Five Albums That Changed Your Life

Yeah, I'm bored

The Residents - Meet the Residents
This album is just so great and wierd, Boots is just a great track and also Infant tango.

"Merry Christmas mom, merry Christmas dad, and merry Christmas sis.... i love you." that still sends chills up my spine

Radiohead-Kid A oh, and to a lesser extent, OK Computer
See the Radiohead thread for the reasons.

Primus-Sailing the Seas of Cheese
The album that got me hooked. Aural crack. Everything flows and every song was recorded
perfectly. A certain experience about a year later, while listening to the album, changed my perception of sounds, making me more apt to make visual connections to audio. And I realized how trippy Primus is.

TIE: Black Sabbath-Master of Reality/Led Zeppelin-Led Zeppelin IV
Toss up. Both albums got me into other genres. Led Zeppelin into more traditional classic rock stuff and beyond, and Black Sabbath into more heavy and dark stuff. Master is the heaviest album of all time in my book. After the intro of "Lord Of This World", if that isn't heavy then I don't know what is. And Zeppelin's album was just plain good.

Metallica-Metallica
This isn't my favorite Metallica album. Not by a long shot. But as a kid, this was the only one I had from them. I only owned about 4 albums, and they were Janet Jackson, James Taylor, Tom Chapin, and Metallica. I liked them all, but Metallica was my favorite. I'd listen to it all the time. It was essentially the soundtrack to my life between ages 5-10, and also the album that got me into music, and more specifically, into metal.

1.) Judas Priest - Sin After Sin... possibly the greatest album ever made. ok, forget the "possibly".

2.) Morbid Angel - Blessed are the Sick.... brutality/intensity mixed with beauty/creativity.

3.) Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath... one of the most eerie musical statements ever released.

4.) Danzig - II: Lucifuge... bluesy, ballsy, & totally f*cking metal!

5.) Fear of God - Within the Veil... this is creativity at it's most honest. Dawn was truely a pioneer.

Metallica - Metallica / Megadeth - Youthanasia (for heavy metal)
Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark (for good heavy metal)
Impellitteri - Screaming Symphony (foor good heavy metal with a good message)
HIM - Razorblade Romance (for meeting chicks)

Motörhead - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith
The best Live album ever.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Remember the Saturdays, when this was always played...

Iron Maiden - Killers
First Maiden album, introduced me to NWOBHM

Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels
At that time I met my wife for the first time. She was a Stones fan and I started listening to them with this album.

Accept - Restless And Wild
Uh, there was another German band besides the Scorpions... and so much better!

In no particular order;

Led Zeppelin - IV
My mum raised me on Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, but songs from this album have been permanently ingrained in to my subconscious. Amazing record.

System of a Down - Toxicity
Probably the first full album I really got in to. Absolutely fantastic album.

Metallica - Ride The Lightning
I think this was one of the albums that started to really get me in to thrash as a whole.

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
This is probably one of my most played albums ever and I still enjoy listening to it. It really is almost perfect to my ears.

Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Definitely the best thrash album ever. Ever.

Honourable mentions;
Iced Earth - Night of the Stormrider
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Helloween - Keepers of the Seven Keys Pt. I & Pt. II

AC/DC-Highway to Hell- The first rock album I had ever heard, great songs and great riffs and the late great Bon Scott's swan song, featuring some of his best lyrics and vocals.

The Doors-s/t- Love every song on this album, my favorite band of all time. Timeless classic.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience-Axis: Bold as Love-First Hendrix album I ever owned and an album that explores his r &b roots.

The Sex Pistols-Never Mind the Bollocks- Forget the hype, put aside the legend, it is about the songs, they blew their load after only one album, but what a great album it is.

Deep Purple-In Rock/Black Sabbath-Heaven and Hell (tie)- Both albums made a huge impact on me as a young lad, and still among the greatest metal albums of all time.

Just five? Oy... I'll give it a shot...

AC/DC - LET THERE BE ROCK: this was the first album (cassette actually) that I ever owned. I like to say that the jaws of Hell opened for me right from the first listen (haha) and there was quite simply no turning back. I was Metal for life.

Metallica - KILL'EM ALL: this album taught me that there was more to metal than what was being shown on MTV, suddenly Motley Crue and Quiet Riot didn't cut it anymore.

Warrior Soul - SALUTATIONS FROM THE GHETTO NATION: I was a pretty pissed off kid in the early 90s (for various reasons I won't get into here) and the anger in this album "spoke" to me in a way that few albums ever have. To this day, listening to it makes me want to punch somebody (and I mean that in a good way).

Savatage - STREETS: A ROCK OPERA: see my fanboy essay in the Savatage discography thread for the story on this one.

Ramones - RAMONES MANIA: the first album I owned by the band that would go on to become one of my all time favorites.

Like FF said, only 5?

Well....

1) KISS - Destroyer - the first rock album I ever got, got this as a new release - yes, I was only six, but I got my metal schooling early

2) Def Leppard - Pyromania - As I decend deeper into metal (yes, there are METAL songs on thos album Joe Elliott - see Die Hard The Hunter). Got this as a new release (8th grade!!!)

3) Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind - the first Maiden album I purchased. I had heard number of the beast beforehand, but this one just rocks!!!!

4) Queensryche - Operation:Mindcrime/Metallica - ....And Justice For All - when I finally stopped the "peer pressure" BS not to listen to "secular" music, I bought these two on CD

5) Stryper - Soldiers Under Command/Cure-Wish tie for personal stuff happening at the time they were released

Jethro Tull - Songs From The Wood (got me into Celtic music)

Shotgun Messiah - Violent New Breed (got me into industrial metal)

The Ramones - Rocket To Russia (got me into punk)

Kiss - Destroyer (got me into hard rock and metal)

Hanoi Rocks - Two Steps From The Move (got me into glam/sleaze)

AC/DC-Back in Black-got me into heavy metal

Stryper-Soldiers under Command-First christian metal I was exposed to.

Metallica-Master of Puppets-got me into Thrash

Guns N Roses-Appetitte For Destruction-opened up the door to a whole new world of dirty,gritty rock for me.

Vengeance Rising-Human Sacrifice-To the extreme,what more can I say!

I don't know if any album changed my life but i'll list some records that i still like after all these years.

1. Testament - Souls of Black

2. Suicidal Tendencies - How will i laugh...

3. Trouble - 1990 s/t

4. Alice in Chains - Facelift

5. Coroner - Mental Vortex



honorable mention...

Sepultura - Arise

Faith No More - The Real Thing

Galactic Cowboys - s/t

wow, only 5 huh....well, I gotta give it a shot anyhow:

Aerosmith........Get Your Wings. This was one of the first albums I ever heard and it introduced me to the passion and swagger of rock n roll.

Kiss......Alive! Kiss introduced me to the high energy and power of a rock n roll concert.

Van Halen 1. The very first time that a guitar actually blew me away, and DLR was literally on fire with hyperactivity.

Judas Priest..........Hell Bent For Leather/British Steel (I heard them both the very same day). Welcome to heavy metal.

Metallica......Kill Em All/ Slayer.....Show No Mercy (I heard them both the same day as well). Welcome to thrash metal.

There were many more down the road and also back in the beginning but those pretty much were life-changing as far as catapulting me to new hights (or depths if you like) where my musical journey took huge steps toward a lifetime of rock, metal and many more styles that I still enjoy every day of my life.

KISS - Psycho Circus (my first heavy rock album)
Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny (the first heavy metal album I ever heard)
Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (this record introduced me to doom metal and more underground stuff. This is still my alltime favorite)
Slayer - Show No Mercy (introduced me to thrash)
Blasphemy - Fallen Angel Of Doom... (this album made me realize that Blasphemy is one of the few black metal bands worth listening to )

Styx-Pieces Of Eight Renegade awoke something in me that hasn't died.

Iron Maiden-Number Of The Beast Just amazed me how good they sounded.

Megadeth-Killing Is My Business That thing that was awakend began to thrash.

Deliverance-S/T Christians can thrash with the best of them?

Tourniquet-Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance Kind of personal but this album was an instrument of me forgiving my Dad and straightening up.

Quiet Riot - Metal Health (got me into metal when it came out)

Slayer - Reign in Blood (finally something as angry as I was)

Slayer - Decade of Aggression (came out during the gulf war when I was in the military and I was ready to waste people)

Life of Agony - River Runs Red (stopped me from suicide)

Black Sababth - Master of Reality (heard this when I was in high school and thought this was the heaviest album ever. Also slowed my maniacal thoughts I had).

I'm not sure about "life-changing", but these definitely played a role in my evolution.

Kiss - Alive!: I got this album when I was 7 years old, quite an introduction to the glories of hard rock.

Pink Floyd - The Wall: this album matched the depression of my pre-teen years, thus becoming the perfect soundtrack...played it constantly for YEARS afterward.

Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast/Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance (tie) - Got both of these albums about the same time...my conversion to metalhead was complete.

King's X - Gretchen Goes To Nebraska: To this day I still can't figure out how to describe this record or what the magic ingredient is contained therein. Suffice it to say that this album became a daily diet and I've been a King's X fan ever since.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue: The album that first hooked me on jazz, a decade (and hundreds of jazz albums later) it's easily the most significant musical thing that has happened to me in my post-teenage years. Helped open up my mind to hearing things in an entirely new way.

JUDAS PRIEST - Painkiller
DREAM THEATER - Images and Words
GUNS n ROSES - Appetite for Destruction
FATES WARNING - Awaken the Guardian
METALLICA - Master of Puppets

Kiss - Killers/Unmasked - Those were the first "metal" albums that I spun on the turntable at home. Made me a life long fan.

Stryper - Soldiers Under Command - Christians could make good metal too.

Vengeance Rising - Human Sacrifice - Christians could make excellent thrash metal too, and even my friends loved this one!

Savatage - Gutter Ballet - The start of another life long "relationship".

Saxon - Rock The Nations - OK, maybe not life altering. But this is still the first album (cassette) I bought myself!

uuuhaa ... hard to say.
probably but not sure

KiSS - RnROver and Destroyer
Led Zepp - Remasters
Black Sabbath - Reunion Live
Dream Theater - Fii
Motley Crue - Dr. FeelGood

LOVE IT

Not hard for me. These ones just floored me as a young teenager and LITERALLY reshaped everything I thought music was or was supposed to be:

DELIVERANCE - Weapons of Our Warfare
VENGEANCE RISING - Human Sacrifice
STRYPER - Soldiers Under Command

And then these two really floored me and got me back into metal even deeper the second time around after a long deliberate and foolish separation:

BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE - Terminate Damnation
LIVING SACRIFICE - Conceived In Fire

I'd also have to include the "kids" IMPENDING DOOM in the later category as well.

Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
7 Seconds - Walk Together Rock Together
D.R.I. - Dealing With It!
Corrosion Of Conformity - Animosity

Sorry I tried to break it down to just 5 but it just wouldn't work. I got close though.

1. Primus-frizzle fry(first peek into intelligent music when I was 13)
2. Vengeance Rising-once dead(....had no idea christians were alowed to sound like this. )
3.Savatage-streets(introduced me to another plane of reality known as emotion in music)
4.Dead kennedys-fresh fruit for rotten vegetables(more intellect and first glimpse into hardcore)
5.Hirax-new age of terror(made me realize that there was still a chance thrash metal could live on!!)

7thSecond wrote:

Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
7 Seconds - Walk Together Rock Together
D.R.I. - Dealing With It!
Corrosion Of Conformity - Animosity

Sorry I tried to break it down to just 5 but it just wouldn't work. I got close though.

I knew 7 Seconds would make your list.

Judas Priest - British Steel
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
The Doors - S/T
Mortification - Triumph of Mercy
Wedding Party - Anthems