my friendmand so I bough Images and Words the CD and become AMAZED.Before that,I was listening to Heloween's Keeper of The Seven Keys Part One and Blind Guardian's Imaginations from the other side,and I still love these.But watching myung with the monster 6 String and playing hard things opened my eyes.Now he's not one of my "favorites",but Markus from Helloween is(for the creativity).Lepond and Miller kill they all

 

[the_Eyes]

Divine Wings. That's the prog metal bible for me. Everything seems to work there: great musicians, great compositions, great production, great lead and backing vocals, it just blew me away. It made me realize music is more than a sum up for technique, like some other prog metal bands do. SyX knows how to write incredible songs.

 

[Orlock]

Of course when I heard SyX from the first time I became so impressed I did'nt believed that
Damnation Game was my frist one

 

[Ozzman]

Not so much an album as the song Crazy Train (RIP and Thanks alot Randy)
made me pick up guitar
and Speed Metal Symphony and Go Off really took me to the next level, I heard that music and heard Jason's story and decided my life is going to be a tribute to his playing.

 

[†Russel Allen†®]

Well, the album that firstly changed my life was Metallica's Black Album... that I've heard back in 1994. This one got me into the world of heavy metal! Then, 6 years later, I met a "little" band from New Jersey, called Symphony X... and the first song I've heard from this band was "Orion - The Hunter" and... like... JEEZE... I spooked my eyes for this band... heheheeheheh!! So, the album that changed my life secondly was Twilight in Olympus... and, it was the first SX album I've bought...

 

[Dangerman]

Iron Maiden's 1988 release, "7th son of a 7th Son"

Got me into metal and made me wanna play bass in one fell swoop. I still hammer that album to this day!

 

[Disarrayd]

Soilwork amazed me, the guitarists are awesome.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

Originally posted by Disarrayd
Soilwork amazed me, the guitarists are awesome.

yeah man i love Ola and Peter's style the riffs and solo's are great my fav death metal band along with Nile by far oh and btw what albums you've heard of them so far?

 

[Pablo Wablo]

Life changing albums... hmmmm...
As far as guitar playing goes... Passion and Warfare made me pester my Dad into getting me a guitar for grading when I was 16. I had never heard such beautiful and emotional music prior to that. After listening to that album I was totally insprired to learn to play guitar.

My life from that point was never the same and I spent hours after hours learning technique and theory so I could attempt decent versions of all the songs on that album - nothing was more important and I have to admit both socially and academically things went downhill...

Ditto!!! Except for the theory part... hehe I still regret never getting more into theory. I'm slowly learning more and more though.

Alden

 

[The Sole Survivor]

Metallica's "Load"-album introduced me to metal. "Perpetual Burn" was an important album for me as a guitarist, as that one was the biggest motivation for my practising. Later, I heard and saw videos of Scott Mishoe, Shawn Lane and Frank Gambale; and I realized that I had to dedicate myself. In many ways, Vai's "The 7th Song" has changed my view on playing. After hearing it I realized that it's not about becoming "the best"; nor is it about becoming the fastest. It's about developing a personality.

Amen.

 

[ChrisM.]

Greg Howe's Parallax - my favourite guitar CD ever. Opened my mind to note choice and phrasing. I've spent countless hours (and still do so) transcribing licks and solos from that CD - in a way, that CD is my best personal teacher since about one year. I don't know if I'll ever get as good as him, and I sure don't wanna copy him, but I guess his influence will show through in my playing a life long.

 

[Ultima Ibanez Overlord]

Guitar playing aside, I think the album that most affected me was Metallica's And Justice For All. I didn't know music like that existed until a friend during my final year at high school loaned me his tape of it. I bought my own copy a day or two after.
I couldn't stop listening to it for years, and even now it still has a big impact upon me.

I still think metal is good stuff to listen to when your young. That's not to say it's bad to listen to when you're older, I just think it's a very engrossing scene to get into when you're young. As long as you don't go all "hobit"

 

[Freak of Dreams]

My first album I bought, and was a setting of direction for the music to come, was Time Machine of Joe Satriani...

My brother had a cassette tape of Brian May saying a special thanks to Joe Satriani for lending him his guitars, my dad said to my brother that he probably would dig Joe too. But, he was in his Queen stages and everything not Queen was bad... So, Joe Satriani never got a try on him, but it made me listen to his album and I immediatly bought it.

It never made me play guitar though, I play the clarinet and alt-saxophone. Now a days I sometimes think I would have liked to play the bass. Oh well... Clarinet is great too

The album which then set my direction was Dream Theater's A Change of Seasons. I just was very curious of what a song that last for 23 minutes would be like and since then I am so totally addicted too long songs... I am very happy that there will be a song of 18 minutes on the next Symphony X album. Oh, and the complex playing of Dream Theater made me go wild. I always get a ichy feeling in my gut when I hear al those complex lines...

Then two years ago I bought the album V of Spock's Beard and listened to the song Thought's Part II and the vocal abbilities on that song are amazing and breathtaking... I remember cycling home from Helmond just bought my album and listening it from my discman. I just paused for a minute to catch my breath again and listen that song one more time, and offcourse I had that itchy feeling again. I knew I liked vocal parts and choirs and stuff like that. But that had ...... oh well you get the picture.
I had the same feeling when listening to Spock's Beard's Snow. To the songs Devil's Got My Throat and Long Time Suffering.

The album which moved me to tears was Pain of Salvation's The Perfect Element Part 1. The part where he sings this poem:

The Perfect Element

Once
I had a mountain of my own
With moss and walls and magic
And a mighty view
A forest of my own
Listening to me
Showing me its secret paths and trails
Green with depths and sleeping sunrises
Thorns that never cut
My feet and face
A pine of my own
Offering a seat in the sunset
Painting windy pictures
Arabesques
Of fortune and forever
Too large to fit
Even in a child’s pocket
Now
Arabesques of forgetfulness
Are left to burn holes
In my white tapestry and tangible wallpaper
Once
I had a world of my own
It is still there
Only
I am gone

It was an emotional time for me when my grandmother just passed away and I had put up this song real loud and just stood in my room and my face went wet.

So these are my albums, songs and bands which were a real landmark on my way of listening to music... so far!!!!

 

[AgainSTream]

Deep Purple - Burn

 

[busty sinclair]

dream theater- scenes from a memory