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Last Active 08-13-19 5:50 pm
Joined 01-23-15
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| My Most Influential Albums
A while ago I saw someone do a list similar to this where they mapped out all the essential listening from their past as a means to understand their current music preferences. I found this concept to be interesting and began to plot out for myself the albums from my past that really helped mold my current musical tastes. This list by no means insinuates that these albums are “essential listening” for anyone else but instead serve as a means of self-reflection for my own benefit. I decided to share it with this site to see if anyone had similar experiences growing up.These are not necessarily my favorite albums by these artists, just the ones I heard first. This list tracks the influences from earliest to most recent. | | 1 |  | Led Zeppelin
Best Of, Vol. 1: Early Days
Compilation albums are bad… I get it. Especially when it comes to as influential of a band as Led Zeppelin, it’s almost sacrilegious to listen to a couple songs that someone dubbed their greatest hits without understanding the concept and portrait painted by the individual albums. But a “best of” album does have its place: it serves as a jumping off point. It gives you an idea of the sound that a band produces so that you can hear some of their very good tracks which might lead you to discover more. For a young elementary school/middle school me it served as a diving board into classic rock and “epics”. It was absurd for my young brain to wrap around the concept a song lasting longer than 3:30 but after hearing mammoth jams like “When the Levee Breaks” and “Stairway to Heaven” I was forever changed. Led Zeppelin ultimately paved the way for my appreciation for not just classic rock, but progressive rock as well. My love for Zeppelin would lead to rock, prog rock, and metal | | 2 |  | Deep Purple
Machine Head
Often underappreciated, I was first introduced to a style of music with a heavier sound than the blues rock of Zeppelin through Deep Purple. Songs like “Space Truckin” and “Highway Star” blazed the way for an understanding of heavier music. | | 3 |  | 3 Doors Down
The Better Life
This album was the first hard rock album that I ever owned. While it didn’t have the speed or heaviness of other rock artists, it’s important to look at this album as a bridge. I got this album around the time “Kryptonite” came out on the radio. If we are going to date me that would put me somewhere between 4th and 5th grade. While this CDcd isn’t the most complex there is definitely some heaviness to it, especially when you consider the before mentioned CDs/ artists. It was an exposure to harder rock, thus serving as the eventual link to metal. I gravitated towards the more energetic songs like “Better Life” and “Smack”, using my appreciation for longer songs adjusted by Zeppelin and Deep Purple to wait patiently for the breakdown at the end of “Loser” and “Down Poison”. This album was pivotal for the journey as a music appreciator and I still revisit it every once in a while to bask in the nostalgia that it awakens in me. | | 4 |  | System of a Down
Toxicity
I think there is something powerful about going to a record store and buying your first CD for yourself. In a way, it’s almost like your first act of control over your own identity. I can still remember walking in and deliberately looking for this CD. I had heard “Toxicity” and “Chop Suey” on the radio and I wanted to hear more. There was no Youtube or Spotify for me to test it before buying it and so I went with my gut. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. This album singlehandedly kicked me off the cliff’s edge, sending me plummeting headfirst into the metal scene. I started listening to metal/hard rock stations. I couldn’t get enough of it. I would go on to feast upon the music of Korn, Slipknot, The Deftones, and (pre-Minutes to Midnight) Linkin Park. This album was defining for my Middle School years. | | 5 |  | Silverstein
Discovering the Waterfront
I discovered this album after moving to Colorado. For those of you who have experienced a change in environment, especially during your Middle School-High School years, it can be something that defines who you are for the rest of your life. Going into High School without knowing anyone can be terrifying especially at an age where you are still trying to define yourself. Although I met kids and had friends, they couldn't possibly compare to the close knit bonds I had formed over eight years in the previous state. So I turned to music. I still remember hearing “Smile in Your Sleep” for the first time and being put off by the harsh vocals, but the more I listened to it the more I began to enjoy it. In a lot of ways I felt a strong emotional connection to it. They were the first band I ever heard to use harsh/clean vocals. | | 6 |  | Dream Theater
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
My sophomore year of High School. Looking back on it, my High School years were a great time for music. There was an amalgamation of exposures to different experiences, people, and music. Dream Theater served as an introduction to progressive metal and although my first introduction to them was through Train of Thought, the album of theirs that I remember spinning constantly was Six Degrees.I heard all of the music from my childhood mixed with the heaviness of the music that I had just introduced myself to. I loved the wankery; even embraced it. Looking back on my tastes, again, it’s easy to see why I fell in love with this band. Bands like Zeppelin and Deep Purple packed their music full of solos.. With Dream Theater it’s almost like the entire songs were the solos. Like those musicians of the past their songs (at least their older ones) had tension until reaching a definite climax. There was no instant gratification. I had to be patient to get to the goods. | | 7 |  | Reel Big Fish
Turn the Radio Off
Here is where we break loose. It seems like an immense departure but when you look at the history of my tastes it may not be so surprising. I always loved music with horns and while I was still arguably an angry young man, I was tired of the angst. The frustrations I felt were no longer the frustrations of a lonely young man, but rather were coupled with heavy sarcasm. Ska came to my rescue and has since been a wonderful outlet. While Ska came to me around the same time as Dream Theater and Coheed, I think I needed it to break up the stagnation I sometimes feel when listening to the same type of music all the time. RBF would lead me to bands like Goldfinger, Mustard Plug, and Streetlight Manifesto which in turn led me to punk. | | 8 |  | Coheed and Cambria
From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
I was introduced to my Favorite band my sophomore year. Coheed and Cambria came to me around the same time that Silverstein and Dream Theater did. I always seem to look for a story in music. Whenever I listen to anything I daydream, coming up with characters and events and encountering Coheed and Cambria’s music/story was a perfect combination for me. . It’s because of this album that I returned to Pink Floyd and King Crimson, eager to study the texts that had influenced this album and band so heavily. Their albums continue to impact my life and remain one of the most, if not THE most, influential bands on this list. | | 9 |  | Mastodon
Blood Mountain
In 8th grade I had a gym teacher who was a badass. He had sideburns and spikey hair, but above all he played metal over the loudspeakers. I distinctly remember one day asking him what we were listening to (later learning it was Remission) to which he replied “Mastodon”, a word that would linger in the back of my mind until one night in High School when I eventually tried to hunt them down. It was a shock to the system, something that seems to happen every time there is a dramatic unearthing of musical interests. It seems like I need to be completely blown away by something in order for it to impact me as strongly as the above mentioned albums did and Blood Mountain fit that bill. Not only was it a concept album but it also featured insane musicianship and unrelenting harsh vocals. That album is heavy as hell and grandiose.This combination would lead to discovering Fear Factory, Every Time I Die, and Devildriver. | | 10 |  | The Fall of Troy
Doppelganger
Around my junior year I discovered the Fall of Troy. Given the fact that I couldn’t find any videos on youtube, a still relatively new invention, I had to go out and buy the album off a whim. I placed it in my CD player, listened to it once through and then promptly placed it back on my shelf and wondered what the hell I was thinking. Doppleganger was the first album I bought that would challenge my notion of what music really was. It was the first album that I didn’t “get” right away and yet it continued to badger me. I would return to it again and again, dismembering parts, finding things to latch onto, until I could honestly say that I was comfortable with it. It was like listening to Bebop jazz: you had to find the pocket before trying to dissect the chaos. Since then I have encountered a lot of bands that have pushed the boundaries of music (Mr.Bungle, DEP, The Mars Volta), but none were as initially shocking. | | 11 |  | Protest the Hero
Kezia
Influences built on influences until my senior year of high school when I first encountered Protest the Hero. The odd part about it is I can’t remember what first introduced me to them. With most bands it was radio, or a friend, or some other medium but with Protest the Hero it seemed to just be a combination of elements that led to my discovery of them. What they really brought me to was a discovery of fast and technical music that was supported by all the band members. They were young, they were angry, and while Dream Theater reigned in terms of writing long, magnificent songs Protest the Hero seemed to accomplish as much in a 4-5 minute time span. They were a mixture of prog, the punk I had encountered listening to ska, and the harsh/clean vocals I become engrossed with by bands like Silverstein. Every musician stood out and demanded attention and they sounded hungry doing it. This strong musicianship led me eventually to bands like Animals as Leaders and Destrage. | | 12 |  | Periphery
Periphery II: This Time It's Personal
All of these past bands are important to take into consideration when looking at this final band on my list. This entry doesn't signify a stopping point, but merely a comma in a list of a never-ending musical adventure.The reason why they are the last album on my list is because it’s the most recent one I’ve listened to that was completely different from anything I had heard before and it blew my mind. It was on repeat in my car and iPod pretty much until Clear and Juggernaut came out. They introduced me to down-tuned polyrhythmic metal. These guys are completely changing the game in the metal scene, and they drew me into bands like TesseracT, Monuments, and Fellsilent, and yet they all sound completely different. They also had me step backwards to investigate Sikth and Messhugah to check out the music that inspired them as well. I’m not making a case that any artist is better than the other merely mentioning that Periphery led me to these other great discoveries. | |
BeyondCosby
03.13.15 | And of course they omit my number 1: Chase's S/T
One of the earliest CDs I remember bonding with my dad over. Being a trumpet player in elementary school it was a huge deal for me to hear music that not only incorporated the instrument I played but that also rocked. Chase burned with energy, evoking a sensation similar to the way that a summer night feels when driving with the top down and the windows open. It was fast paced, loud, and, more importantly, completely different from the pop music my mom always played on the radio. This album definitely served as a turning point for me away from pop to rock. | DungeonBoy
03.13.15 | I wish my gym teachers listened to metal. | BarryMckokiner
03.13.15 | gayest list ever | Flugmorph
03.13.15 | toxicity was my first metal cd as well so cheers to you bro | BeyondCosby
03.13.15 | @flugmorph Thanks man, it's good to hear people had similar experiences to me. | BeyondCosby
09.25.15 | I was reading through some of the music progression lists today and figured I needed to return to the one I did a while ago. There were definitely cringe worthy parts I had to edit. | CamiloG
09.25.15 | I totally dig 1,2,4,6 and 9 nice picks! | pizzamachine
08.09.22 | Classic list | Minortimbo12
08.09.22 | first 4 amazing |
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