I put some thought into this and explained how each record affected me. Many of them were introductions to something - a period of a band, a subgenere of metal, or a genre of music. I kept it to one album per band as well to diversify the list.
1. Styx – Caught in the Act / Live
This was part of my parent’s record collection. My brother and I used to listen to the single, “Music Time” and created a dance to it when we were young. This was my introduction to rock music.
2. Metallica – The Black Album
I heard Enter Sandman in 1992 and it blew my mind. My true introduction to heavy metal.
3. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Rock and Roll Racing was a NES game that had 8-bit versions of classic rock songs. Paranoid caught my ear and I loved the catchiness of the song.
4. Led Zeppelin – IV
I had a 7th grade music class in 1993, where the teacher took us through a history of rock and roll (Elvis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin). It was a really cool class and I was introduced to this album and more classic rock music, instilling a deep appreciation and respect for the artists covered in the class.
5. Megadeth – Countdown to Extinction
I discovered this around the same time as the previous 3 albums, learning of the connection of the band to Metallica and Mustaine’s amazing songwriting.
6. Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark
I checked this out from the library when I was in high school and discovered the band. I eventually got Best of the Beast, heard their classic material and was off and running as a giant Maiden fan.
7. Slayer – Season in the Abyss
A long-hair in my computer class in high school saw my Metallica/Megadeth logos on my notebooks and let me borrow this, leading me further down the path of heavier and heavier music.
8. Radakka – Malice & Tranquillity
A local Chicago scene band, they were signed to Century Media in 1995 and released two excellent albums. This one landed in my lap, as my dad knew the guitarist through his day job. The
album opened my eyes to melodic metal, with phenomenal singing and hard-hitting riffs and melodies.
9. Pantera – Cowboys from Hell
I discovered this in the used bin at a local record shop and it blew my mind. They were flying the flag when nobody else was in the mid-90’s.
10. Iced Earth – Something Wicked This Way Comes
The album came out several months after I discovered the band and I LOVED the sound, the vocals, the riffs and the songs. This catapulted them into becoming my favorite band. I pretty much only listened to Iced Earth for the last half of 1998.
11. Queensryche – Operation: Mindcrime
Empire was my exposure to the band, but one night in college, this album clicked and sent me on a ten-year obsession with the band. They’ll never top this one, and it remains a desert island disc, even if I rarely listen to it now.
12. Dream Theater – Images and Words.
DT were introduced to me by a college roommate, who was an exchange student from Mexico. I took a chance on this in the used bin and I’m glad I did. Another desert island disc.
13. Stratovarius – Visions
My introduction to European power metal. Amazing musicianship and vocals. I still love this album. Bands like Blind Guardian and Helloween eventually followed as I discovered a whole new continent full of metal.
14. In Flames – The Jester Race
I always loved how heavy death metal was, but the vocals would grate on me. I took a chance on this record (which I bought from an S&M/goth store on my college campus). The melody in the music caught me off-guard. It was heavy, but very catchy, with some acoustic guitar mixed in. I loved it, and the growled vocals became something that I started to enjoy. This album finally created a path for me to enjoy death metal and eventually black metal.
15. Nightwish – Oceanborn
Heavy metal with females singing? I was amazed by their talent and by Tarja’s vocals. Another eye-opening record, showing me that girls can be part of the club too.
16. Control Denied – The Fragile Art of Existence
Just before I got into In Flames, this album came out. I loved the idea of a death metal guy (Chuck Schuldiner) putting out a full-on power metal album. About 10 years later, I bought The Sound of Perseverance, which is musically just liked this album, but with Chuck’s Death vocals and became a MASSIVE fan of Chuck and Death.
17. Candlemass – King of the Grey Islands
I never paid attention to doom metal until I heard some songs from this album, with Robert Lowe singing. I loved the album and it again opened a door to another band and subgenre of metal.
18. Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell
I was an Ozzy-or-die Sabbath fan for a very long time. I heard a song from this album a couple of years before they reunited with Dio and quickly learned that the Dio-era is my favorite period of the band.
19. Death Angel – The Dream Calls for Blood
I’ve always loved thrash, but stuck to the bigger bands. This album showed me that there are a lot of lower-tiered bands that can thrash like maniacs and reignited my enjoyment of that genre.
20. Kenny Chesney – No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems
An outlier in the list. In the early 2000’s, my mom told me to listen to “Young,” a song by Kenny Chesney. She said it was a perfect song for me. The lyrics revolved around Kenny Chesney’s high school days, wearing “rock and roll t-shirts with bad attitudes.” It was a description of me! The song got me listening to country radio, where I began to enjoy the music, realizing that it’s still guitar-based, with lyrics that were based in real life and with a lot of humor. The song broke my long-time hatred of country music and I respected it for what it was, also eventually learning that a lot of the musicians in the bands behind the artists were big metal fans as well.
Topic: Top 20 Albums That Shaped My Taste In Music (Read 2564 times)
