An album that made you truly love a band

[Phoenix87x]

Sure, there's plenty of "good" albums out there. But has there ever been that one album where you are like oh my god, this band is incredible?

First thing that comes to mind for me is Dave Mathews band, Before these crowded streets. Sure the other albums are cool, but this one just really speaks to me. An album that brings me to tears, its so bittersweetly beautiful and sad. To this day, it really blows me away.

How about you guys? Is there that one album that really made you go from liking a band to loving them?

[DTA]

I agree with your choice. I love DMB but no other album of theirs really comes close to that one. Crash is the closest, but even that falls a bit short of the greatness that is BTCS.

I'll say Motorhead with Sacrifice. I liked a lot of their albums, but they always felt a bit samey to me. Sacrifice just hits harder than the others and it's made me appreciate 90's and beyond Motorhead a lot more. 

[twosuitsluke]

The Dear Hunter - Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise.

DTF has helped me discover more music than I'll ever remember, but this album stands out as the absolute pinnacle. The last time I fell for an album this bad was probably when I started listening to Coheed, and that was a long time ago.

[TAC]

Images & Words

[KevShmev]

Before These Crowded Streets is awesome, but that made me go from not caring about the band at all to being a big fan, rather than going from like to love, so it doesn't really fit in with the spirit of the thread.

I think my best pick for this would be Wildflower by Tom Petty.  Petty (solo or with The Heartbreakers) was also a guy whose music I liked, but Wildflowers was what made me a big fan there for a while in the 90s.  I only saw him once, back in 2002, and I doubt I ever would have gone if not for the existence of Wildflowers.

[HOF]

The best one I can come up with is Marillion's Brave. I had a few other albums before I got that one, and I liked them a good bit, but Brave was the first one that really took the band to a higher level for me. 

[lonestar]

Images and Words
IQ- Ever
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

[Phoenix87x]

Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

That one also came to mind

[JediKnight1969]

Love at first listening:

Dream Theather - Images & Words
Kansas - Leftoverture
Living Colour - Vivid
Led Zeppelin - IV
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Queen - A Night at the Opera
Yes - 90125
Rush - Moving Pictures
The Gathering - How to measure a planet?
Garbage - Garbage
Nightwish - Oceanborn

[Lethean]

Katatonia - Dead End Kings.   Tesseract - Polaris.  Anathema - Weather Systems.  For each of these though, I probably would have been able to get into them with an earlier album had I listened to it more; it was more of a right time, right place sort of thing. 

[DragonAttack]

A Night At The Opera

I liked ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ after seeing them a few months earlier, but Wow… nothings compared since

[Snow Dog]

Quite a few:

Rush - Presto
Threshold - Hypothetical
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Vanden Plas - Christ 0
Dream Theater - Awake
Symphony X - V: The New Mythology
Scar Symmetry - Symmetric in Design
Earthside - A Dream in Static
Night Flight Orchestra - Internal Affairs

[Lethean]

Doesn't Earthside only have 1 album?

[jammindude]

Images and Words

But also:

IQ - Frequency
Haken - The Mountain
Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element

[Samsara]

I can think a few off the top of my head:

Karnivool - Themata
Death Angel - The Dream Calls for Blood
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

[Lonk]

Riverside - Second life Syndrome
Coheed and Cambria - The Afterman - Ascension
Mastodon - Once More Round Sun

[Animal]

Queensryche- Promised Land
Before, I knew only Mindcrime (which I liked a lot) Empire (I liked a couple of tracks and loved Anybody Listening) and Warning (I liked Take Hold of the Flame). With Promised Land, it was really like "wow, these guys are real deal"

Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element
Strictly speaking, this one doesn't quit fit the description since with it, I went from not knowing the band at all to loving them.

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
I knew only pop-era Genesis prior to this one

[Learning2Live]

DT - Images & Words
Neal Morse - One
King Crimson - Discipline

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I'm really picky about black metal, but Darzamat's A Philosopher At the End of the Universe has been the culmination of one of the steeper climbs I've seen a band undertake.  Their second album Oniriad is really not very good.  That was the era of extreme metal bands experimenting with new flavors in their sound, and their attempts were not among the more successful ones.  After that they settled into a melodic/symphonic/gothic black metal sound that they would gradually get better and better at, with '09's Solfernus' Path being pretty solid.  Unlike too much black metal, the guitar sound was massive, and Nera's vocals are very unique, not just in black metal, but in metal in general.  The orchestration always held them back though, it's hard to do well without a massive budget or exceptional programming talent.  After a lull of 11 years, they came back in '20 with a new album, ditching the fauxchestration entirely, and in their case for the better.  It left room for more atmospheric guitar lines and some acoustic parts, taking them to another level.  It's definitely one of my most-listened to albums of this decade so far. 

[dparrott]

Love at first listen:
Blur - Leisure.  Been a fan for over 30 years now.
Warpaint - The Fool
DT - SFAM.  I knew they were great and special since I&W but this was next level
Fat Boys - Big & Beautiful
Run DMC - Raising Hell
Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill

[Stadler]

I haven't answered here yet, but this is one of those questions that has stuck with me. 

I'm thinking the best answer for me, right now, is Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead.  I used to HATE the Dead with a passion, but most of what I knew was the early stuff with Pigpen.  TS is almost prog-like, and at times Jerry positively channels Steve Howe on the title track.   I've been a growing Dead fan ever since and now I have more Dead on my iPod than any TWO bands combined, including Kiss, Dream Theater and Marillion.

[WilliamMunny]

I haven't answered here yet, but this is one of those questions that has stuck with me. 

I'm thinking the best answer for me, right now, is Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead.  I used to HATE the Dead with a passion, but most of what I knew was the early stuff with Pigpen.  TS is almost prog-like, and at times Jerry positively channels Steve Howe on the title track.   I've been a growing Dead fan ever since and now I have more Dead on my iPod than any TWO bands combined, including Kiss, Dream Theater and Marillion.

I came here to write a snarky 'remind me not to switch ipods with you' type comment, but then I got to thinking—that Stads is like my musical brother from another mother, maybe I should give the 'Dead another shot

Like you, I HATE the Dead. I spent nearly a decade working at a record store, and I spent most of that time with a 'Dead-head, so I became well-versed in the band's back-catalog—much to my chagrin!

That all said, it's been years, and I have found myself listening to more and more Americana as of late, so I might just give them another go.

Sounds like, from your post, that Terrapin Station is the right place to start?

[Stadler]

I haven't answered here yet, but this is one of those questions that has stuck with me. 

I'm thinking the best answer for me, right now, is Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead.  I used to HATE the Dead with a passion, but most of what I knew was the early stuff with Pigpen.  TS is almost prog-like, and at times Jerry positively channels Steve Howe on the title track.   I've been a growing Dead fan ever since and now I have more Dead on my iPod than any TWO bands combined, including Kiss, Dream Theater and Marillion.

I came here to write a snarky 'remind me not to switch ipods with you' type comment, but then I got to thinking—that Stads is like my musical brother from another mother, maybe I should give the 'Dead another shot

Like you, I HATE the Dead. I spent nearly a decade working at a record store, and I spent most of that time with a 'Dead-head, so I became well-versed in the band's back-catalog—much to my chagrin!

That all said, it's been years, and I have found myself listening to more and more Americana as of late, so I might just give them another go.

Sounds like, from your post, that Terrapin Station is the right place to start?

For me it was; but the SONG not the record. Some of the other stuff on the album is really sort of dated.  I love "Estimated Prophet" but the cheesy guitar sound might be a bridge too far.  After the song Terrapin Station, the best bet is the album before, Blues For Allah; it's a little King Crimson-y in terms of it's improv and jazzy sound, and over half the record is instrumental.

None of that is really the same as the stoner Dead of the early work, or the I don't know what you call it of the later, 80's and 90's stuff, which I still don't like. 

[Kwyjibo]

Opeth - Blackwater Park

This was the first Opeth record that I heard and it blew me away. It was/is so good that I still say that they are one of my favorite bands, although in truth I only care about three or four of their records.

[JLa]

Opeth - Blackwater Park

This was the first Opeth record that I heard and it blew me away. It was/is so good that I still say that they are one of my favorite bands, although in truth I only care about three or four of their records.

I could have written this exact post myself.

Also, Transatlantic - SMPT:E. The opening track, "All of the Above" simply stunned me. The rest of the album is great too.

I miss the early 2000's. I discovered so many great albums at the time, it was awesome.

[T-ski]

Riverside - Out of Myself
Anathema - Weather Systems
Kingcrow -  The Persistance

And of course Dream Theater - Images and Words