Your musical journey in 10 easy steps

[KoichCPA]

This should be interesting. How did you get to where you are today musically? I want you to list the 10 albums, when you first heard them and what they did that changed you listening habits. This isn't your top 10 favourite albums, this is the albums that made you question your musical tastes.

Here is mine.

1.1988- Alice Cooper Poison

I was 4, got this as a present because I loved poison so much on the radio, it pretty much set me on a way that unless it rocked, it wasn't awesome. From here I got into most commercial rock,metal and punk until my cousin took me under his wing

2. 1994ish- Rage against the machine- Rage against the Machine
Whatever year they played the big day out, was the year my cousin showed me this in his room. I was blown away, as a 10 year old listening to ratm can be. It took me a few years to really understand the political message involved, but when I figured it out it became a bit deeper.

3. 1997- Korn- Korn

A 14 year old skater degenerate that thought this was the most intense shit ever. I loved that album, and looking back I still sort of do, as cheesy as it is. It pretty much got me into metal. From here it just went down hill.

4. 1998- Nasum- Inhale/Exhale
15 year olds listening to overly socialist grindcore is never a good thing. I just kept getting more and more into the extreme side of things from here. After this album, I stagnated for a number of years, listening only to metal,grind and hardcore.

5. 2003- Muse- Absolution

Holy shit, I still remember this album blowing me away. It was fantastic and so much different to anything else I had been listening too. Funnily enough, I discovered muse through UM of all places. It was after this I sort of stopped listening to so much metal and started looking elsewhere.

6. 2004- Dillinger escape plan- Miss Machine

This album sort of combined everything I had been listening too at this point into one messed up package, I still listen to it a few times a week. Heavy as fuck, intense as hell, yet mellow and tripped out in parts. This was like musical perfection at the time, and it's damn near close now.

7. 2004- Isis- Panopticon

The last really heavy album that has made me stand at attention. it also made me realise that music didn't have to fast and brutal to be intense. Slow buildups, massive riffs. It also made me really enjoy repetetiveness in music. After this album I ended up listening to all sorts of post-rock, ambient noise and drone. I blame this album for making me sound pretentious when I talk to people about what I listen to.

8. 2005- Joy Division- transmission

I was reading old reviews on the net one night, and i came across this. I figured if a lot of people love it so much, I should listen to it. I'm glad I did. It turned me into so sort of massive art fag.

9.2006- Bloc Party- Silent Alarm

This album was a massive influence on my musical directions. It pretty much made me listen to nothing but alternative rock for a very long period. I love this album, still do. It's poppy, but underneath there are so many darker undertones and the music feels colder upon realising this. love this album to death.

10. 2007- Arcade Fire- Neon Bible

This album is hard to describe what it did to me, suffice to say that it does a lot to me. It's hard to find a lot I like after hearing this.

and here I am today.

 

[Spruce Goose]

1. 1981 - The Beatles
No particular album... no particular song... I just grew up listening to the Beatles cause of my dad obviously. I remember straying up late one night watching the making of Let it Be and thought that they were fucking cool with their beards and shit... I kinda dug McCartney cause he has the same name as me so I thought he was cool.

2. 1993 -Michael Jackson - Dangerous
Not an influence really but this was my introduction to purchased music so I thought it should be considered a big step.
This was the first album (tape) that I ever went out and bought with my own money... Guess I would have been 12 at the time.

3. 1994 - Led Zeppelin - Remasters
I bought this cd when I was in year 7 and it completely changed my musical tastes forever and set me in the path that I continue to walk now. Till I heard this album, it had been tapes like 'Hits of Summer 94' or some shit like that... I heard Rock n Roll on MMM and liked the drum roll at the end so bought this album and fell in love with this old 70's style of music which led me to an obsession with......

4. 1996 - Deep Purple - In Rock/Fireball/Machine Head/Made in Japan/Who Do We Think We Are/Burn/Stormbringer/Come Taste the Band/Perfect Strangers/HOBL/The Battle Rages On
Pretty much bought all of DP's catalogue in the one year and listened to nothing else pretty much. Everything about them was awesome. Gillan opened up the world of rock singers for me with his high screams particularly in Child In Time etc. Also, Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmores solos as well as Ian Paice's drumming got me into the more 'musicians' bands that I listen to these days. (Jon Lord inspired me to buy and learn keyboards)

5 -1997 - Pink Floyd - Pulse
Got this on VHS and it blew me away. The solo in comfortably numb from this concert solidified my love for great players.

6. 1997 - Deep Purple - Steve Morse Era
After I got all the 70's gear, I got into the Steve Morse era and that dude freakin blew me away with his technicalty and after seeing them live, I started getting more and more into guitar players and technical muso's.

7. 1999/2000 - Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory
Had heard about these guys through touring with Deep Purple and on the web. My first DT album was SFAM 7 years ago now. These guys probably affected my musical tastes more than any other band. Don't really think I need to say anything else.

8. 2001 - Opeth - Blackwater Park
After loving the technicality of DT I wanted to go heavier and had heard about Opeth, again on the net. Fuck me swinging.... I hated the vocals at first like many people. Now, I can't imagine how I never liked them... Opeth opened my eyes that really heavy music could still be so beautiful and emotional. Opeth are the shiznit.

9. 2001 - The Beatles - Everything about them
Yes, they appear in this list twice.... I never owned an album cause my dad had all the collection... but I went ahead and bought their entire catalogue and realised that they were so much better than the classic hits that have been played everywhere... Yes, those songs are great and classic..... but the other songs from the albums started clicking with me and I went a little Beatles crazy for a while and couldn;t get enough. Went and bought their entire songlist and started learning as many songs as I could on piano/keys. Best band of all time.

10. 2003 - Muse - Absolution -
Pretty similar to Koich's description of them. This was the first album I heard. Saw them for the second time last saturday and they are the biggest band in the world at the moment. Matt Belamy is a genius.

 

[phlogiston]

Oh, this is going to be tough, especially with the timings.

1. Early 80's - Jesus Christ Superstar - Original Cast recording.
At the time I didn't realise what it was I liked about this. My folks weren't into music much, and this was about the only album they had that had guitars, drums and attitude. And I liked it.

2. Early 80's - Golden Classics
My folks had this on double cassette and I listened to the "Pyr Gynt Suite" and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" over and over again. Set me on the road for an appreciation for classical music.

3. 1987ish - Def Leppard - Hysteria; Guns'n'Roses - Appetite; AC/DC - they're all the same.
This was the period where it all came together. They were the big commercial rock bands of the day so I taped them all off my mates.

4. 1988 - Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind.
In amongst all of the "heavy metal" fans that I taped Leppard and GnR from was guy who like Maiden as well, and I finally convinced him to tape me Number of the beast and some of Live after Death. Piece of Mind was the first album that I went out and spent my own money on. From here it went to Metallica, then to Slayer and the "Classic" metal bands. Tastes didn't really change for a decade.

5. 1997ish - Tom Waits - The Black Rider & Bone Machine.
My girlfriend at the time played me these. Tom Waits is a god.

6. 1997ish - PJ Harvey - Dry
Chicks can play music too!

7. 1997ish - Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Pianos can have feelings too!

8. 2002 - Betty Blowtorch - Are You Man Enough
I can't remember how I heard about them, but this was the album that got me into chick rock (like The Donnas) as well as "proper" punk, something even the Sex Pistols didn't do for me. Even got me listening to early glam metal as well, as they name checked a few of them in interviews and so on.

9. 2003 - Sentenced - The Cold White Light
Again, can't remember how I heard about them. Probably someone mentioned them here. This album showed me that maybe "new" metal bands had something worth listening to (even though they'd been around for a decade already). Also sent me down the path of "Goth" metal to find Type O Negative, Kyuss (although they tend towards stoner) as well as Lacuna Coil and stuff like that.

10. 2005 - Avril Lavigne - Let Go
Someone convinced me to listen to this and it was...catchy. Made me think that maybe commercial music had something to offer as well if I gave it chance.


I really should have found space for Miles Davis - Kind of Blue for getting me in Jazz, and Eric Claption - From the Cradle for getting me into blues, but neither of those are genres that I listen to heaps.

 

[Spruce Goose]

Oh, this is going to be tough, especially with the timings.

1. Early 80's - Jesus Christ Superstar - Original Cast recording.
At the time I didn't realise what it was I liked about this. My folks weren't into music much, and this was about the only album they had that had guitars, drums and attitude. And I liked it.
.

Is that the original, original recording with Ian Gillan on vocals?
How good is it hey?!
He is awesome on Gethsemane

 

[phlogiston]

That's the one! I really should listen to it again. It's getting near Christmas, that's as good a reason as any. Only it's an Easter story. Oh well.

 

[Wrathchild]

Is that the original, original recording with Ian Gillan on vocals?

I bought my Mum a CD of that for Christmas. She only has the Australian production with Marcia Hines and Jon English (on vinyl), so I thought I'd get her the proper one. Quite looking forward to hearing it myself .

W

 

[Goreripper]

I'm going to have to think about this.

 

[Spiff]

1986 - Iron Maiden, "Live After Death"
Before this I pretty much just listened to what was on the radio or whatever country tape my mum had on in the car. Then my brother borrowed this from someone and everything changed. I shared a room with him for a few years and so I listened to what he listened to.

1986-1988 - Guns N Roses, "Appetite for Destruction"; Def Leppard, "Hysteria"; Whitesnake, "1987"
All three albums ruled for their own reasons, and still do. They were the mainstays of my further education in the awesomeness of rock.

1992 - Queensryche, "Operation: Mindcrime"
Again, my brother borrowed this off of a pal and I hijacked it. I didn't listen to anything else for quite a while. I'd never heard anything like it. One of the all-time great albums.

1996 - Dream Theater, "Images & Words"
I have been on the internet since mid-1995 and can now thank it for 90% of my CD collection. In early 1996 I was reading the Queensryche newsgroup and saw mention of a band called Dream Theater. I bought one of their albums (either "A Change of Seasons" or "Live at the Marquee") and quite liked it, so I went on to get "Images & Words". Loved it, joined the Dream Theater mailing list (the Ytse Jam) and discovered countless more bands that I still love, including Rush and Savatage. Unfortunately it also made me prog fan and bought lots of Yes albums.

1997 - Rush, "2112"
Still one of the greatest albums ever. Not much else needs to be said.

1998 - In Flames, "Whoracle"
I'd gotten into Opeth the previous year, dug their work ("Morningrise" is excellent) and had finally overcome my hatred for the cookie monster vox, as long as the music was melodic. I'd heard In Flames were pretty good and, by chance, happened to pop into Brashs when they were closing down and found this album for about $10. Woah. Excellent, excellent album.

2002 - Bruce Springsteen, "Greatest Hits"
For years I had ignored Springsteen because of "Born in the USA". I'd never paid any attention to it past the chorus and figured it was a flag-waving, fist-pumping anthem to our capitalist overlords. Sure, I'd liked a few songs over the years, but I never actively went out and listened to his work. For some reason, then, I bought this album - perhaps because it was cheap and figured it was time to see what the fuss was about. I saw what the fuss was about. The next year I saw him live and it's still the best concert I've been to.

2003 - Tesla, "Five Man Acoustical Jam"
I actually bought this in the late 90s but never really listened to it. Then one day I popped it into my CD player for something different and loved it.

 

[Southy]

roght, bad bad memory, but lets see where I can go

Early to 1986 Black Sabbath - Master of Reality and Paranoid, Led Zep - IV, my old man always played these albums and heaps of other 7o's metal/rock like Cream and Slade.

1986Metallica - Ride the Lightning, I remember my brother bringing this home from some where on tape, fucking blew us both away man, the seeds were well planted.

1988Iron Maiden - SSOASS, one of my older cousins was ALWAYS a massive Maiden fan, he showed me this and LAD in one night, all because the poster of SSOASS scared the fuck outta this little 9 year old and he wanted to show me it was awesome...he was right

1991 or 1992RATM - S/T, something completely different in the way of what I was listening too and the polotics of it put me on a new path of socialism

1992You pick a punk or Hardcore record, any one of them, Maybe AN Agnostic Front or Sick of it all ALbum did it, but i was sucked in by hardcore so fucking hard, I still love NYHC and punk in most forms

1993Slade - Alive, what a fucking Live album, my dad bought it for me cause he saw it somewhere cheap, he has always loved it because it is such an awesome album, and everytime we get on the piss hard, we put it on, and I still thank him for introducing me to the best live album EVER with the exception of Live after Death

1994Rollins Band - Weight, it's Rollins and it was my intro to Rollins, he still blows me away today

1995Suicidal Tendencies - S/T, This was the ST album that really brought them to my attention, and I still love ST

1995Nirvana - Unplugged, Just showed me really aggresive tunes could be done in a different way, and still rock my socks off

1996Entombed - To Ride... , OH MAN!! things just got heavier from here, next album I bought was CC - Vile

1996Napalm Death - Diatribe, Oh man what can I say here, I still love everything ND have ever put out, it makes my soil myself

This has taken my nearly half an hour to put together, and I still don't think I have covered it all, I love music so much, just about any album I hear changes my view a little I mean in the last 7 years there has been DT and Coheed and Cambria that have really opened my eyes to modern prog then forcing me to look back at the originators and Mars Volta just throwing weird into the mix, I am rambling now, but I seriously love music as a whole art form and its constant evolution is probably the best thing about it

 

[Dead Children Speak No Lies]

1. 1988 John Farnham - Whispering Jack
My first ever tape and boy did i love this shit. Still classic.

2. 1990 Alice Cooper - Poison
2nd ever tape and first rock stuff. Ohh yer.

3. 1992 Nirvana - Nevermind
My favourite band for years. Still love these guys.

4. 1995 Metallica
Had heard some songs but really started to take notice around this time as i was looking for something faster and heavier then Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.

5. 1997 Sepultura/Machine Head/Pantera/Fear Factory
Not ashamed to admit that i loved/love the big 4 from the 90's (Only MH still kicking arse though)

6. 1997 Entombed - Clandestine
Looking for something heavier than the more mainstream metal i found this and fell in love. Stranger Aeons - oooohhhh yer. At the same time i tried more extreme metal, but couldn't like music with indecipherable vocals.

7. 1998 Pearl Jam/Nirvana/Soundgarden
In my first couple of years at uni i basically fell in with the crowd and listened to more grunge again. But that was soon to change.

8. 2000 Opeth/Carcass/Napalm Death...
Extreme Metal found a second wind and i was hooked.

9. 2002 KSE - Alive..
Showed me that mainstream metal could still kick major arse whilst still selling big numbers.

10. 2004 Nasum/Exhumed/Converge/Darkest Hour/Destruction......
When i found out that i love ANY extreme music and must buy it all (To the downfall of my bank account). My collection is now over 1200 and growing every day.

 

[Goreripper]

 

[phlogiston]

Top thread, Koich.

 

[mattt]

1989/90- Icehouse / Roxette

These two bands are two of the earliest memories I have when it comes to music. Icehouse is still one of my favourite bands today. Iva Davies = Genius

1996 - Metallica

My introduction to heavier music. This album completely changed my listening habits and I became a metal nazi. If it wasn't heavy it sucked. When I hear it it brings back a lot of memories

1998 - Pantera / Van Halen

1999 - Silverchair / Motley Crue

2001 - Pink Floyd / Vanishing Point

I watched an edited version of Pulse on MusicMax and it left my jaw on the floor. Changed my views on music forever. Tangled In Dream opened my eyes to Australian music.

2002 - In Flames / Dark Tranquillity / Lacuna Coil / Kataklysm - / Mourning Beloveth / Entwine -

2003 - Antimatter

Introduced me to more electronic music.

2004 - Porcupine Tree / Rush / The Eternal / HIM

2006 - Depeche Mode / KMFDM / Poets Of The Fall / The Birthday Massacre

2007 - Nick Cave / Aereogramme / The Sisters Of Mercy / The Mission / Radiohead (listened to the bends and was hooked) / White Rose Movement

 

[Goreripper]

2. 1994ish- Rage against the machine- Rage against the Machine
Whatever year they played the big day out,

It was 96. I almost died in their mosh.

Twice.

 

[Goreripper]

As for my musical journey, well...

Pre-1982 - Some Johnny Cash record

My brother loved Johnny Cash. He used to play this record all the time. It had "Wreck of the Old 97" on it, about a train that goes over a cliff. I loved that. Also, my dad used to listen to country music, so much that we didn't hear anything else for a long time.

1982 - Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast

Somehow completing the jump from 50s and 60s country balladeers to 1980s screaming heavy metal in a single bound. It also coincided with an interest in guitar-playing that I developed. It set me on the path to Oblivion. Interestingly, the same year, I was affected by

Split Enz - Time and Tide

Quirky NZ New Wave songs about Maori migrations and the world's tallest woman. This, coupled with my previous exposure to country music helped me to develop a wider appreciation of the Euterpian muse.

1985 - Metallica - Ride the Lightning

A kid at school played me this and it blew my head off. This album was the only thing I listened to for six months.

1988 - Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

I saw the video for "Sweet Child O Mine" on MTV. Axl and Slash looked like the coolest guys in history and the music was so superior to all the other hard rock bands of the time that it was like they weren't even from this Universe. I listened to this album every day for two years.

Fuck. It gets hazy after this. I have to recollect my thoughts and post a part two later.

 

[Southy]

Hazy

 

[Bucko]

1976 – Went to mates place (Scooter R.I.P) and he played me Sabbaths “Technical Ecstasy “and Status Quo’s “Hello” so I then went and joined one of those record clubs on the backs of mags and got Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Hello, Quo, Technical Ecstasy and Sabotage, then I was hooked with heavy rock from then on in.

will post more when have time

 

[Stonewall]

this thread is in the too hard basket for me.

 

[Priest of Evil]

this thread is in the too hard basket for me.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to come back to it... hopefully

 

[Priest of Evil]

Cant narrow it down to just 10 but I made it interesting by adding an what Australian artist influences I had. A rough 10 point history guides you through my evolution.

1 Shadows/Steel Eye Span - my Dad (RIP) loved playing guitar and folk music, of all the bands he listened to, I remember these and still hold a vague interest in them.

2 Kiss like all kids growing up in the 70's Kiss was it, my Xtian obssessed mother (who recently has been busy praying for the family's history and our bloodline's demons) steered us away from the evils of rock music and I took up listening to 80's pop on the radio. New-wave was and still is a bit of fun.

3 by mid 80's I could no longer hold back the urge to rock, I was headed for backpatch city. Maiden - Powerslave, Van Halen - 1984, Motorhead - Overkill & W.A.S.P. - s/t reflect my love of power metal, heavy metal and glam touches. Aussie Influence - SAS - Warlords

4 mid to late 80's Thrash Metal (top 4) with Megadeth - So Far So Good, So What having a profound effect on me. Sodom (all) & Celtic Forst - Emperors Return were easily my favourite non US bands at this stage. Aussie influence - Mortal Sin - Mayhemic Destruction

5 S.O.D. - Speak English... probably lead me to my testorone driven love of grindcore ala early Napalm Death - Scum & lots of crust stuff like Electo Hippies, Doom etc While Nuclear Assault - Survive and other bands with punk influence helped steer me toward punk/hardcore Exploited - Troops of Tomorrow was and still is a fav of mine. Aussie influence - Bastard Squad - Hardcore Revolution, Iron Shieks - Do You Sell Beer Here/Do you Fancy Me? Depression - Australia, Australia

6 Early 90's it was Death Metal: the obvious choices - Death - Scream bloody gore & Obituary - slowly we rot. Entombed/Dismember & Grave - left hand path/everflowing stream/Into the grave respectively put me onto the Swedish Death Metal scene, the original Stockholm one NOT the later Gothenberg one!
Doom Metal was also very appealing to me Paradise Lost - Gothic. I found myself experimenting with Industrial Metal Godflesh - streetcleaner, Pitchshifter and others at this stage. Aussie influence - DM Hobbs Angel of Death -s/t, Martire EP, Sadistik Execution - The Magus. Doom Paramaecium - Exhumed from the Earth, my own. Indust/Metal - Dogmachine, Discordia

7 During the 90's I also become fascinated with Sisters of Mercy - First & Last & Always which would drive me deep into Gothrock country and most notably Dead Can Dance - Serpents Egg which in turn had me thrilled with up and coming Cold Meat Industries label. Aussie influence Dead Can Dance (as above), IKON -Reality is Lost

8 mid 90's - My Dying Bride - Angel & the Dark River sent me deep into melancholic gothic territory). Aussie influence - none

9 mid 90s Black Metal early Emperor/Enslaved -Hordanes Land rocked my world along with Dissection - Storm of the Lights Bane which would bring my love of a good maidenesque melody in line with some harsh blasts, speedy passages and a croaky throat. Aussie influence - my own

10 mid 90's saw my interest in electro/industrial rise, more on the electro/synthpop than industrial side though. Things went a little quiet on my metal borders early to mid 2000 for a variety of reasons as I gravitated and focused more on goth/electro. In 2000 I started getting into alot of harsh EBM Hocico - Signos de Aberracion a big turning point. Aussie influence - Snog - lies inc.

These days I'm back to listening to pretty much an equal amount each style. I'm happy to add further main influences outside of metal if anyone wants to know.