Five Albums That Changed Your Life

[grind/bro]

This thread comes to you from a bigger, badder board. Are you rad enough to accept the challenge? POST PICS of the five albums that changed your shit, and then EXPLAIN a little anecdote/story/bit about them. This is a lot of fun to see people's musical development. Bonus points for being chronological about when you actually picked up the record/heard it.


My dad used to pick me up from elementary school and would jam AC/DC or Boston. Every once and awhile I think he would want to mellow out so this is what he would throw on. I thought it was the shit. First discernible record that I could remember hearing. I can still jam this album or even Look Sharp.


This is the first album I ever "owned". I was in grade five, and I saw the video for "Zero" on tv and actually couldn't believe that shit (I was 10). On Easter I woke up to an assortment of chocolate and that album awaiting my little paws. Some songs on there were a little intense for my impressionable tiny mind. I still regard this album as my favourite of all time, I still know a vast majority of the lyrics to every song.


The first extreme metal album I owned. My cousin was living with my dad, in 1998 and he asked to look through the CDs I had at the time. Admittedly, I was into nu-metal. So I handed him my CD wallet and he proceeded to call all the bands that I had in there fags. After he told me that Napalm Death would kill every member of Coal Chamber with just their pinky-fingers. I was hesitant at first but later that week I went into a used CD shop and found Fear Emptiness Despair. I hadn't really heard anything like it before. I guess I thought the heaviest jams were Korn. Very very wrong.


It was 2001 and I was an avid death metal fan. Blah blah blah Cannibal Corpse/Morbid Angel/etc. I picked up a copy of Metal Maniacs and it had an article on Converge. I had no idea who the band was, except for that they looked really "normal", dudes didn't look FUKKIN METUHL BRAH. The name just kind of stuck with me, along with the album title of Jane Doe. One night I was headed to a high school dance, and stopped by a record store to check out new stuff that had come in. I only had ten bucks on me at the time, and getting into the dance was seven. I was about to leave when I saw the cover of Jane Doe sticking out of the used section for nine bucks. I ended up spending my money on the thing, and didn't show up to the high school dance all my friends were drunk at. I really have never ever regretted that decision.


There was a time where I hated indie rock. My ridiculous high school years of hating anything without blastbeats/harsh vocals was pretty well-known through my friends. This was all well and fine, until I was browsing some record store with this chick I was hanging with at the time, and they put on the track "Staring at the Sun". Maybe I was just finally discovering that music isn't a one way street of brutality. I asked the guy working who it was, and picked up the album. It was just when TV On The Radio had released it, so I was pretty stoked to be into something that hadn't existed years before so I could get into the band more. I ended up seeing these guys twice, and even if their newer material isn't as rockin', they bring it hard for a bunch of probably very soft spoken gentlemen.

[dalamar501]

Did this once before, then it was songs.. so will just change it to albums

1: Early Years. This was a tough call. In a way this was all my parents music. I am between the ages of 5 and 9 for this.


Band: Yes.
Very first cd for me to own / want is a band that my parents listened to. Probably also another reason i enjoy random bands like The Mars Volta when it doesn't fit in with all Punk/Hardcore i listen to. I was really into the long songs and crazy stuff i thought was going on in the songs. Even though it is my cd i guess it is kept with all my parents cds.. 2 disc thing i had came with a poster too...


2: Venture on my Own.

Nirvana
First introduced to Nirvana in Grade 4, became something i wanted but didn't own for that following summer then left forgotten for years. Late Middle school saw a return to this and related bands. Kind of over it now but listening would just remind me of those years. Also even though i listened to the other albums i never owned Nevermind. I did own most of the others. Bleach was the first one i bought haha at future shop for like 9.99


3: Start to redefine. Now i have at this point have a pretty rock based idea of bands. I have now moved to a larger city (Victoria) with actual radio stations that play modern music. I don't have to use Much Music (which i didn't always have as i would alternate between having cable and not.) So many burned cds of whatever i heard on theZone and Hot103. i was starting to be more down with the popier rock songs on hot103. I didn't really have many friends so i would burn these cds and listen to them for hours while doing homework in my room or something.
Also the start of keeping music on my computer.
Anyways this continues for the next 2 years. Linkin Park, Audioslave, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, sum41 etc etc till i come across Alexisonfire from much music. Catching the video for either .44 caliber love letter or counterparts and number them on much loud made me go out to future shop and buy this cd..
I was amazed by the "screaming"
It also led me to realize there was so much not on radio out there. I looked into their label.
started finding things like The Bled, also moneen sort of.
ALSo later either same year or later started to go to local shows. whole world changed around suddenly i don't have music at home i want to listen to i have to build up a new collection. suddenly the small amount of whatever i get from Jodi and Tyler becomes my main playlist.
Band: Alexisonfire




4: Champion - Count Our Numbers

So much could be put here. I received so much stuff to start. Champion, Modern Life is War, Bane, Comeback Kid, WBOM, Cloak, American Nightmare, Ten Yard Fight. It was a crash course in hardcore.
Borrowing cds from jodi in math.. Floorpunch, Champion, Death Threat, so much more.. it was crazy.
Champion cause i also link my finding out about something i could relate to strongly. Straight Edge. A whole community with things i believed in. I never got into the whole drinking thing.
This band means a lot to me. I went to their last show.


5: Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian.
Throughout all of this i was listening to a bit of indie still or softer stuff. It increased a lot more after getting involved with CFUV. So much more stuff out there i had no idea about. I basically love this album. was one of my top albums of 2007. Almost put Silver Mt. Zion here or Sunset Rubdown.

[ZACH ATTACK]

It's going to be really hard for me to to just pick 5, but here it goes. I chose these in terms of actual life changingness, and not nessisarily personal importance to me at current, but since they're all life changing they're all pretty important still.


When I was a little kid I used to just love looking at my parents' record collection. I'd spend hours just leafing through them looking at the cover art wondering what kind of noises were on the record. One day this one caught my attention for some reason and I asked my dad if I could listen to it. I can still remember my spin tingling as soon as I heard those first couple harmonica notes on Thunder Road, and what happend next can pretty much be described as the first time I can remember being 100% happy. This was probably the exact moment that I knew that I liked music and wanted to spend the rest of my life around it. And on a side note I always kind of assumed that it was my Dad's record, but after my parents split and I was raiding their record collections to bring with me to Victoria, I found this one, along with a lot of other really boss records, in my Mom's collection and I've known her a littler better for it since then.


I think I was like 11 or 12 and I was old enough to know that I liked music, but just kinda listened to whatever was around. I had a few ill advised CDs of my own (Our Lady Peace and Oasis come to mind) but pretty much just listened to whatever my parents listend to or whatever was on Much Music. Me and Matt McIllwain were on the same hockey team for years and years and he had an older sister that kinda took him under her wing and showed him what was cool and in turn he'd show little ol'e me. We probably recorded about 18 hours worth of tape of us talking into a tape recorder pretending we were DJs playing the latest hits from Limp Bizket or whatever other god awful Nu metal and 7th generation Pear Jam rip offs were popular in the late 90's. Then one day he came over to my house to play mini sticks and goof off and brought with him Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. I was actually a little bit afraid of that CD at first because I'd never heard anything like it before in my life. Where as before we'd listen to bands who sounded angry now we were listening to aband who actually was angry. The next day I went out and bought a jar of Aylmer's rubber cement to spike my hair with, cut the ankles off of my old socks to wear as wrist bands, and traded in my obnoxiously baggy Randy River jeans and Nikes for a pair of Wallmart work pants and armyboots. I begged my grandparents, who live in Toronto, to take me down town to all the cool vintage clothing stores and punk shops and buy me band t-shirts that I can only imagine confused them at best and horribly offended them at worsed. I lived in those pants and boots for the next 5 or 6 years, and thankfuly my Bubbie and Zaidy were cool enough to take me down town and buy me those shirts. I probably even still have that DK shirt they bought me still kickin' around somewhere.


When I was 16 I had never heard a Crass song ever, but heard some of the older punks talking about them whenever they'd let me and chuckle head friends tag along with them to go to shows or drink 40's in sketchy allyways or pan handle on the main drag in Peterborough. One day I was in Peterborough's only Record Store, which happend to be owned by Tim Hains (Emily Hains of Metric's brother), and he hated punk rock. The punk section of his store was one tiny slice of shelf space that had maybe 50 or so records, most of them being Misfits collections and Fat Wreck compilations. And then I saw it behind the counter. A single imported copy of Stations of The Crass on CD for some ungodly sum like 30something dollars and I bought it on the spot without ever having heard a single Crass song prior. I took it home and marveled at all the strange spacey noises they managed to make. I spent hours with a guitar in hand trying to figure out the weird noise riffs on White Punks On Hope by ear. I assembled a group to perform in my highschool Christmas assembly/talent show with the express purpose of playing Big Hands and Crutch of Society. When I showed them the songs they all looked at me like I was from outer space and refused to ever listen to them again, much less play them publicly. I'd spend countless nights pouring over the lyric sheet provided, thinking that the things Steve Ignorant was bleating about were the most profound things ever. Capitalism stifles creativity and idividualism. Promises of democracy and freedom of speach serve as diversions from the authoritarian and anti-social practices of our government. We live in a society that views women objects to be controled on a fundamental level, and all of these things need to be destroyed RIGHT FUCKING NOW DAMNIT! I started skipping school to go to the publicy library and hunker down with vollumns of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Emma Goldman and Simone de Bouvoir. I even laboured over Marx's Das Kapital, retaining absolutly none of it, just so I could have that much more cred when explaining why I was an Anarchist like Crass, instead of a socialist like the dudes in Anti-Flag. I've since lost a lot of my youthful idealism that made these songs seem so urgent and profound and replaced with a lot cranky old manism, but this record played a vital role in shaping my political identity and opened my mind to whole new world of how music can be used to convey a message. All these years later I still cringe every time I hear somebody equate Anarchy with some sort of dystopian chaos and will bable at you for hours on end on the self destructive nature of capitalism or whatever mistakes that the CNT/FAI made during the revolution that are annoying me that week. You can all thank Crass for that.


I've definetly had more than a few life changing moments with this band. I heard this for the first time in late 2004. I'd been pretty solidly into crust punk since that faitfull day I bought a Crass CD I'd never heard before, but was getting kinda bored with listening to some guy shouting about horrors of war over top of a generic 3 chord progression and a verse/chorus/verse structure. I had also started hanging out with Nick Cunningham who was a second year university student at Trent. We were at his house one day, smoking blunts and playing video games when out of the blue she said "Hey man, check this out. I'm doing a show for them soon." and he trhew on One. One song in and dude's screaming about fucking corpses. Belgian. Every band I was ever in after that (or maybe I should say "Idea for aband as none of them ever got off ground) incorporated some element of this record. Overnight my world view went from one of niaeve optimism to pure misanthropy. I just had no idea that it was possible to be as angry as this record was, and that pure inbridaled rage spoke to me on a deeper level than any other artistic statment I had ever expierenced. About a month later I convinced one of the guys in I like Sally to say I was doing merch for them so I could see them play at a bar called the Trashateria. Cursed played that show as well and most of my memories of that show revolve around Chris Colohan grabbing me by the back of the head and screaming into my face about how the worlds fucked and we're all going to die alone. The next day I traded in all my punx as fux gear for black jeans, black shirts, and black shoesand cut off my mohawk because what's the fucking point of claiming to be anti-fashion when it takes you 3 hours to arrange all your belts and butt flaps? I stopped babbling about feminism because it seemed like I only did that when trying to get some brawd in the sack. I started going to Toronto to buy records and check out whatever ground breaking (to me at the time) hardcore band was playing at Adrift. I started listening to bands like Converge, Mare, Yaphet Kotto, Pg. 99 and a whole bunch of other stuff that I never gave two shits about before because it was too emo or what ever. I heard this record and my eyes opend.


So far I've had super long stories to go with every record but pretty much nothing I can say about this one will do justice to how Belgian it is and how much it totally and irreversibly changed my life. Hearing this for the first time for me was what I imagine it must be like when one finds Jesus. This record is literally serves as my Bible

[wolfgang]

- I leaned to play guitar to this record...it's been one of my top 10 fave records for 2/3 of my life.



- Shortly after seeing The Dead Kennedys and discovering punk in grade 5 I bought 3 records. This was one of 'em..The Cramos introduced me to 60's garage and wild 50's Rock'n'Roll...and I never looked back. I used to spin this record every day before school in grade 6...



- One of the bands that The Cramps introduced me to. "He's Waiting" is one of the best punk songs EVER written (and it's a bout Satan!), and the Sonics are THE proto-typical punk band...this album was released in 1966!



- One of the best records to skate to EVER...simply amazing record...top 10 material for me.



- Another one of the 3 albums I bought after seeing the Dead Kennedys...this is back when a used LP cost $3.50, so even a kid could by albums. Home town heros who were one of the best band going ANYWHERE at the time that theri first two album were released. As far as I'm concerned, when these guys broke up in 1989...that was it...like a ton of other bands,I wish they woulda stayed dead.

[tylerp]

I got this cd when I was like 10 years old. I think it was my first cd. I listened to it a lot on roadtrips my family took, because I didn't have much to do on long car rides to saskatchewan. just lots of fastball, prozzak, weird al tapes, game gear, and comic books. this band kicked out some pretty generic rock music. I think I have the words memorized to pretty much every song.



this was one of my favourite bands. I am still super into them. their early music, especially this album and the one before, falls into this realm of "acid jazz" that I was obsessed with for a long time - music that's heavy on the extended chords, fender rhodes, improvising, and cool smoothness that falls into electronic territory sometimes. I have their first five albums and a shitload of singles. and a giant collection of live bootlegs.



if any album got me into hardcore, like really got me into it, it's this. jodi sent me a ton of hardcore and a couple bands stuck out, including champion and this band, comeback kid. this entire album just makes me want to overcome whatever problems I face. I love the riffin' and chuggin'. listened to this so many times.



obvious pick. I loved orchid and still love orchid. there are lots of "screamo" bands but few take the same approach as orchid - enveloping octave chords and total chaos. I think it's just as much about the recording process. this entire album sounds... alarming.



kidcrash put on the best live show I've ever seen and, since seeing them, I have probably listened to this album like a hundred times. maybe that's an exaggeration. but a lot of times. they're the most "musically complicated" heavy band I know - not with wanky riffs and unnecessary stops and starts like a lot of bands are doing, but with complicated rhythms and harmonies that really work for me. these guys are geniuses and they embrace the diy attitude and live so humbly.

[Hollow]

There are a lot of albums that changed my life in various ways. These five are the five that come to mind in almost a nano-second.


1-Queen "A Night at the Opera".
I got this for Christmas when I was nine. I had just seen "Wayne's World" in theaters, and my obsession with the Bohemian Rhapsody scene got my Dad (who has great taste in music) the idea to buy this for me. I had it on tape (yeah, this was long enough ago that CD's weren't a cheap option) and I would play it on the tape player in my room constantly. I still know all the words to most of the songs on this album.


2-Black Sabbath "Paranoid"
My Dad had this (and pretty much every other Sabbath album) on vinyl when I was a kid, and when I was twelve I popped it on the turntable for the first time. This album literally changed the entire way I viewed music. If it hadn't been for this album, I would never have gotten into metal or hardcore. Or anything else, really. Black Sabbath saved my life.


3-Dead Kennedy's "Plastic Surgery Disasters"
When I was fifteen, and firmly ensconced in the Pantera/Metallica/Fear Factory crap-metal world that is southern Ohio, my friend Jeremy put this on. It was the first time I had ever heard punk rock in my life, and it blew me away. I borrowed his copy and listened to it until it was too scratched to play on my CD player anymore, and then bought my own copy. Jello Biafra is still one of my hero's.


3-boysetsfire "After the Eulogy"
When I was 19, a bunch of my friends went to a Sepultura show, and the opening band was some heavy hardcore outfit from Cincinnati (I can't remember who to save my life) and they all instantly got into hardcore. My friend Joe had started getting into it a little earlier, and so had a decent record collection of the more accessible stuff. He knew how much I loved DK, so he played these guys version of "Holiday in Cambodia". I loved it, and went to buy the EP it was off of ("In Chrysalis") but couldn't find it and so settled on this one instead. Which is good, because this album is infinitely better than In Chrysalis, and is what got me into hardcore in the first place. What up, 2000?


5-Converge/Agoraphobic Nosebleed "The Poacher Diaries"
I had no idea what the fuck grindcore was when I bought this (20? 21? Fuck it, who knows). It still blows my mind when I listen to it. Converge destroy, of course, and Locust Reign is still one of my favorite songs by them, but fuck if AN didn't completely flip my perspective on metal. I was blown away an played it over and over and over again. I love AN. A lot. Man. Fuck this noise, I'm gonna go listen to Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope.

[ZACH ATTACK]

- One of the bands that The Cramps introduced me to. "He's Waiting" is one of the best punk songs EVER written (and it's a bout Satan!), and the Sonics are THE proto-typical punk band...this album was released in 1966!

Quoted for awesomness. It should be illegal to claim to be in punk rock and not listen to the Sonics.

[Human-Demise]

bumping this cause i really like the idea.
(note some of this is a bit embarrassing, but we were all young once.)

1. white zombie-Astro creep 2000.

first heavy album i ever owned (was my dads) i think i started liking this album during the end of middle school, but had heard it during numerous car rides since i was 8. so this is where it started for me.

2.korn-self titled.

I guess just more of the same in my life, this is one i come back to a lot though. slow and low.

3.beastie boys-lincened to ill.

never liked rap, loathed it in highschool, this was the only rap i would listen to (still pretty much the same) love it, rap and rock, they did both so well.

4.cannibal corpse-tomb of the mutilated.

first experience in death metal, it was almost startling as there was no gradually transition from nu-metal to death metal for me. i just made the jump and rarely look back. plus the fact i never left my teens, gore is the bast art/lyrics/identity.

5.napalm death-the code is red.

my first napalm album, and even though it definitely not well liked by many, my definitive napalm album. it had everything for me. speed, meaty riffs, punkish looseness, vocals that sound like he eats nothing but gravel and nails, slow numbers that are pure godflesh worship, guest vocals out of no where. love.

OR

alternate 5. pig destroyer phantom limb.

I've been very vocal about my love of this album, this is my definition of heavy. catchy as hell, some complain of toned down lyrics, I disagree, they still total read like the where written by some one whos totally nuts, maybe just less sweary. pissed as hell. love love love.
I'm sure none of this will surprise any one though.

[xJohnnyx]

When I was a little kid all my parents ever listened to was AM Radio. We used to listen to AM 900 which was an oldies station at the time, and that was what began my life long love of rock and roll music..

1. Elvis Presley - 50,000,000 Fans Can't Be Wrong

This is basically just a greatest hits album. my parents had this on cassette when I was a kid and I used to take to my room put it on, stand on my dresser and pretend it was a stage as I sang along.

2. The Offspring - Ixnay on the Hombre

By grade 7 I was getting more into new music, I listened to a lot of radio bands at the time, but nothing that really stood out to me. I started hanging out with an older kid who lived in the same apartment building as me, that was how I was introduced to The Offspring. He also got me into BMX, and we used to jam this record at his house while we worked on our bikes. This is the band that got me into punk rock, and I would say that all of their albums upto and including Americana where very influential to me, but I picked this one cause it was the first one I heard.

3.Minor Threat - First Demo Tape

One day, it was in grade 11, I was hanging out in "The Shack" my good old buddy Mr. Hari Huge Mungo Turner Naismith (The Shack is what we nick named the Garage/shed thing that was in his back yard, we also used it as a jam spot) when he asked me if I liked Minor Threat. Now by this time I was well into punk rock and going to punk shows and I had heard of Minor Threat but I never really got into them and I didn't really know anything about straight edge. Hari told me about straight edge and played "Straightedge" for me. I instantly in felt a connection with this band, and the whole idea of straight edge. Shortly after I bought this cd and played it continuously.

4. Joy Division - Closer

Honestly I don't really have that much to say about this album other than that it was the first Joy Division record I own and it's also my favourite. It's also the only thing I listened to in high school that isn't totally punk or hardcore haha.

5. Bane - Give Blood

This is the first hardcore album that I really fell in love with, I even used lyrics from "Sunflowers and Sunsets" as my grad write up for the year book lol. When I was like 18 or something Leo's mom drove us to Seattle to see them play. It was awesome! They are still the best band I have ever seen live.

[Tambro]

5. Bane - Give Blood

This is the first hardcore album that I really fell in love with, I even used lyrics from "Sunflowers and Sunsets" as my grad write up for the year book lol. When I was like 18 or something Leo's mom drove us to Seattle to see them play. It was awesome! They are still the best band I have ever seen live.

That road trip would rule! I love Leo's mom!

[officespace]

-both of us

[Mikey]

This is not in any specific order

1: Goldfinger - Open Your Eyes
Yeah yeah I'm not upping the punx or whatever. But this cd came with a bonus dvd that had a mini-documentary on the treatment of chickens in mass farms. It wasn't the only reason I became vegetarian but it was what spurred my interest in it. This was the beginning of what would become 7 years and counting of not eating meat.



2: Shai Hulud - That Within Blood Ill-Tempered
I don't really know how to explain this one, but this cd was the first hulud album I heard. And this band is largely responsible for helping to shape what now make up my personal beliefs in life.They made me want to be a better person.


3: Atmosphere - Seven's Travels
I once hung out till about 3am with my friend Dave at his place, playing video games, getting philosophical and what not as the hour grew late. This album in particular got me into Atmosphere, as well as introduced me to conscious hip-hop. Before this album I thought hip hop was all Eminem and other bullshit about cars and bitches. As well as coming into my life at a pretty shitty time (during the height of what I would later discover was generalized anxiety disorder) it, along with other conscious hip hop like saul williams and dead prez to a lesser extent, showed me a lot about how view yourself and the world around you.


4: George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
This album peaked my interest in not only George Harrison and his views, but in the end of an era beatles when they got into eastern religions. Now I don't actually refer to myself as religious or think of myself as anything specific. But this album would lead me into things like Buddhism, and more importantly Taoism which has been a large influence on my later teens and now early twenties.


5: This last one is kind of a tie of two Neil Young Albums
Rust Never Sleeps (a live album with one influential song to me) and Harvest
The first because it features "My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)" which I can identify with to this day, having been heavily into drinking and drugs for a short time, as well as a group of friends that still living that lifestyle. And Harvest had an impact on me in almost every song. That album as a whole got me more interested in music, poetry, and along with other folk albums got me into story telling.

[Jordan f.]

Deep Purple-Machine Head: My dad showed me this record. Yeah yeah, everybody learns smoke on the water on guitar. That song is very far from how great this record is. He gave his old copy he had of this on vinyl. Used to hang in my basement and jam in on repeat. Played a big part in my getting into older rock type stuff.



Blink 182-Enema of the state: No record has had such a big impact on my life. I got it when I was about 8years old and i still remember listening to it in my room. I had never heard anything like it. Dumpweed started it. It was fast (for my 8year old mind), they swore, they were immature dorks just fucking partied. This album got me into punk. This album is pretty much the reason I am the way I am. I can honestly say that this record is partially responsible for every single stupid, pointless, immature, idiotic and crazy thing I've done. I owe a lot of good times to this record. This record is the reason I will never fully grow up.



Ak-47- The Fucking Enemy: This was the first hardcore record I ever heard. I'd known Tambo for a good couple years and he knew I liked a lot of street punk (casualties, exploited, the virus etc.) and had been to some shows before that (yeah XcutthroatXdynastyX). One day I ran into him in the Mcdonalds in Sidney and he had me listen to it..... and I fucking loved it. So angry. So fucking fast and angry. After that he sent me an e-mail with tons of other bands to check out, started getting me to come to shows and introducing me to people. This is the record that got me into hardcore. Listening to it in Mcdonalds was the first time I really understood what hardcore was.



The Answer- You Had Your Chance: "We are The Answer.... AND WE ARE A FUCKING STRAIGHT EDGE BAND!". Pretty much says it all right there. It wasn't so much the record as it was the live shows. This band got me into straight edge. I remember being a dorky, socially awkward, fucked up kid (hm.. things didn't end up changing) and being so stoked but so confused as to why after the show those dudes paid attention to me. They were an out of town band and I was a dumb kid. Mosher didn't give a fuck and made the effort to talk to me. Seeing them play was great. I was always soo stoked on how proud Mosher Matt was to say he didn't drink or do drugs. I listened to this record an insane amount through out highschool. It's what kept me sane.



The get up kids- Something to write home about: This is one of my all time favourite bands. I've probably listened to this record more then any other record during the past 5years. This record got me away from the "if its not hardcore I don't care" stage. It was the first TGUK's album I heard and it is 100% perfect. I will have a TGUK's tattoo in the near future. Grade 11-12 was full of girl troubles (who doesn't date shitty girls at 17?) and this record got me through it. No matter how great I thought the girl was, I knew she wasn't as perfect as this record. That kept me grounded a lot of the time.

[CodyCreepcore]

Collective Soul's Blue album.
the first band i ever remember listening to on a regular basis when i was probably like 11 or something. later was nirvana and smashing pumpkins when i was 12 or so. i think this is the album that made me start to pickup the guitar

Nofx's So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes.
pretty much this and greenday's dookie is what got me into punk. i first heard this when i was 14 or something and the drums were so fast and i didnt understand what the guitars were doing but the seemingly nonsenseicallness of it, made me interested.

Straight Faced's Conditioned.
i think the first hardcore/angry album that i ever really got into maybe with the exception of sick of it all's maladjusted cassette that my sister lent me. i think i heard of it through a punkorama comp obviously. i still think the guitars sound really heavy on this album.

Converge's Jane Doe
who's life DIDNT this album change. first thought. HOLY SHIT. got me into any sort of extreme type music. still Kurt and Ben are some of my favorite musicians. i had actually heard some converge (2 song off of when forever comes crashing) a few years before and liked it but i dont think i was ready for it then.

Wolves In The Throne Room's Diadem of 12 Stars.
i guess what i would call my gateway band into all things Black Metal.

[grind/bro]

Iskra has to cover a Collective Soul song

[Hollow]

Iskra has to cover a Collective Soul song

[Peter]

Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You

When I was growing up, I heard nothing in the house but Country. New-Country specifically. My mom and dad both loved it, and thus, when I was a kid, I did too. Lots of Garth Brooks, John Micheal Montgomery, artists like that. When I started going to cub scouts, one of the kids was always singing this line from this song. I asked him what it was, and he said it was by Matchbox 20. So, in what I believe was the first CD I ever purchased, I went and bought this record. Despite the fact, in retrospect, it's pretty polished pop-rock, it was so different from anything I had really heard. There was more anger in it, less silly songs. And I really liked it. I loved in infact. To this day, I still listen to it now and then, for a bit of a nostalgia trip. I never really liked any of their other albums, but this one will always stick with me.



Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight

When I was in middleschool and highschool I was a super sad, bummer kid. And because of that, I listened to a lot of sad, bummer, music. I remember when this album came out, and getting it for Christmas a little while later. And listening to "Running For Home" on repeat. And thinking the end to "Born To Kill" was the single most beautiful and devastating piece of music ever created. And "Suburbia" was written about me. So much so that my first band was named "Suburbia", true story. Matthew Good has sort of lost interest with me now, as he seems to just keep writing the same song these days, but Beautiful Midnight will always be one of the saddest records in my mind. Plus, I remember my brother playing "Strange Days" a lot when my Dad died.



Strapping Young Lad - City

When highschool hit, I was still sad as shit, but I had started listening to a lot of metal. Mostly bands like Metallica, and Megadeth. Those bands that every kid who gets a guitar in highschool seems to get into. Then I started digging around for other metal bands, and came across Strapping Young Lad, and holy fuck, it totally changed how I viewed "heavy" metal. The vocals! The drums! The guitar sounds! NOTHING like Metallica. And it blew me away. I loved everything Devin Townsend did, quickly purchased all his albums, and didnt listen to anything but him for awhile. I eventually became so enamored with heavy music, to the point where I O'Ded on a lot of Metal, and now don't listen to much but Strapping Young Lad, I still have a soft sport for.



Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

After growng up listening to country, I thought it was the fucking lamest shit around. Then after reading this music blog for awhile, and he kept talking about Ryan Adams, I thought why not give this guy a try. So I emailed the guy who writes the blog and asked what record I should check out. He suggested Heartbreaker, and without listening to a single Ryan Adams song before, I purchased it. And holy fuck. It was the best thing I'd ever heard. Never did I hear the sheer emotion. The heartbreak. To this day I still can't put my finger on exactly what it is about Adams' work that really hits me, but even as I'm typing this, I'm listening to another Ryan Adams record, and it just hit this part in one song that hits me so hard everytime. And it is EVERYTIME. I have listened to Heartbreaker probably 500 times since I got it, and it still sounds as important and fresh to me as it did when I bought it 5 years ago.



Sonic Youth - Dirty

After discovering Ryan Adams, and thus, opening by ears to more Country like Steve Earle, and Uncle Tupelo, and really diving into Wilco, I was looking for something to balance all that acoustic guitar. Leah (my girlfriend) had this CD on her shelf, and I asked to borrow it one night for my drive home. I had always heard about Sonic Youth but never really bothered to check them out. They always seemed to be lumped into categories alongside Nirvana and Mudhoney and I knew those bands and thought they were alright, but never really did it for me so I never bothered, but I thought, "hey, why not." And what I heard was so different from anything I'd heard before. I mean, I'd heard noise jams before, listening to Wilco and such, but not with this veracity. I instantly fell in love with them, and the more research I did, the more I fell in love. They just approached guitars so differently than any of the musicians I'd listened to before, it really influenced and changed how I look at the guitar.




Yeaaaa!

[Hollow]

I was reading Grahams' post and realized that my musical taste in high school (and slightly after) weirdly paralleled his.

FOR EXAMPLE

1. white zombie-Astro creep 2000.

first heavy album i ever owned (was my dads) i think i started liking this album during the end of middle school, but had heard it during numerous car rides since i was 8. so this is where it started for me.

Ah yes, our collar-pulling nu-metal phase. Oi. Lets just move past this as quickly as possible, eh? This was the only band that I look back on fondly, because fuck it we all have that one terrible band we pull out every once in a while to listen to for a nostalgia trip (as Peter put it). Saw these guys live when I was sixteen. Still ranks as one of the more memorable moments in High School.

2.korn-self titled.

I guess just more of the same in my life, this is one i come back to a lot though. slow and low.

Speaking of the nu-metal phase, I owned this album too. Let us never speak of this again. Chaos AD stuck with me til today, though. Still a killer record.

3.beastie boys-lincened to ill.

never liked rap, loathed it in highschool, this was the only rap i would listen to (still pretty much the same) love it, rap and rock, they did both so well.

Confession time. I've never been into the Beastie Boys. They're good, no question, and I like listening to them when they're on but...well, it kind of all blends together for me. I've honestly never understood the huge fuss over them. Eh. It is what it is. Bone, though...oh Bone. I loved thee.

4.cannibal corpse-tomb of the mutilated.

first experience in death metal, it was almost startling as there was no gradually transition from nu-metal to death metal for me. i just made the jump and rarely look back. plus the fact i never left my teens, gore is the bast art/lyrics/identity.

Yeah, everything I said about Beastie Boys? Same with Death Metal. I dig it when it's on, I can chat about it in casual conversation, I'll throw it on when I'm at Black Raven, and that's about where my interest stops. There are a lot of conversations with Reece where he'll mention something like five bands I've never heard of. I just nod and smile. I like it when elements are incorporated into other genres, though. Or when they incorporate other genres into them (honestly, is Bolt Thrower a metal band with punk riffs or a punk band with metal riffs? I CANT FIGURE IT OUT), but when it's just five minutes of blast beats I start to get bored. But then, I listen to Pantera, so what the fuck do I know about music?

5.napalm death-the code is red.

my first napalm album, and even though it definitely not well liked by many, my definitive napalm album. it had everything for me. speed, meaty riffs, punkish looseness, vocals that sound like he eats nothing but gravel and nails, slow numbers that are pure godflesh worship, guest vocals out of no where. love.

OR

alternate 5. pig destroyer phantom limb.

I've been very vocal about my love of this album, this is my definition of heavy. catchy as hell, some complain of toned down lyrics, I disagree, they still total read like the where written by some one whos totally nuts, maybe just less sweary. pissed as hell. love love love.
I'm sure none of this will surprise any one though.

Okay, so this is kind of a cheat because I honestly didn't listen to these bands in High School. I wish I had, but such is life. So instead I will completely disagree with Alexis on a subjective concept that really can't be argued in any way shape or form and say that Napalm Death's best album was Scum and Pig Destroyers best album was Prowler In the Yard.

Edit: I really like The Code is Red..., but I just cannot get into Phantom Limb.

[Human-Demise]

So instead I will completely disagree with Alexis on a subjective concept that really can't be argued in any way shape or form...

haha, love how well said that is.

[Hollow]

Haha, yeah, I started to write something completely different and then it hit me that I was being argumentative for no reason.