The 10 Albums That Influenced My Life

[Jack the Stripper]

Love reading stories like yours Tyr. Very relatable. Your SOTD story was very eloquently put too btw. A lot of the early purchased albums and band discoveries hold stories that are so profound and vivid in the mind. The early/mid 80’s was such an exciting time for metal. New bands and new sounds were breaking out everywhere and older classic bands continued to raise the bar.

I’ve met and read of so many people that were introduced to Sabbath and Ozzy solo via Speak of the Devil...Such an impactful album.

[Zzzptm]

I need to do my day 3 and then my day 4, sorry I missed yesterday!

Day 3...

High school is behind me and I'm at college for my first year. Dorm rooms are tiny things: no LPs! It's tapes all the way, cassettes everywhere. Don't leave them in your car or they'll get stolen! Careful where you stack them so they don't fall behind the cabinet! Big, zippered cases of cassettes so that they're "portable".

I had been there a few weeks and met a young lady who would become my wife. Started dating her the Friday before Labor Day 1986, haven't been apart since. We would be married a year later, both of us only 19, but that's another story.

So, it's a week or two after we started dating and we're talking about music. We both had similar tastes, so now we're seeing how all of them measure up. She mentions Metallica and I'm not so sure if I'm ready to go "Very Metal". Sure, I had Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, all of the 70s stuff I could gather with lawnmowing money and used record stores over five years. But this new stuff? I wasn't so sure.

So she put the tape on and got to the point. It was Master of Puppets. We all know how it opens up. "Battery" is make-or-break. If you don't' like that tune, there's no point in going forward. If you like it, well, the rest of the tape beckons.



And beckon it did.

From that moment, thrash was on the table for my musical tastes.

[Zzzptm]

Day 4...

I'm now 27, the year is 1995. I am a teacher now and I have 2 children, one born just a few months before. I'm young and poor, but I know how to hustle. Since I'm a teacher, I have access to the Half-Price Books donations warehouse. I can go there and get books for my students for free. They also have vinyl there that never moved in the stores, so I can pick that up, as well - for free.

The books I put into a library in my class. I ask that the students return the books and talk about them with me for extra credit and so the books can be shared with other students. To stock the library, I load it up with Stephen King - everyone seems to want to read that! As an English teacher, I'm happy with anything that's read. But I don't give a lot of points for the King books. I want them to hit classic titles, which I also have plenty of. Some of the classics I've read before, some I picked up because they were free and I heard they were good.

What was wild was how some books in those dusty classics were seized upon by my students and I had to wait my turn to get a chance to read! Hesse's Siddharta was one of those titles I remember vividly as having been recommended to me multiple times by my students. The extra credit didn't matter, we were all taking turns reading it. Camus' The Stranger was another of those rapidly-rotated books that got touted to me.

At the same time, I had a turntable in my classroom and that's where the free vinyl paid its first visit. Lots of the free records were classical music. I could play that a little at a time, or everyone would pass out in relaxation. But the kids like the oldies - they were almost all Hispanic, and oldies rock was and still is an integral part of classic car culture that goes with low riding and Saturday mornings. So I played a lot of old R&B and Blues, and there was plenty of that in the free pile. Lots of greatest hits and all that.

And then there were the albums I picked up for free just because I was curious. With no financial cost, the only thing I would spend would be my time. Some of the records I picked up were battered, but still listenable, pop albums from the 70s that due to sheer volume were always cheap as chips - especially best of compilations. Others had intriguing covers and that made me want to give them a go. I picked up a lot of fusion rock that way, and I was glad that it was free.

But one album held a different sort of "give it a go" promise. It was a John McLaughlin album, and I'd read about how he was this awesome guitarist that went spiritual and all acoustic. This was an acoustic performance with a trio of Indian instrumentalists and the title was Shakti, meaning "power" in Hindi.



It was a live album, opening to sounds of applause and last-minute tuning. John thanked the audience for the warm welcome, and then...

... it was like liquid sunshine. Immediately, I felt an emotional draw from the music and was swept along in its currents. Now, I had always enjoyed George Harrison's dabblings in Indian music, but this was much more than that. This was my first musical experience from beyond the USA, Canada, and Western Europe. Although there was still a connection to the West through McLaughlin, it was certainly my first real taste of what world music had to offer. And I didn't want it to be just world music all lumped together in a pile, either. I wanted to get the taste of the different regions, to know something of each part of the world and what it had to share with me. Because of this album, my heart was opened up and ready to receive the guqin, koto, erhu, oud, kanun; I was prepped for Bollywood, High Life, Cantopop, Tejano, Merengue, Qawwali, and Rai.

Every time I give this album a thought or a play, I also give thanks.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I'm really enjoying this thread. I might have to seek out a few albums!

This thread is the one I orginally thought of posting for my "Obligation", I think it works better like this!

[Charger]

Okay finally managed to dig up the album choices I made two years ago when this challenge hit my facebook...granted it was called favourite albums at the time but the difference is minimal anyways.

So Day 1 for me:




This was my very first DIO album. I knew Ronnie from Sabbath at the time and absolutely adored his vocals and lyrics and his delivery already so I thought I knew what I was in for, but honestly no...I had no idea just how amazing this album really was.
And now looking back for more than 20 years of listening to this one...it still rocks my socks just as hard as it did back then.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Day 5

Back to the 1970s. This will be no surprise to some of you: 2112 by Canadian prog-rockers Rush.



Rush's 4th album, it came out in 1976. I was vaguely aware of Rush (now probably my 2nd favourite band) when a college friend played this album to me in around 1983. The 20 minute title track was exactly what my life had been missing! But this is no 1-track wonder as the 5 songs on side two are more than just filler and A Passage to Bangkok is one of the best 3½-minutes songs ever.

[Jack the Stripper]

Day 5



I’m forever grateful I discovered Dio solo before Dio Sabbath. It made me love and appreciate the great man without forming a strong bias towards either era’s of Sabbath. Holy Diver was another album I bought solely on album cover art. Dio’s behemoth mascot Murray lurking from behind jagged mountains, whipping a long chain and ensnaring a helpless Priest struggling to keep his head above water was a huge attention grabber amongst the other albums in the metal section of the record store.

And of course the music backed up the awesomeness of the cover. Holy Diver was a keeper from the start. First off, Ronnie’s singing was an obvious standout, he could sing with a growl-tinged vocal to an all out powerful operatic vocal which was perfectly showcased on songs like Stand Up and Shout, Rainbow in the Dark and the phenomenal Don’t Talk To Strangers, the former being one of the great anthemic album openers ever. The other standout was Vivian Campbell’s guitar playing, his riffs were razor sharp & heavy, his solos were fast and fiery but very melodic and memorable which made him an instant guitar god in my world. Then you throw in Vinny’s powerful drumming and killer fills and old Rainbow band mate Jimmy Bain’s tasty bass lines and it made for one hell of a lineup and an amazing debut heavy metal album. The title track is an obvious stand out but they’re all standout songs to me with no mediocre tracks at all. It’s such a well crafted album with diverse songs ranging from dynamic hard rock to all out aggressive heavy metal. The only thing I didn’t like was the keyboards in Rainbow in the Dark...Man I wish it didn’t have them...

[Tyr66]

AC/DC will forever be my portal giving access to the so subversive heavy music. My brother and I therefore decided to collect all the albums (the European ones, because we didn't know that there were the first Australian versions). Although Powerage is my favorite, these are the first two albums I quickly acquired :

[Thelemech]

This was my first Jazz album. I was blown away by the music I was hearing and I quickly bought Love Supreme after getting this album. It started a life long relationship with Jazz and Coltrane is still my fav of that incredible genre.

[Vyn]

I bought this because I thought it had Honky Tonk Women on it. Not knowing the exact name of that song at the time, but having heard it on the radio and thought it was cool.

I was disappointed, and after listening to the album I was left with a hollow feeling. I didn't understand why. So I listened to it some more. I talked to some guys who were older about the record, and they all sang its praises. I was intrigued by it, but couldn't put my finger on where that hollowness came from.

I was too young to understand that part of it.

It wasn't until I matured some that it made sense. Whereas Black Sabbath always had hope buried in their message, Let it Bleed was an expression of bleakness. A picture of life of resigned hopelessness at 33 and a third rpm. Very powerful and well done, it served to inform what would become my musical obsession for the next several years.

[Vyn]

.. and Coltrane is still my fav of that incredible genre.

Love Jazz, and Blue Train is rock solid.

[Charger]

DAY 2



My very first IRON MAIDEN album. I had heard few songs in both wav and midi (yes I am THAT old) from a school buddy back in 1997 from Maiden and loved them. The very first track I ever heard was the instrumental Losfer Words (big 'orra) in midi and loved it. Then I went to look for a Maiden album in the local second hand record store and the only album they had was this one. It wasn't in a great shape had some scratches on it and the booklet was torn so I think I paid like 10mk (about 2€ in current money)...Went home and put it on and I was totally blown away. I remember a track or two that didn't play right so the very next week I remember travelling to the city and went to a record store to buy a new version.

This still remains my second favourite Maiden (powerslave is #1 by a slight margin) album even after all these years. I think the albums that first introduce you to a band always remain special...and that certainly has been the case with The X Factor. The darker themes, the amazing lyrics, the complex compositions, Blazes strong vocals...it's got it all...not to mention the brutal artwork. This was probably the most brutal artwork I had seen...and still remains one of the most graphic ones that I own...and I love it.

[Zzzptm]

My day 5...

The year is 1997, and I'm working a long-term contract out in California. I had left teaching 2 years before and was now in IT. I was flying out on Monday and flying home on Friday every week and it was making me go nuts.

So a project manager suggested I find some diversions while I was out in California. He asked what do I like. I replied, "Music."

He said, "OK, go buy some CDs. Try something new. Expense them as entertainment, have some fun."

The next several weeks were a period of significant album acquisition for me...

But in that "something new" department was a great CD that put me on the trail of funk and soul music ever after.



I bought it for "For the Love of Money", but I stayed with it for "992 Arguments" and "Backstabbers". In truth, I loved every song. I've since learned that not every group was as tight as the O'Jays, and that they set a very high standard for performance and dynamism. They're a great place to start, should you want to explore the classic funk/soul sounds of the 70s.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Day 6

One of the most consistant bands over the last 40-odd years, today I'm going with The Black Album by punk / goth pioneers The Damned.



Not their best album (but close) it was this album which really made The Damned one of my top 5 favourite acts. This is the album where they did less punk and more gothic with songs like Twisted Nerve, the 17 minute Curtain Call, 13th Floor Vendetta and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Originally released in 1980 as a double album with side 3 being Curtain Call and side 4 being a bunch of live tracks.

[Jack the Stripper]

Day 6



Restless And Wild was an unexpected discovery for me. I knew nothing about Accept or had I remembered seeing any of their records in the stores I frequented. It was nearing the end of my first year in high school in 1983. None of my friends or anyone I knew was into metal. Until I ran into an old mate I’d went to primary school with. We had went our seperate ways after primary school as he attended a different high school to me. Anyway, we got chatting and we quickly ascertained that in the nearly 12 months we hadn’t seen each other we’d both acquired a newfound love for the same sort of music. I reeled off the bands to him I was into and he reeled off the bands he was into. Some of the bands he mentioned though I had never heard of. They were Venom, Accept, Exciter, Raven and Mercyful Fate. We ended up hanging out and checking out each other’s record collection. The album that took my particular attention from his collection was Accept’s Restless and Wild, he had mentioned they were his favourite band and I was taken by the cover which featured two white Gibson Flying V’s standing up crossed over each other at the top of their necks and fully ablaze.
He put the record on and a bewilderment came over me, it was some old German folk song or something playing and after about 10 seconds I was just about to say “what the fuck is this shit!? thinking he was taking the piss! Then suddenly it sounded like the needle on the turntable was fucked and sliding across the record, but then corrected itself and an almighty scream was let out and a fast and fearsome riff exploded out of the speakers and was then joined by this machine gun like double bass drumming. To say it absolutely floored me is an understatement. It was the fastest and heaviest thing I had ever heard and instantly I had to have it. I stayed and listened to the rest of the record and the whole thing just blew me away. It was packed with so many killer riffs and amazing guitar solo’s. I ended up picking the vinyl a month or so later but in the meantime I gave him a couple of blank 90minute tapes to record it for me which you could fit two full albums on each tape. Heavy Metal Maniac, Black Metal, and Melissa were the other albums he taped for me. Inturn I taped some albums for him that he didn’t have.

He also told me about a couple of awesome dedicated Heavy Metal shops in the heart of the city that stocked a lot of stuff you couldn’t find in the chain stores, which turned out to be the most awesome and valuable bit of information I ever received in my teenage years. Those two shops were like heavy metal mecca to me with many hours of my weekends dedicated there and lots of money dropped.

Accept have been in my top half a dozen bands ever since, but what discovering them also did was make me realise there was also awesome metal from other countries outside of the UK and the US.