Albums That Defined My High School Years
Title says it all; these albums defined my years from 13-18. This obviously doesn't touch on everything I'm into but gives a good impression on my tastes and how they slightly changed throughout high school (metal > heavy prog / avant-garde alt-rock> gothic rock, doom metal and other sadrock being the main trajectory). |
| 1 |  | System of a Down
Toxicity
The first album that introduced me to heavy music, and one of the first albums I could listen to from beginning to end. I've grown out of these guys but this album will always be nostalgic to me. |
| 2 |  | System of a Down
Hypnotize
First album I was genuinely excited for. |
| 3 |  | Killswitch Engage
Alive or Just Breathing
Melodic Metalcore was huge when I was in high school and this, to me, was the best album in the genre. |
| 4 |  | Children of Bodom
Are You Dead Yet?
The first "metal" band I got into. I think, I kind of forced myself to like it at first but that would become genuine enthusiasm with time. Kind of a dumb, teen-angsty record in retrospect but it was perfect to me at the time. |
| 5 |  | In Flames
Whoracle
This album revolutionized the way I listened to music in my first year of high school. The song "Dialogue with the Stars" was the first time I ever found myself enraptured by a purely instrumental piece of music and it made me see music differently. Instead of waiting for a hook or a chorus, I just fully listened and let the music tell a story. This was my favorite album for the bulk of my early teen years (and In Flames my favorite band). |
| 6 |  | In Flames
Colony |
| 7 |  | Scar Symmetry
Symmetric in Design
The contrast between brutality and melody was really appealing in my discovery of metal. |
| 8 |  | Dark Tranquillity
Projector |
| 9 |  | Kamelot
The Black Halo
This album was a bit of a precursor to my later obsession with gothic and melodic music. While very cheesy in retrospect, I can't deny how much I listened to this album. |
| 10 |  | Blind Guardian
Imaginations From the Other Side
I was briefly really into power and folk metal. While not really into this type of music at all anymore, I will stand by this album (and Ensiferum's "Iron") to this day. |
| 11 |  | Amorphis
Eclipse |
| 12 |  | Opeth
Blackwater Park
Still probably one of my favorite metal albums to this day. This albums has a foggy, pitch black atmosphere that is unmatched. It also has some killer melodic riffs and beautiful vocal melodies. |
| 13 |  | Agalloch
Ashes Against the Grain
Much like Blackwater Park, this album is all about the atmosphere. I loved how pained yet grand this album felt. Again, like Blackwater Park, I still admire this album to this day. |
| 14 |  | Mastodon
Blood Mountain
I just really like Mastodon. This album and Crack the Skye were classics to me in my teen years. |
| 15 |  | Unexpect
In A Flesh Aquarium
I really dug how cartoonish and chaotic it was. While I discovered them through the internet, they played a lot of local shows and I would go to every single one. They blew my mind every time. |
| 16 |  | The Mars Volta
Amputechture
While The Mars Volta would become mean a lot more to me later on in life (my early 20s), my infatuation with them started here. Unpacking their music has been one of my greatest joys as a music fan. |
| 17 |  | The Mars Volta
The Bedlam in Goliath |
| 18 |  | Arcturus
The Sham Mirrors
I was obsessed with this album when I was 16. The spacey keys and operatic vocals made this album feel so otherworldly. |
| 19 |  | Faith No More
Angel Dust
As I become more attracted to weirder and more eccentric rock music, I shockingly became a huge Mike Patton fan. Angel Dust was the album that made me a fan. |
| 20 |  | Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle |
| 21 |  | Alice in Chains
Dirt
Sad-rock phase. |
| 22 |  | Katatonia
Last Fair Deal Gone Down |
| 23 |  | Paradise Lost
In Requiem
Got really into these guys right before I got REALLY into gothic rock/metal, industrial and romantic indie rock. This album was my favorite but they were all good. |
| 24 |  | Sybreed
Antares |
| 25 |  | Swallow the Sun
Ghosts Of Loss |
| 26 |  | Draconian
Arcane Rain Fell |
| 27 |  | Fields of the Nephilim
Dawnrazor |
| 28 |  | My Dying Bride
Turn Loose the Swans
This album was a revelation to me. I loved the dark, romantic sound of this album and the band would become an obsession of my mine for the bulk of high school and informed a lot of my aesthetic sensibilities at the time (I was a bit of an embarrassing romanticist, for a period) . While their whole discography was in heavy rotation, this and the following albums were the ones that moved me the most. |
| 29 |  | My Dying Bride
The Dreadful Hours |
| 30 |  | My Dying Bride
The Angel and the Dark River |
| 31 |  | Swans
White Light From the Mouth of Infinity
I got into Swans because of an interview with the lead singer of My Dying Bride where he named them as a key influence. This albums served as an introduction to, what would become, the defining band of my university years. |
| 32 |  | Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
When my obsession with My Dying Bride was at its peak, I really opened my mind to alot of non-metal
music. Arcade Fire was the biggest among them, due to their barouqe sensibilities. This album and Funeral have been all-time favorites ever since. |
| 33 |  | Kyuss
Welcome to Sky Valley
Whitewater is still my favorite heavy rock song of all time. |
| 34 |  | Type O Negative
October Rust |
| 35 |  | Giant Squid
The Ichthyologist |
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