The 10 Albums That Influenced My Life

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I don't mind Accept, I've got an early compilation, which had a good mix of songs. Yes some were a little cheesey but most of it was strong, interesting, heavy and very 80s!

[Jack the Stripper]

^^^
I don't mind Accept, I've got an early compilation, which had a good mix of songs. Yes some were a little cheesey but most of it was strong, interesting, heavy and very 80s!

Yeah they were one on the heavier traditional metal bands of the 80’s. They just had a sound and style that just made me really gravitate to them as a kid and they've stuck with me ever since. I’ve never stopped being a fan.

Was that compilation  ”Hungry Years”?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I don't mind Accept, I've got an early compilation, which had a good mix of songs. Yes some were a little cheesey but most of it was strong, interesting, heavy and very 80s!

Was that compilation  %u201DHungry Years%u201D?

No, and I'm not sure it is an "official" compilation, I can't find it in their wiki discography, and my copy has a big fat Import label on it. It's called A Compilation of the Best of Balls to the Wall / Restless & Wild published in 1986 on CBSs Portrait subsidiary.

[Jack the Stripper]

^^^
I don't mind Accept, I've got an early compilation, which had a good mix of songs. Yes some were a little cheesey but most of it was strong, interesting, heavy and very 80s!

Was that compilation  %u201DHungry Years%u201D?

No, and I'm not sure it is an "official" compilation, I can't find it in their wiki discography, and my copy has a big fat Import label on it. It's called A Compilation of the Best of Balls to the Wall / Restless & Wild published in 1986 on CBSs Portrait subsidiary.

Yep I’m aware of that one. It was released on Portrait which was a subsidery of CBS which handled their US/CAN/UK distribution. Polydor was their German label after they parted with Brain.

It’s one of those unofficial official releases. In other words it wasn’t band sanctioned.

[Zzzptm]

Day 6

The year in my life is now 1998 and I'm done with the consulting gig and am working as an everyday IT guy for a medium-size company. There's plenty of time to shoot the breeze in our office area and we talk music every now and again. There's so much downtime, I start a Deep Purple mailing list which I run for about 3 years. It's also when I first was active on the Black Sabbath mailing list.

Well, during that down time, waiting for stuff to break so I can fix it, I have a lot of time to listen to my music at a reasonable volume. I'm also 30, and I'm finding that my body doesn't bend and flex as easily as it used to. Around that time, there was a really big Steely Dan fan working in IT with me and he made some excellent points about how all the best musicians seem to be playing on SD records, and they're always on point. At the same time, I'm playing Purpendicular a lot and starting to appreciated the slower-tempo tracks, especially "The Aviator." And then, it hits me. This is music for when your knees hurt. You're not young anymore, age is teaching you some lessons, and it's time to shift around in life. You can still enjoy things, just don't be reckless.



I honestly can't say which of the two had a bigger impact at the time, so they each share half a credit at that time period. Both were ones that I was familiar with but which I had rediscovered. DP's Come Taste the Band was another rediscovery, but that wasn't an album that opened up a new chapter in my life. These albums were that opening up, and my tastes brought in work that was lighter and easier and subtler in its stylings and applications. Once I'd accepted and appreciated that change in my life, I could go back to my collection and put on songs that were once slow and dragging to my teenage ears that were now ready to be listened to as thoughtful and well-crafted. It wasn't all or nothing for me anymore.

[Charger]

Day 3



It seems that this pretty much becomes my "first albums" list but like I said before it is quite often that the first album you listen to from a band leaves an everlasting impression.

My distant cousin brought this album to me back in 1998 I think...might have been late 97 too. We used to listen to a lot of music together back in the day and we had similar tastes it we swapped albums quite a bit. Anyways we were playing Carmageddon together one day and it was his turn to bring the music and he brought this. I had never even heard of the band Megadeth at that time but he had already (eventhough he was a year younger than me) been a fan of their for some time. He said this was the best he'd heard them yet and told me to put it on. And I did and I gotta say I was hooked from the first drum beats of Trust! This remained our Carmageddon driving soundtrack for quite a while back then.

I made a copy of it for myself but it didn't take me long to buy my own album. And it was my first bought Megadeth album and it still remains my absolute favourite album from them...I know lot of people say Rust In Peace but for me this one holds a special place.

[Vyn]

Haven't listened to Cryptic Writings in a long time. Going to give it a whirl, thanks Charger!

Some miscreant brought this to a Bicentennial party and played it. I was in love:

[Zzzptm]

Bicentennial party... that reminded me of the Super Bowl X halftime show...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-ScWjvoc-Q

Go to 3:01, that song STILL pops in my head from time to time...

[Jack the Stripper]

Day 7





By the time 83 had turned into 84 I was fully immersed into metal, I’d built my record collection substantially. Ozzy, Maiden, Sabbath & Priest had released new albums since my initial gateway albums and I was quickly filling the gaps in their back catalogues as well as made new discoveries in Saxon, Dio, Accept, Motörhead, Exciter, Venom, Raven and others.

My younger brother had taken notice of my newfound passion and what I was listening to and asked me if I had any Mötley Crüe or heard of them. He said his mate’s sister was into them and that apparently they hold their guitar picks in such a way that they do the evil horns while they’re playing(lol) which turned out to be a fallacy but at the time had me really intrigued and on a mission to check them out next time I was at the record store. When that next time came the only album I could find was Shout At The Devil which had been released a few months prior. The album was an attention grabber straight off. An all mat black cover with a shiny embossed black pentagram with Mötley Crüe emblazoned in red at the top and Shout At The Devil in red at the bottom. I took the album out of the clear plastic sleeve while in the store and opened the gatefold. What confronted me I was not expecting. Four leather and spiked clad dudes in goth glam make up, each with a seperate pose taking up the whole inside gatefold. They looked like something out of Mad Max 2(which was my favourite movie at the time) or a more eviler version of Kiss. I bought the album and excitedly rushed home to play it.

From the moment the eerie synth and sermon like narration started that transitioned into the pounding drums and slow grinding heavy riff of the opening title track which featured a repeated gang vocal of “Shout” “Shout”, I was fully enthralled. The rest of the album turned out to be an awesome & exciting listen with lots of catchy hooks, kick ass heavy riffs and big gang vocal choruses which are featured throughout the album. The whole recording has a dark and raw feel to it with a good variation of songs ranging from bludgeoning heavy rockers in “Bastard” and “Red Hot” to some mid paced heavy drivers in “Looks That Kill” and “Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid”, and a couple of slower numbers in “Too Young Too Fall In Love” and “Danger”

Shout At The Devil turned out to be Mötley’s heaviest and best album of their career as they would change up their sound and image for future releases in search for the mainstream dollar. But it remains one of my favourite musical discoveries as a kid. It was also gateway album to some other bands from LA in Ratt, Dokken and one of my all time favourite bands in W.A.S.P. as well as started a new craze for me in buying shirts, posters and collecting metal magazines as Mötley Crüe had such an aura and eye-catching image about them during that SATD era it made me crave more than just the albums.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Day 7

Beer & Sex & Chips & Gravy by crude, satirical drunks The Macc Lads.



This came out in 1985, and I first heard a couple of songs off a compilation album a friend had not long after. The songs are not diverse basically dealing with alcohol, their sexual prowess and Gordon's takeaway. The songs are simple but lyrically witty and well performed. Their subsequent albums are equally as fun and filthy!

[Jack the Stripper]

^^I have not even heard of that band. You’ve always had a strong leaning to Punk it seems. Were you into punk first then metal drifted in or the other way around? Or maybe both genres just blended in at the same time? I loved the Sex Pistols but were never able to get into other punk bands for some reason unless they were crossover.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^I have not even heard of that band. You’ve always had a strong leaning to Punk it seems. Were you into punk first then metal drifted in or the other way around? Or maybe both genres just blended in at the same time? I loved the Sex Pistols but were never able to get into other punk bands for some reason unless they were crossover.

Initially I enjoyed the early-mid 70s Glam Rock of groups like Slade, Sweet and T-Rex, then Queen were my favourites from about 1975-78-ish. I picked up on punk a little late, it came to the forefront in 77 but I didn't really get into it until about a year later, but even then it was the more musically competent punk acts like The Jam, The Boomtown Rats, The Stranglers, The Damned and, yes The Sex Pistols.

About 1978 I also started to see heavy metal bands on Top of the Pops and remember seeing Judas Priest and Motorhead and enjoying what I heard. But it really wasn't until 1980 that my love for rock took off, that year saw some very important releases including Back In Black and Heaven & Hell. And while I still enjoyed the punk / new wave and subsequently indie rock it was now Hard Rock/Metal that I loved the most.

[Vyn]

Thought I had already posted this, but I must have been dreaming.

Anyway, I had heard some Black Flag but never really got into it. Then Henry joined the fold and this record changed my whole outlook:

[Charger]

Day 4



Well look and behold...the first album on my list that was NOT my intruction album to the band in question.
This was in fact my third or fourth (can't be quite sure as I bought this and Defenders very close to eachother back in the early 2000s) Priest album. They had already sucked me in with Demolition, and British Steel...still love both of those albums as well but I think the fierceness of the Painkiller was what truly sold me to the band. This is the fastest album from Priest and it is a solid heavy metal masterpiece. Actually this is probably as close to thrash metal Priest ever got. The title track alone still gives me chills. Rob never was able to fully pull it off live but Tim did a damn good job and even he didn't fully pull it off. I can only imagine how many takes Rob needed to finish the track in the studio but the end result it just amazing.
Honestly though same goes for pretty much the full album...not a single weak track. Out of all the Priest studio albums this is the one that still gets the most rotations. Just a killer album.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I might have mentioned this before... but that is also my favourite Judas Priest album also.