This is a project I've been thinking about for a while. What are the albums that have influenced me? The ones that formed my obsession with music that is still going strong today. Bands/Musicians that I enjoy as a fan (most) and some that I've toured with and can call friends and acquaintances. 

Assuming this is a question we can all answer and I’m not hijacking the thread.



Sure Conspiracy of One is my favourite Offspring album but this kind of was my introduction to CDs and the concept of an album in general. When I was a kid we all thought this CD was scandalous, they say “bitch” & everyone loved pretty fly for a white guy. Was jealous of my friends that owned this :lol:



The first album I bought with my own money! Birthday cash put to good use.
Got to see Darren Hayes live last year too.



I lived in Cobar for a few years (a small mining town) and Eminem was the go to artist everyone was into.



As mentioned in the since DELETE!-d MLS thread, this came out at an extremely low point in my life where I was living at home getting the little money I had basically stolen from me. My favourite Manson album and my most listened to album ever.



(Watch The Throne - Kanye West/Jay Z)

Moved to another state, started making money and had a car. I was balling in comparison to the scenario above and this was the soundtrack to fit it.




Probably the last year of my life I felt truly happy and this was the soundtrack to match. Haven’t resorted to the laughing gas yet.


& lastly Doja Cat and Dua Lipa were synonymous with the lockdown era for me.

System, And how are you not a piece of shit?

Can a moderator please delete this entire thread?

Aug 10, 2024 19:33:11 GMT @homme said:

System , And how are you not a piece of shit?

Aug 10, 2024 19:42:15 GMT @homme said:

Can a moderator please delete this entire thread?

No. Fuck that.

You realize you can just edit your original post if you need to be first, right?

This is a discussion board. If you want the thread to yourself that's fine but you need to say so. Otherwise people are going to discuss topics on the discussion board.

I'm confused here. Was this more of an archive post for the OP? Like an offshoot of the LIFE(tm) series? Calling system a POS is that BECAUSE he posted or because he posted bad albums? I don't generally listen to albums I'm more of a song person, as a result only a handful of albums ever reach a point where I can really reference them. Still I feel those ones did define my life. Is that what we're posting?

Aug 10, 2024 19:45:51 GMT RT said:

Aug 10, 2024 19:33:11 GMT @homme said:

System , And how are you not a piece of shit?

Aug 10, 2024 19:42:15 GMT @homme said:

Can a moderator please delete this entire thread?

No. Fuck that.

You realize you can just edit your original post if you need to be first, right?

This is a discussion board. If you want the thread to yourself that's fine but you need to say so. Otherwise people are going to discuss topics on the discussion board.

You're right

I'm a piece of shit, can I post mine?

Aug 10, 2024 19:33:11 GMT @homme said:

System, And how are you not a piece of shit?

He literally commented on the top of his post, that he assumed it was a question and he wasn’t high jacking it.
Obviously there was no ill intentions towards you. System posts a lot of music threads on PW, why would you think for a second no one would contribute to this? JFC, check your ego.

From how I read it, the OP was going to use the thread to talk about his favourite albums and wasn't necessarily asking for anyone else's.

We're moving on ok? No need to go over this, RT has already spelled it out clearly.

I'm going to do mine in the style of a great Pitchfork series called 5-10-15-20 where they got artists to list the music that influenced them at each stage of their life.

5 would be a compilation called This Is Soul - I wore out this cassette out because I listened to it religiously every time I had a bath. It had Mustang Sally, Sweet Soul Music, When A Man Loves A Woman, Knock On Wood, Land of 1000 Dances.

10 is one I share with System, I think Savage Garden were pretty seminal for all Aussies around our age. I remember getting up early on the weekends to watch Rage to see if they managed to stay at #1 and being furious when they were knocked off top spot. Britpop bands like Blur and The Verve were my mortal enemy at the time. :lol:

15 is Hail to the Thief, I was introduced to Radiohead by a friend around this time and immediately became obsessed. HTTT is a really overlooked part of their discography that never gets mentioned because it came after a couple of all time records, but it's an album that most other bands would have died to make.

20 (appropriately) is xx - when this came out it was something fresh and sounded completely different to anything I'd heard before, a unique blend of indie, R&B, electronic and post-punk. It was the perfect soundtrack to late nights doing uni assignments and browsing PW.

25 is To Pimp A Butterfly, a true powerhouse of an album that's got a great theme throughout, a tremendous mix of jazz rap with a couple of bangers for emphasis.

30 is Folklore - the seminal lockdown album. Taylor is the icon of our time, and this was the record that turned me from a mild "I don't mind when my wife plays her" to a fully fledged fan.

This is so hard, because there's so many albums I think are great and likely 1000x better than anything I'll pick.

Thank You - Stone Temple Pilots.
It is the greatest hits album. As much as I love Nirvana, PJ & Soundgarden when I really think about it, the hits from STP really did soundtrack my life during the mid 90s. Although I never owned a single album, the hits seemed to be on the radio constantly and eventually upon hearing Sour Girl I became a fan. I bought this album so I had all the hits in one place. So many great songs.

Watch Out! - Alexisonfire.
I love me some screamo, call it Post Hardcore or whatever you want. I became a casual fan of AOF in 2003 with the self titled album, and after the release of the almighty " Accidents " from Watch Out! I've never once stopped enjoying this album. Alot of it is just noise chopped up by some incredible melody and production and the soothing voice of Dallas Green, aka City & Colour.

Blue Skies, Broken Hearts... Next 12 Exits - The Ataris.
I can't name a single song on this album, but I must have listened to it 1000 times over. It was the soundtrack to my 2003, particularly the summer of 2003. Imagine it's 2003, you're 20 and it's the peak of Pop Punk, it's summer and you're driving around all weekend with your friends going out, car shows or local bands every weekend, hanging out in the sun, girls, parties... the good old days. And this banger seemed to a local favourite, despite being 4 years old.

Significant Other - Limp Bizkit.
If you were 16 in 1999, you were a Limp Bizkit fan. It was angry, immature and obnoxious - the perfect music for a 16 year old boy. It was a gateway drug into Nu Metal. As much as Nu Metal is panned today, it was massive in 1999, it was everywhere. This album was so big it convinced Fred Durst he could hook up with Pop Stars and write and direct movies. I must have worn out a copy of this album, or at least blown a set of speakers or two.

I could go on, and it would be a junky mess of shit music from a bygone era.

Love those albums by STP and Alexisonfire NATH45 , people usually know No.4 & Core as the album by Stone Temple Pilots but they're both pretty good. Weiland was just such a good frontman, drugs or not, dude put on a show. 

Happiness by the Kilowatt is probably my favorite track off Watch Out!. Their music still holds up so damn good. I liked Old Crows/Young Cardinals a lot too but I think this is their best album. New album they put out last year had some good stuff on it too.

Aug 12, 2024 2:24:54 GMT Blindy said:

Love those albums by STP and Alexisonfire NATH45 , people usually know No.4 & Core as the album by Stone Temple Pilots but they're both pretty good. Weiland was just such a good frontman, drugs or not, dude put on a show. 

Happiness by the Kilowatt is probably my favorite track off Watch Out!. Their music still holds up so damn good. I liked Old Crows/Young Cardinals a lot too but I think this is their best album. New album they put out last year had some good stuff on it too.

Young Cardinals is one of my favourite songs. Such a good band.

Yeah, this ain't easy... I'm gonna skip past most of my embarrassing nu-metal/mall goth phase here and just go for some heavy hitters:

"Lonesome Crowded West" ~ Modest Mouse
MM were my favorite band in high school + a long time after. "This Is A Long Drive" and "Moon + Antarctica" are equally nostalgic for me but LCW is their best work imo and was the soundtrack for many drives to parties, food/beer runs, etc.

"The Beatles (White Album)" ~ The Beatles
I enjoyed The Beatles growing up but they didn't become a Top 5 band until I got older. White Album was an audio solace during a rough time for me personally + reshaped how I viewed the Fab 4 forever. It's a certified classic. 

"Morning View" ~ Incubus
Still love this album. Was basically my sleep soundtrack when I was younger.  "Are You In?" is an underrated groove;  "Aqueous Transmission" is one of the most peaceful/relaxing songs ever made (recommend the live version). It has a little bit of everything, really.

"Aha Shake Heartbreak" ~ Kings of Leon
Before they sold out. Came out when my first band was formed + we covered 3 songs off it, loved it that much. Still makes me feel like I'm 15 again for just a few seconds on a good day.


There's definitely some others (especially more modern/hip hop) but this has already probably reached tl;dr territory. Might just have to circle back here to add some more later...

Edit: Props to System for name dropping the GOAT's that are Savage Garden. That's some peak late 90's/early oughts pop right there.

This is difficult, but I feel like using the 5-10-15-20 system @admin mentioned above will make it a lot easier.

5 - My earliest memories of music are of Michael Jackson. I remember blasting "Black or White" a lot on cassette. "You are Not Alone" and "Scream / Childhood" appear on the Billboard Hot 100 for MJ in 1995, but I don't remember them as well. There was a vendor who sold cassettes outside of the First Union Bank near our house, so IDK if that cassette was HIStory, and I just liked "Black or White" a lot, or if it happened to actually be the single, release in 1991, on cassette. It could be either.

10 - Very, very easily Sugar Ray. The album would be 14:59, released in 1999. Sugar Ray remains one of my top played artists on Spotify, and was my top played artist last year. I've always liked the self-effacing sense of humor McGrath has had, exemplified well in this quote, "God didn't put me on this Earth to be the lead singer of a band". "Falls Apart", "Every Morning" and "Someday" were all hits off the album, and I liked them all a lot. "Fly" was still getting a lot of airplay, too.

15 - Anberlin, "Never Take Friendship Personal". Great band which has toyed with its sound a lot over time, which I enjoy. They were never screamo, as it's just not Stephen Christian's vocal styling, but they cleaved kind of close to another Tooth & Nail band, Emery, with the overall sound here. It's probably their hardest and most unrefined sound. Favorite track off this album is "Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen", which is a weird one at 7:06. Really nice hook at around 1:40. Anberlin has had a habit of closing out albums with tracks that are a bit experimental over their career.

20 - Trigger warning, I guess. I'm gonna say it! This is, doubtless, The Betrayed by Lostprophets. Ian Watkins goes into the "Chris Benoit" bin for me; he is a depraved criminal, but he is also incredibly good at what he did for a career. Great lyricist, and I totally love this album from start to finish; a lot of it is as cathartic as it is creative.

25 - Cage9, El Motivo. WWE fans may recognize Cage9; they did a track for Austin (I believe to promote the movie "The Condemned"?) and Ziggler ("I Am Perfection"), neither of which are good songs, really. Favorite tracks here are "Dead Letter" and "Ice to Eskimoz". If you want to hear this band at their musical peak, that would be "Everything You Love Will Someday Die" from 2016's "Illuminator". The theme and soundstage kind of feel epic, but in the Greek mythology sense of the word, if that makes sense.

30 - My two top tracks of 2020, according to Spotify, are "Last Hallelujah" and "Purpose for Pain" by Scott Stapp, off of "The Space Between the Shadows". Stapp had fallen off a cliff in his personal life with a drug and alcohol addiction; here's an excerpt: he thought his “family was involved in ISIS, and that millions of dollars had been taken from [him] to support terrorism”, and "hallucinating[, ] drove around the United States for a month, following an angel that [he] saw on the hood of [his] car”. It seems like a lot of that kind of experience got spiritually sussed and snuffed out on this album.

Thumbs up System on "The High End of Low", also really loved this album!

A lot of people sleep on Incubus these days, but Make Yourself and Morning View are certified classics in my book.

sting

Anberlin are fantastic, not really looking forward to the new album with no Stephen Christian's vocals though because he makes Anberlin. Think I read somewhere he didn't want to leave his family and do international tours so they got the lead vocalist from Memphis May Fire but it just isn't the same. Paperthin Hymn probably gets the hype as the premier song of that album and as Anberlin's breakthrough somewhat into the mainstream but The Feel Good Drag, The Runaways and Nevertake Friendship Personal are probably my top 3 tracks of that album. My favorite Anberlin track of all time is Dismantle.Repair though. They also had some very good covers of Danzig's "Mother" and New Order's "True Faith". Really good band, so much more than a "Christian Band". They're right there with Thousand Foot Krutch on bands that precede that Christian term thrown around them. Demon Hunter too.

Shame about LostProphets, they're the true ultimate test of "Can you separate the art from the artist". I still prefer their 1st 3 albums, including "Start Something", "Liberation" and "The Fake Sound of Progress". Their 4th album is probably my least favorite of theirs and it's right around the time of the vile transformation of Ian Watkins becoming a child predator pedophile who used his fame to seduce mothers to get to sexually touch their children. Fucking piece of shit, he's still serving prison time. Ruined the entire band. I actually watched "A Town Called Hypocrisy" and the video behind it and yeah.....it's just downright evil with the sexual innuendos with Watkins playing as a Mr. Rodgers narrator with "Town Time" with some crazy shit in the video. Can't make this up, he knew what he was doing at this time. Blame the drugs or whatever, but he completely destroyed the band. At one point, LostProphets were hanging with Arctic Monkeys for that pop rock British act scene of the mid-late 00's!

Aug 13, 2024 1:43:56 GMT NATH45 said:

A lot of people sleep on Incubus these days, but Make Yourself and Morning View are certified classics in my book.

Loved them from S.C.I.E.N.C.E(Seriously they had such groove on this album, Summer Romance(Anti-Gravity) is such a bop man) to Make Yourself(Out from Under my favorite off this album) to Morning View(Warning probably my favorite off 1st glance) to their more political themed album, A Crow Left of the Murder(Talks Shows On Mute is prob my favorite) to Light Grenades(Anna Molly). 

Haven't listened to them much after that though, they sorta fell off into oblivion really. 

Blindy Dismantle.Repair is also one of my favorites. Probably the best track off of that album. I think another one of their great covers is of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" off of "Punk Goes 90s", which holds up pretty well for what seemed like a random comp. You can throw The Classic Crime in there with these other bands that got smacked with the "Christian rock band" label; it's not too much less silly than describing Beastie Boys as 1/3rd "Buddhist" ...

Yea, Watkins has made a lot of people put some unfortunate distance between LP and themselves. The remaining band members went on to form No Devotion, also a great band; however, they refuse to play covers of their work with LP. Spotify, for a long time, deplatformed the band; (they are recently back on Spotify, we'll see for how long).

Johnny Horton: Greatest Hits and Harry Chapin: Verities & Balderdash because they were my first.

I wasn't really a Music Guy growing up. Now that doesn't mean I didn't like music. Of course I did! I liked songs I heard on the radio. I was into the Casey Kasem Top 10 countdown show for a few months in 1991. Listened to country music on the clock radio in my room practically every day from 91-94. Then came my short-lived disco enthusiast phase in roughly 1995 which stemmed from a radio program my brother and I would listen to called Retro Saturday Night. But music was largely a background thing. Not something I actively thought about. We ate a lot of potatoes at dinner in those days. Why? Because we did. I doubt it was something my parents put much thought into. Nobody is crazy about potatoes. They're....fine. A constant. Music was kind of like potatoes for me. It served as background noise on car rides while I was reading my Zander Hollander Complete Handbooks in the back seat. Point is I sure as heckfire wasn't going out buying albums or following any artists. My "albums" were popping a VHS tape of Wayne's World, The Mighty Ducks (those Queen guys sure are pretty good), Why Not, Super Sunday, or the Rockys (actually debated putting the Rocky IV soundtrack on my list) in the VCR and fast forwarding to the music parts on those exceedingly rare occasions I wanted to hear cool music. At least until my brother smartened up and recorded the best tunes from those videos on a cassette tape. Something he also did with the best tunes from Retro Saturday Night. Once in a blue moon my parents would break out their old records from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, or play a cassette tape in the car. And then there are these two. The first non-kiddie albums I listened to on my own accord with any degree of regularity...

Johnny Horton was a 1950s country-style crooner specializing in historical/patriotic story songs. Sort of an embryonic Sabaton, only country-tinged rather than metal. Perfect for a youngish country music loving history buff (I had major heat in Sophomore year AP World History for being a curve killer to the point where I started throwing in an intentionally wrong answer or two just to give the other kids a chance and would actually later major in History during my ill-fated college career) who was utterly clueless about what was cool. My cousin and I were prone to cranking Sink the Bismark and The Battle of New Orleans up to maximum volume and marching/prancing around the house when my parents were out. Yep. While my peers were rocking out to Metallica and Nirvana, or pumpin' new shit by NWA, I was marching around my house alongside my much younger cousin to the dulcet tones of Johnny bah gawd Horton. Wouldn't have had it any other way...

Harry Chapin was the truth. He was a singer/songwriter specializing in story songs. Usually about lovable losers experiencing mid-life crises. He was a favorite of mine, my brother, our father, brother's friend Jamie, our uncle (who once famously smoked a joint with Harry), and his son. Brother and I came to Harry through a mix of our old man and his friend Jamie. Brother and I had previously fallen in love with the song American Pie while camping one year and most Harry songs were pretty much in that style. Our Team Harry all more or less treated Chapin like Elaine's Desperado loving boyfriend. @ness will understand. You would shut up and listen when the Harry was playing if you knew what was good for ya. V&B was our first Harry album. It features 9 of his patented 'story songs,' and 8 of those 9 are what the kids today would call bangers. Ugh. Just typing that makes me cringe. What doesn't make me cringe is Harry bah gawd Chapin. To this day a Mt. Rushmore tier favorite of mine.

Various: Monsters of Rock- Honestly hard to argue against this being the most influential album of my life. And that's a shoot, brother.

Nothing more pure than the Monsters of Rock commercial playing during Monday Night Raw. Peak culture right there. That's the sort of thing they should be sending out into space. Dude skydiving while Final Countdown plays is perfection.

Best way to understand my picks is by viewing me as an alien dropped on Earth around 1998. The 90s were My Generation to use a The Whoism. And I loved growing up then! But I also no sold much of the culture. Was perfectly content living in my own world, doing my own thing. Had no idea what was considered cool.  No sold grunge, barely listened to rap, and was certainly part of no scene. Famously didn't know who Kurt Cobain was when he died. Thought most rock and rap was trashy, degenerate garbage created by edgelords. Had no idea "hair metal" was even a thing, let alone considered hopelessly uncool. No regrets though! Even though no Nu Metal album will be making my list, you’ll never catch me dunking on myself for being an early 2000s nu metal enthusiast. No shame. No regrets. Just not the self-loathing type. I am what I am and this knee won’t bend to peer pressure. With my background out of the way...

I discovered Europe's epic Final Countdown some time in 1998 on my Best of the NWA Volume 3 tape and immediately knew it was the GOAT song. So, you know I popped huge the first time I saw that aforementioned commercial on Monday Night Raw. "It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine." I thought to myself. Maybe the first album I REALLY wanted? Worth noting, I either already had my license, or soon would, but it still took another two years before I finally bought this sublime album. Probably because my hand-me-down 1988 station wagon didn't have one of those CD players which were all the rage in those days.

Anyway, I finally got the album sometime after July 2000. Loved it. THIS was music! Obviously Final Countdown was the big draw, but it featured hit after hit. Some of the best songs on rock radio (which I finally started listening to after getting my license in mid ‘98 having been inspired by my much younger, but hipper! cousin and ECW, whose influence cannot be understated) along with some sweet new discoveries. Several of those songs I even remembered from my youth. They had called it "heavy metal" in those days. I suddenly wondered what happened to that kind of music. It was soooo much better than that grunge garbage. Buncha mopey, unwashed, flannel clad sad sacks warbling about how miserable they were just wasn't relatable to my middlebrow, middle class, suburban sensibilities. What reason I had to be miserable? I had my wrestling, friends and family, video games, sports, books, tv & movies, etc. Being a fixture on the honor roll/dean's list kept my mom off my back. I was living in God's Country (the suburbs) the way God and man intended. The hotties were over me in 2000. The Cold War was over with the good guys having emerged victorious and the specter of Communism thought to be vanquished once and for all. The first Gulf War was a blowout win for the good guys. We stood alone as the world's last remaining superpower. Point is there was no existential crisis hanging over daily life like a Sword of Damocles. Life was good and I had no reason to mope. Granted, hookers & blow weren't necessarily relatable either. I was much too pure for that. But at least it sounded fun! Those heavy metal boys knew how to have a good time. That infectious FUNness came across on Monsters of Rock. Tempered only by the occasional ballad to even things out a bit because, as real ones know, EVERY BAD BOY HAS A SOFT SIDE~! So now, clueless, as ever, I started fancying myself a heavy metal fan... 

Europe: Super Hits and 1982-1992- The two blend together. Solidified Europe as my all-time favorite band. A title they still hold to this day.

Monsters of Rock opened the floodgates. After making it all the way through high school(!) buying few to no albums, I now went on a furious CD buying frenzy with my newfound freedom/transportation/money. This would last roughly 6-7 years. Like Ness, I was honestly more of a singles guy. Bought countless albums just to have that radio hit or two I could play all the time whenever, wherever I wanted. Sometimes you found neat deep cuts, sometimes you didn't. 

Another thing I later discovered was "Greatest Hits" albums were frowned upon by music snobs. Maybe they still are? As with most music snob things, this is something I never understood. Maybe I really am an alien dropped to Earth? Or maybe it's because music snobs are a bunch of insufferable gatekeeping, trendhopping, tedious twats? Yeah, it's the latter. Anyway, 'Greatest Hit' albums provided the most bang for your buck, and that's what you want when barely making more than minimum wage. 

I believed then, and still believe now, that Europe's Final Countdown is the peak of human civilization and it's been downhill ever since. That alone would solidify the boys from Sweden as all timers. But these albums proved Europe was so much more than just a one hit wonder. It was, to quote the children, banger after banger after banger. You had your rockers (Seven Doors Hotel, In The Future To Come, Scream of Anger, etc.). You had your ballads (Prisoners In Paradise, Halfway To Heaven, Carrie, etc.). You had perfection (*waves arms wildly*). Know what's interesting? Both the Chapin & Europe albums feature a song called Halfway To Heaven. Weird!

Kilgore once made a great post about the silly Tommy Dreamer ring name being a Goldilocks-style compromise between Tommy Dreamboat (too soft) and Tommy Nightmare (too hard). Europe occupies that same middle ground. But, like, in the good way. They're too hard to be sawft, but not hard enough to be off-putting (more on that tomorrow). Joey Tempest has the voice of an angel. John Norum and Kee Marcello shred like few others. And those keyboards!   Not gonna lie. Every musical journey I've made since has been in search of finding another artist who inspires that same "OMG this is AWESOME!" feeling. And I have! But it doesn't change the fact that Europe remains the *Molly Mabray voice* Best. Band. Ever. A highlight of my life was seeing them live in 2005. Never thought I'd see the day. Love these guys.

*Part 2 tomorrow

Aug 14, 2024 3:00:29 GMT Baker said:

Another thing I later discovered was "Greatest Hits" albums were frowned upon by music snobs. Maybe they still are? As with most music snob things, this is something I never understood. Maybe I really am an alien dropped to Earth? Or maybe it's because music snobs are a bunch of insufferable gatekeeping, trendhopping, tedious twats? Yeah, it's the latter. Anyway, 'Greatest Hit' albums provided the most bang for your buck, and that's what you want when barely making more than minimum wage. 

They can snob all they want, GH albums helped me discover a lot of good music when I was a teen.

With no offense to his greatness, Bob Marley's "Legend" is a really good example. It's better as a compilation than most of his actual albums are as is.

Grateful Dead's "Gold Album" is a better introduction to a newcomer than some grainy sounding Dick's Picks comp. saved on an audio recorder from '78 lol

Everybody has to start from somewhere, and if it gets them liking more, good: that's kinda the point of a Greatest Hits album imo, condensing down the fluff so you can hear the stuff to potentially enjoy said fluff more.

Aug 14, 2024 7:45:44 GMT rad said:

Aug 14, 2024 3:00:29 GMT Baker said:

Another thing I later discovered was "Greatest Hits" albums were frowned upon by music snobs. Maybe they still are? As with most music snob things, this is something I never understood. Maybe I really am an alien dropped to Earth? Or maybe it's because music snobs are a bunch of insufferable gatekeeping, trendhopping, tedious twats? Yeah, it's the latter. Anyway, 'Greatest Hit' albums provided the most bang for your buck, and that's what you want when barely making more than minimum wage. 

They can snob all they want, GH albums helped me discover a lot of good music when I was a teen.

With no offense to his greatness, Bob Marley's "Legend" is a really good example. It's better as a compilation than most of his actual albums are as is.

Grateful Dead's "Gold Album" is a better introduction to a newcomer than some grainy sounding Dick's Picks comp. saved on an audio recorder from '78 lol

Everybody has to start from somewhere, and if it gets them liking more, good: that's kinda the point of a Greatest Hits album imo, condensing down the fluff so you can hear the stuff to potentially enjoy said fluff more.

Nothing wrong with greatest hits.

And let's be honest, most music snobs these days are cherry picking the hits on Spotify or YouTube anyway - gone are the days and the experience of actually going to a record store and buying an album or tape trading.

Saigon, shit. I'm still only in Saigon. Every time I think I'm going to
wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour,
it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be no access to my bank account ...
I hardly said a word to my wife until I said yes to a divorce.
When I was here I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I
could think of was getting back into my locked phone.
I've been here a few days now. Waiting for a mission, getting
softer. Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute my phone is locked, the taxi driver that scammed me gets stronger.
Each time I look around the walls move in a little tighter.



Solo travelling can be great but it can also go wrong, as I detailed elsewhere I arrived in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) locked out of my phone and therefore online banking. So had to just basically chill in my hotel for a few days before I could sort the situation out.

So I decided to listen to all the Metallica albums to keep me sane.

Part 2

Quick Synopsis: We left off with Monsters of Rock leading to Europe leading to a mad CD buying binge as I made up for the time I'd lost by largely no selling music all the way through high school by acquiring about an album a week over the next three years. Nothing exotic. It was all very mainstream stuff. Mostly acts running the rock gamut from hard to soft whose hit(s) were featured on the local rock radio stations. Lots of then-contemporary stuff. Largely nu metal. Scoff if you like, but this was the music of my peers/demographic. In fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that the early 2000s we’re the ONE time I was "with it” lol. And there was even more classic rock than contemporary stuff in my collection. More 70s & 80s than 60s and 90s, and big on the hair metal. There was also some rap & pop sprinkled in along with country, which I had gotten back into a little bit. Now that we’re three years into this spree things probably stagnated a little. Nu metal was in decline, and I had purchased most of the albums featuring my favorite radio hits when the Saviors of Rock arrived with permission from Merry Olde England with the next album to really knock my socks off. Nothing would ever be the same again...

The Darkness: Permission To Land

While they technically came from contemporary England, it felt more like these unabashed rockers had been transported forward in time directly from the 80s to provide a contemporary version of my beloved hair metal and I was so there for it. That blurb about being them being the "Saviors of Rock" in my last paragraph was not hyperbole. I was genuinely convinced these guys were going to do just that. Funny how 5 years earlier I couldn't have cared less about rock and now it suddenly needed saving lol. They didn't save rock, of course. They honestly turned out to be little more than a footnote. A flash in the pan. But for one brief, yet glorious, season they shone as a beacon of light in a haze of boring garage rock revivalists* who held the fort down until pretentious indie rock gained just enough of a foothold to predictably kill the genre off once and for all.

*I've since come around to appreciate some of these 'boring' acts. They had some bangers! Good grief. I'm unironically typing 'bangers' now. All is lost...

Anyway, The Darkness were so pure it was painful. Justin Hawkins wailing away at the top of his lungs with that glass-shattering falsetto like he's auditioning for a spot on the next installment of Monster Ballads while brother Dan shreds away on guitar was just the kick in the pants a stagnating rock world needed. They had guitar solos! And Justin even called for them in the style of Poison! *chef's kiss* Hit single I Believe In A Thing Called Love is only the most famous of the multiple all timers on this album. 

Since most of my all-time favorite acts are ones I got into long after their prime, it's safe to say The Darkness circa 03-04 are the real time contemporary act I was most into in my entire life with the only strong contender being the last entry on this list. Remember having a crisis one night when my friend Boo, no doubt tired of my constant Darkness obsession (they were all I talked about for like a month), almost convinced me their whole schtick was an ironic put on. They weren't paying tribute to the Rock Gods of yesteryear. They were mocking them, taking the piss. I didn't sleep much that night. Would have killed the whole thing if they were being ironic rather than sincere. Nowadays I do believe they were sincere, BUT with elements of good-natured parody. A bit of gentle ribbing amidst a mostly loving tribute. Truth is, like putting on the kind of wrestling show I'd want to see nowadays, it's hard to sincerely be the kind of rock band I'd want to see in our hyper self-aware 21st Century.

While this album does rule with jam after jam ('banger' avoidance point!), it honestly isn't even THAT high on my all-time list. Lots of albums feature multiple killer tracks! But the influence from this one is vast. I look at this list as a ladder. The Albums of My Life are the rungs of said ladder. The truly Great Albums carried me one step higher. It was directly because of The Darkness that I formed my short-lived, one (show) and done band, Demon Semen. One of my great regrets is a ticket mix up causing my friends and I to miss out on seeing The Darkness live at the peak of their powers. I just KNOW that show would have been amazing. The Darkness also deserve some credit for getting me into the next band on my list. One which would in turn make proper, traditional Heavy Metal my all-time favorite genre...

Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast

We have to circle back a few years to a time when I thought bands like Warrant & Winger were considered heavy metal. I wanted to know more about these bands and their style, so I'd type "heavy metal" into my Google machine, and, like a lamb being led to slaughter, would be end up on metal forums where I, clearly a naive manchild, cluelessly posted about my love of Europe, Poison, etc. The average exchange went something like this...

Me: "How do you do, fellow metalheads? I just love Poison! Don't you??
Them: "Shut the fuck up, you fucking faggot. That faggot ass Poison shit ain't heavy metal you faggot fuck. It's fucking faggot ass cock rock. Now get the fuck outta here with that butt rock shit, you fucking faggot."

And I'm like "Umm....ok then? That'll teach me to....like a band? How rude! So those experiences put me off "heavy metal" for a while. Even the more professional, less-militant sites which chronicled metal bands (BNR Metal being the most in-depth and memorable of these) had no listings for most of my "heavy metal" favorites.

So now I reverted back to an earlier line of thinking that 'proper' heavy metal bands were trashy black-clad degenerate edgelords growling indecipherable lyrics to songs with titles like "Servicing Satan's Sluts," "The Gentle Art of Raping A Baby," or "Fuck The Police" (oh wait, that one was already taken) over a dissonant cacophony of noise which could only be termed 'music' in an academic sense as it launched an aural assault on the ears. In short, heavy metal was garbage music for garbage people. I had lumped Metallica into this category until the late 90s! Black Sabbath remained there until the early 2000! Judas Priest and our guys Iron Maiden later still!

This is also around the time I finally realized my preferred style of music had an entire hatedom. It was no longer even considered heavy metal! It was now "hair metal" or "butt rock" or "cock rock." This despite being heavily featured on the radio! And being beloved by literally every girl I knew. Especially the hotties! Some of my guy friends were admittedly not big fans. But it was still roughly 2:1 in favor of even with the guys. The more aggro they were, the more likely they were to be a hair metal hater. The Korn Guy in particular loathed my beloved hair metal. But I had just written it off as Bryan being Bryan since 'surly cuss' was his natural state even on a good day. 

Anyway, that name Iron Maiden kept popping up in a positive context. They were referenced in cool songs on the radio. Often listed as an influence or ‘comparable to’ many a cool band on AllMusic. Pimped hard by a hair metal-hating co-worker I'll call Matt the Metal Head. Put over by The Darkness in magazine interviews. Even played on the radio 2 or 3 times very, very late at night. Oh, "if they're so good, why aren't they played on the radio?" *points to head* was my go-to argument whenever some "great band" I never heard of was brought up. If you weren't on the radio, I just assumed you sucked, were too edgelord, or both. Oh, and unlike @ness , the Parental Advisory sticker was actually a turnoff for me. I'd just groan, roll my eyes, and assume acts with a PA sticker were tryhard edgelords relying on shock value to get over. Anyway, I finally held my nose and decided to take the plunge on this Iron Maiden band I'd been hearing so much about in spite of my aversion to 'proper' heavy metal, bands that couldn't get radio play, and that stupid/hideous mascot of theirs...

And was blown away. I immediately got it. One killer track after another peaking with Hallowed Be Thy Name. Hadn't been hit this hard by a band since Europe. Quickly became a Maiden fanatic. Soon got a bunch of their other albums. Started diving into more 'proper' metal bands like Judas Priest and many more nobody here has ever heard of save Emperor and maybe Shootist . Like Europe & Harry Chapin, Iron Maiden is on my music Mt. Rushmore. And you can trace it back to this album right here. 

EDIT: Originally had a Sabaton album here. Upon further review, I realized it was a series of singles from three separate albums that made me a Sabaton fan/kicked off a late 2010s musical discovery kick. Still leaving in the Storytime bit tho...

Like most people, I eventually became set in my ways musically, just listening to the same bands, songs, and albums over and over again. My major period of musical discovery didn't even last a decade. Say 98-07. And that's honestly a generous estimate. For a long time, the last new album I got hyped about was My Chemical Romance's 4th which came out in.....2010. That's actually a year or two later than I thought. It sucked anyway. And considering MCR in 2007 was my last big discovery...

So, there I was in late 2016-early 2017 after years of happily listening exclusively to the old hits when I happened to stumble upon the mighty Sabaton and was blown away by the latest generation of Swedish metal gods. Somewhere the old boys in Europe were smiling, because Sabaton hit just as hard as Harry, Europe, and Maiden had all those years earlier. So, it's only natural Sabaton would soon join those aforementioned immortals on my music Mt. Rushmore. It was love at first listen. There was even a whiff of our old friend Johnny Horton in their historically themed songs, only much heavier, and Swedish rather than American. This album Sabaton features a bunch of badass bangers (oops, I did it again). It's music that will put hair on your chest.  But, like, in a less obnoxious way than the ultra-aggro, tuff guy metal of, say, a Pantera. Truth is I never fully embraced the whole "METAL! ROAR!" ethos after my run-ins with obnoxious metal folk on those old sites/forums. To this day I still don't like referring to myself as a metalhead because it implies I'm one of those douchey gatekeepers like the Poison haters of yesteryear who listen exclusively to metal and frown upon everything else. Nothing could be further from the truth! Even though traditional heavy metal has been my go-to music for two decades now. 

Anyway, Sabaton reignited a sense of discovery in me. And I did discover a few cool modern bands (mostly metal, but not exclusively) during my questing, as well as some old ones who had previously eluded me. Emp and I would occasionally discuss these bands in private messages. I saw both Sabaton and Maiden in 2019. They were my first concerts in over a decade. I had planned on more in 2020 until stupid COVID shut everything down. Last few years my listening habits have been like 98% podcasts/2% music. But who knows? The next Sabaton/Maiden/Darkness/Europe/Chapin/Horton could be right around the corner...

Metallica black album dropped around same time as Nirvana Nevermind when I was about 7, both albums music videos were all over MTV that year and those CD's were everywhere along with GNR Appetite For Destruction. But the Black Album is the one that stuck with me all these years, I bought so many copies over my lifetime, I got the tape for my 12th birthday, traded something with a friend for a CD of it around the time I was 14, bought another copy of it sometime around 20 years old, then bought a digital version of it probably 2011-2012 before I found out streaming services were a thing. I think it still holds up and still gets my blood going, not a fan of people pointing to this as the fall off point for Metallica they still had pretty big balls and were a dangerous metal band I don't care how many copies were sold. The whole album has a big spaghetti western Ennio Morricone vibe to it and has to be one of the cleanest most well produced albums ever made. I still love the big budget feel of a heavy metal album that this has.

Offspring Smash came out when I was 10 and was the biggest thing in the world. It was the first CD I ever got when it was still fairly new album when for my 10th birthday in 1995 and I was the coolest motherfucker on the block(my other friends only had it on tape). This album still fucking rips and has so much nostalgia weight now, what a throwback.

Sublime self titled album dropped in 1996 when I was around 11, LOVED those music videos and loved their sound. I would record those songs off the radio to tape and jam them all the time, and had an uncle and aunt that brought the CD to a family get together at the lake sometime in 1997. I thought they were the coolest fucking band on Earth. Finally in 1999 at 14 one of my friends in school had the album and I was able to borrow and listen to it in full, fell in love with some of the deeper cuts on the album like Pawn Shop and Ballad Of Johnny. I finally got a copy of my own sometime in 2002, this album had a huge influence on my whole music taste and where it would evolve into.

Marilyn Manson Antichrist Superstar another one of my all time favorites that I still really like, got this on my 13th birthday in 1998 about 2 years after it came out and I wanted it so bad for so long that it was a huge deal when I finally got it.

Pantera Reinventing The Steel in 2000 I was so hyped for this release all through 1999, then a friend of mine went out and got it the day it came out in March 2000, then made me a copy on tape. This was the biggest deal in my world when I was 15. Maybe doesn't hold up quite as well over the years but I still like it and feel like it was a solid effort from them and a nice finale, love some of the themes of the lyrics, and can pinpoint this as the band/album that shifted my musical tastes deeper into real heavy metal, death metal, classic metal from the 70's and 80's.

Bob Marley Uprising was released in the late 70's, 1978 or 1979, his final album he made and finished before he died of cancer in 80-81. I had a guitar player in my band in Houston in high school in 2002(when I was 17) that identified as a rasta, would always try to push Marley on me but I didn't like it it was too black for me and weird. Finally he convinced me to rent the documentary Time Will Tell from the Blockbuster I worked at. I got 5 free rentals a week for working there so I had 4 movies already picked out for the week so I figured why not, he swore it was something excellent to put on when smoking some herb so I figured I'd give it a shot. Boy was he right. I still fucking love that docu, I tracked down a VHS copy a few years back. I fell in love with the song Could You Be Loved on there and went out and bought Uprising just for that song. Fell head over heels in love with the whole album, then all of Marley's albums. Can say now he is my favorite music artist of all time. He was real, authentic, sings about the fucked up world we live in, surviving, struggling, dealing with pain and heartbreak, and he tells his story pretty excellently through his music.

Chimaira Impossibility Of Reason when it dropped in 2003 I felt like this band was on the cutting edge of where heavy metal music was at and where it was/should be going. This album blew me away. I wasn't able to get a copy until sometime early on in 2004 around a year after it came out but I had downloaded some of the key songs in 2003 and had them burned to a CD. I was really all about this whole generation of new metal bands when they started rising up there in 2002-2003-2004, Chimaira, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God, and felt like Chimaira was the best of them. Their follow up to this that came out in 2005 I was so hyped for it I had it pre-ordered at the Hastings shop and was counting down the days to get my hands on it, unfortunately it did not live up to it's predecessor and this band just kind of fizzled out for me, didn't turn out to be as good as I thought they would. Definitely peaked with those first 2 albums.

Killswitch Engage Alive Or Just Breathing came out in 2002, I had downloaded a few songs and fell in love with them over 2003-04, but didn't get this album until sometime early on in 2005 and it was the greatest album I ever heard. It really still is an excellent album from start to finish and was definitely a turning point in metal. This was my favorite band probably from 2005 to 2007 when the buzz of their replacement singer wore off and I realized they just weren't as good as they were with the original singer Jesse Leach.

Sublime 40 Oz To Freedom came out in 1992 but I didn't get a copy of it until 2006 at the age of 21, at a time when I was going through a pretty heartbreaking breakup with my oldest son's mom. I had wore out all my Marley CD's and the self titled Sublime album but craved something with similar vibes so snatched this up one night shopping at the CD shop here called Hastings(RIP). Was fucking blown away by it, it was even better than the self titled album that I had grown up loving. I'd say this album was a big turning point in my taste in music, from here I gradually lost pretty much all interest in heavy metal music and drifted off into reggae. This album inspired me to dig deeper into reggae music beyond Marley, into Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, this was like a gateway to real reggae. There was just something about this album that I feel changed my whole tone as a person.

Tribal Seeds Represent came out in 2014 when I was 29. I discovered them in 2013 and they were my gateway into all of the newer reggae bands that picked up what Sublime was doing and took it to the next level in every way. Rebelution, The Green, Fortunate Youth, Hirie, The Elovators, this music was just me and who I am. Representing was an album that I was really stoked for during the months before it came out, then when it dropped it was just such a breath of fresh air. Definitely my favorite album of the 2010's entire decade and still holds up as like a newer modern classic now that it's a decade old.

The Elovators Castles came out in 2021 when I was 36 and was amazing to me, they were like the next generation of the cali reggae scene, this album has only gotten better for me over the last 3 years since it got out and still probably my favorite album. It has 1 bad song on it that I cant stand but the rest is pure magic, they captured lightning in a bottle. This will be one that I look back on 10-20 years from now as one that means a lot to me.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your musical histories and I will endeavour to write my own when I have the time and inclination.

Sept 20, 2024 10:57:22 GMT sting said:

If you want to hear this band at their musical peak, that would be "Everything You Love Will Someday Die" from 2016's "Illuminator". The theme and soundstage kind of feel epic, but in the Greek mythology sense of the word, if that makes sense.

I am blown away. Phenomenal song. I understand what you mean by epic. I use that word to describe some of my favourite music. I love epic music. It's why The Winner Takes It All is my favourite ABBA song: it's epic, unlike the rest of their hits - which I still like, they're just not epic.

Much like Baker , I didn't pay attention to music growing up. Music was around me, but I shut it out, unsure of what the fuss was all about. Naturally I have some music memories from my childhood. First, being terrified of the Thriller video. Second, the musical Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, my mother's favourite. The opening number Any Dream You Do is a beautiful song that has a nostalgic place in my heart. Surprisingly, none of the other songs really caught on; I would have heard them all at some point. Third...well, there is no third.

At about 14 years old I decided I wanted to give the old music thing a shot. Everybody seemed to like music, yet apart from a handful of songs I was indifferent at best to the most popular music: the pop, the R&B, the indie rock. Something drove me to pursue rock music, but I can't remember exactly what. Perhaps it was the fact that two of the songs kinda enjoyed were Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis and Starlight by Muse. Or it might have been that the few classmates who treated me with at least a little respect were more of the rocker persuasion. Regardless, I started doing some research, and using my trusted virus factory named Limewire, I acquired some songs of a popular rock band from the late 80s...



To be honest, I never owned the album, and I'm not even sure I ever listened to it in full, but the big hits and some of the lesser-known tracks received a lot of playtime in my first months of music discovery. At the time my favourite songs were Paradise City and Nightrain. The energy, the sound of the guitar, the solos, the semi-clean high-pitched vocals. I loved all of these musical elements which has a lot in common with the heavier music I would grow to love. But we're not there yet...

Around this time I discovered music television. Two channels in UK cable focused on the heavier side of music: Kerrang and Scuzz. At the time, Scuzz was much heavier, even daring to play death metal videos on occasion. I preferred Kerrang. My brain was not yet ready for the heavy distortion and angry vocals. It needed some adjustment first. Guns N Roses was first, then came some more contemporary bands. Three bands in particular captured my attention, and it wasn't long before I went to the music store and bought records from two of those bands. I apologise in advance for the dreadful album art you are about to witness.





Purchases from the hype of music videos: Sum 41's Fat Lip, Motivation, In Too Deep and Foo Fighter's All My Life. The albums delivered. All Killer No Filler is still on regular rotation, along with the rest of Sum 41's early output. One By One, not so much. Foo Fighter's music has not aged well in my mind. All My Life is still a certified banger.

Interestingly these two artists play rather different styles of rock. Foo Fighters is just, rock. Plain old rock. Sitting somewhere in between the punchy, exciting Guns N Roses and the blander britpop/indie rock style. Overall, Sum 41's music is more energetic, and I live on speed and energy in music. Moreover, Sum 41 have very clear metal influences. A key lyric in Fat Lip goes "Maiden and Priest were the gods that we praised". At the time I didn't pay attention to that lyric, but now I see it for what it is. The more explicit homage is Pain For Pleasure, a song that you may have seen glued to the end of the Fat Lip video.



Come to think of it, that must be the first pure heavy metal song I enjoyed, but in 2000-whatever I didn't see it for what it was. Those sneaky pop punkers. I later bought Sum 41's subsequent CDs which had a much heavier sound, at points bordering on heavy metal. The clearest example of this is The Bitter End from the 2004 album Chuck. You may notice more than a passing resemblance to a Metallica song.

So far I have only mentioned two of the three bands that captured my attention. The third band is heavier than both Sum 41 and Foo Fighters, and it wasn't long before one of their albums sat proudly on my shelf.



Of all the nu metal bands, Linkin Park weren't the most likely candidate for my music library. They rap, they have DJ sampling, angsty screaming, few riffs, no technicality. Yet their music hooked me. To be honest, I never liked them as much as the other two formative bands. Listening to a Linkin Park album cover to cover was not as entertaining as a Sum 41/Foo Fighters disc. The amount of filler was much greater. But their impact was undeniable - I had not listened to anything so consistently heavy before. Sum 41 pushed open the door a crack, Linkin Park pushed it a fraction more. But the gateway to heavy metal had not truly been opened, but who was responsible?

That's a story for another day.

Honorable Mentions for Albums Of My Life:

Nirvana-Nevermind; Mentioned this in the beginning of my post but up until a certain age this was one of my favorite albums ever, I had it on cassette tape and listened to it so much from age 10 to about 13. I've gone back to it here and there over the years and it just doesn't hold up for me but I still love how revolutionary it was for it's time, how fucking cool it was, and got to remember how much I loved it when I was little.

The Crow Soundtrack; I do still rank this pretty high on my all time favorites. It's just such a great mix of music and perfect capturing of what 1994 felt like, and it bleeds all the emotions of one of my favorite movies ever made.

Pantera Far Beyond Driven; Still to this day an all time favorite album, maybe top 3 ever in any genre. I'm to the point where this is just on an entirely different level from any other Pantera album, there was something special here captured like lightning in a bottle, an energy, a power, the guitar solos are so emotive in their own way, the tone of the album the way it was mixed, how unrelenting it was, how jarring it was like a shotgun blast in your ear, the vocals and lyrics, the drums, and the way it ends with the only slow jam on the album being a Black Sabbath cover that is even better than the original version. I got this album about 4 years after it came out and will never forget the first time listening to it. It was too heavy for me at the time because I was too young and too much of a kid, I liked the catchier Pantera stuff like Vulgar album, but now fuck all that Wal Mart bullshit Pantera stuff this was real Pantera at their sharpest like a fucking razorblade.

White Zombie Astro Creep 2000, another one of my very first ever CD's I ever got, got it for my birthday around the time that it came out so it was a fresh brand new album new release. One of those albums from back then that I STILL fucking love.

The Korn trilogy, self titled, Life Is Peachy, Follow The Leader, what a phenomenon and amazing to look back at just how truly fucking cool this band was and how awesome these three albums were at one time. None of this stuff holds up for me anymore I even think it's fucking terrible but for their time this was the shit.

Nativity In Black II; rare out of print album that you wont find on Amazon Music or Spotify, but a pretty amazing album of Black Sabbath covers from 2000 that I wish I could get my hands on today.

Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here, this may be my favorite album ever made period. I can't get the love for Dark Side or The Wall when this masterpiece is right there, it's amazing from start to finish and has this amazing flow to it, one of those I'd love to have on vinyl. I first got this and heard it in 2001.

Bob Marley Rastaman Vibration- my favorite Bob Marley album and up there with Wish You Were Here and Far Beyond Driven as my top 3 favorite albums ever made, could rotate them around depending on what mood I'm in as far as which one is my GOAT. Even though Uprising is the one that got me into reggae/Marley this to me was him at his peak and still this recording just has a majesty to it and a rawness to it that I prefer over his other albums and any other reggae album.

Stick Figure-World On Fire, I jammed this in the gym at 5am the morning it came out in 2019 and was so blown away by it, that was a great time and I was so excited about that whole music scene that was truly thriving at that point. Listened to this album so much over the next few years and even took a trip to California to a festival mainly just to see them in February 2020 before the whole world went to shit. 

Continuing the story...

The year is, approximately, 2005. I own a handful of CDs from aforementioned bands. I am absorbing alternative rock and metal media at an alarming pace. Kerrang and Scuzz play on the TV whenever I have a chance, to the dismay of my parents. Kerrang magazine is a weekly purchase. Emo is becoming mainstream. Funeral for a Friend, Jimmy Eat World, Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance enter regular rotation (only the latter remains in my music collection), as do more mainstream rock acts such as Ash, Muse and The Darkness. Ask me my favourite band and my answer is, and would be for the next few years, Sum 41. Without hesitation. I am experiencing metal music, both through music videos on TV and articles in Kerrang, but I'm not interested.

Until one day. I don't know the year, or the month, or the day. Scuzz aired the video for Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness? I had watched the video before, several times. On that fateful day, my brain was ready for the metal. It clicked into place like a key fitting into a lock. I heard the brilliance of the distorted guitars, the harrowing screams of Bruce Dickinson, the almost operatic chorus, the dazzling twin guitar solos. The dark yet tongue-in-cheek video was the icing on the cake. This song is directly responsible for my love of heavy metal music.

Yet, it's not an album. In fact, I never owned a physical Iron Maiden album, nor do I consider any record among their vast discography to be an Album of My Life.

To my great personal disappointment, the chronology of my discovery of metal and all its wonderful subgenres is a blur. I remember clearly the moments of discovery, whether it be a music video or an album, but not the order. Hence, I shall present the Album of My Life in a semi-random order.




Iron Maiden forced open the door to metal, the same door that Sum 41 and Linkin Park couldn't quite manage. Greeting me on the other side was Metallica. Maiden and 'Tallica were the gods that I praised. I had seen many Metallica songs on music TV. For Whom The Bell Tolls, One, Enter Sandman, The Unforgiven. No Metallica song from their debut album ever played on music TV. Despite that, I am reasonably confident this is the first metal album I purchased. Why?

My best guess is that, as the diligent music researcher I had become, I acquired a bunch of random Metallica songs from the virus factory Limewire, and decided that the songs from Kill 'Em All were the best. I love the rawness and the simplicity of the tracks. All speed and energy, no time to breathe. Whiplash was my favourite track at the time but really I Loved 'Em All. Even the odd bass solo.




The mid 2000s saw not only the rise of emo, but the growth of metalcore, by which I mean specifically the metal bands that scream the verse and sing the chorus. Killswitch Engage pioneered this style in 2002 with their record Alive or Just Breathing after which the scene exploded. The metal purists, none of whom are on PW, will hate me for calling this style metalcore, but that's what it has become known as, so deal with it.

Trivium were one of the many many verse-screaming-chorus-singing bands, but they did things a little differently. Most metalcore acts, including Killswitch Engage, played a fairly simplistic punky style. Short songs, simple riffs, breakdowns in place of guitar solos, the only high notes in the clean vocals chorus. Trivium took that template and added a heavy dose of traditional metal. Their songs were longer, the riffs were more sophisticated and, most importantly, they had twin guitar solos. Their second album Ascendancy is a masterpiece, the Mount Everest of the metalcore genre. Nothing comes close. It's the album that made me appreciate harsh vocals. I still much prefer clean vocals, but I can tolerate and on occasion enjoy harsh voices, if the music is good enough. Thank you, Trivium.

I'll be seeing Trivium next year playing Ascendancy in full. They are upported by their British counterpart Bullet For My Valentine, playing their debut album The Poison in full. Which is a great album, and a heavy hitter in the genre. That show is going to be incredible.




"Booo! A greatest hits album?! That's cheating!"

Please, hear me out. There's a story to tell.

I was 16 or 17 years old. I went on a school trip to Barcelona. Of course, I packed my CD player (remember those things?!) and a case full of the 20-or-so CDs I owned. One day I had the CD case, the other day I did not. An opportunistic thief had pinched it from my backpack. Fortunately the CD player remained.

Music was essential for the 15+ hour coach trip back to the UK. Fortunately shortly before leaving Barcelona we went to a store. I located the music area. There was a small rock and metal section. A Nightwish record caught my eye. At that point, the only Nightwish song I had heard was Nemo. I wasn't enamored by it (I'm still not), but it's in the ballpark of stuff I liked, so it became the only CD in my possession. It was played repeatedly on the long journey home. My appreciation for the softer, symphonic and operatic side of metal grew tenfold.

The saddest part of my failed memory is that I don't know the origin story of my love for power metal. It could have been quality time with Nightwish on the coach trip. It could have been a classmate showing my the song Ain't Your Fairytale by Sonata Arctica. It could have been the next artist. It could have been something else. I simply don't know. A terrible shamee.




Power metal is not the most well-known music genre, even among metalheads. When someone seems unsure of what power metal is, I always name DragonForce, because they are the most mainstream power metal band. All thanks to Guitar Hero and the notoriously difficult final boss song Through The Fire And The Flames. I did not discover DragonForce through Guitar Hero, but by seeing the music video for that same song on Scuzz. Never have I fallen in love with a song faster than I did the first time I witnessed that whirlwind of guitar insanity. Most people, understandably, find DragonForce off-puttingly excessive. I live for that excess. Guitar solos longer than a full-length pop song at a non-stop 200BPM? Yes please!

Through The Fire And The Flames is not from their debut album, Valley of the Damned. Yet I somehow became most attached to their first release, and it remains one of my favourite albums. It's close to perfection. But not the most perfect. The final Album of my Life is the best album there was, the best album there is, and the best album there ever will be.




Honestly, the artwork on most of my albums is not good, but Visions is stunning. Captivating. Beautiful beyond words.

As I always do when discovering something new, I immerse myself completely. My 256mb mp3 player was quickly full of songs from the greatest power metal bands. Hellowee, Angra, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Hammerfall, Nightwish, DragonForce. And Finland's Stratovarius, one of the oldest, most famous, and most prolific artists in the genre.

Visions is their masterpiece. It is the masterpiece. It's perfection. Vocalist Timo Kotipelto is at his peak. Every note, every riff, every solo is perfectly constructed. It has a delicate balance of fast tracks, epic tracks, short tracks, and slower tracks. Black Diamond is widely regarded as one of the best power metal songs ever written and I agree. It has all the key ingredients delivered in their purest and best form. In a rarity for metal albums, even the ballads are brilliant. I've shed a tear to Before The Winter on many occasions, and I even danced to it at my wedding, with Empress, who is also beautiful beyond words.

A fitting place to end my story. Thank you for reading, I appreciate your patience.