Hmm, today it would look something like this:
10. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
9. Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
8. Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
7. Rush - Hemispheres
6. Dream Theater - Images and Words
5. Metallica - Master of Puppets
4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
3. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
2. Opeth - Still Life
1. Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
I'm not making fun, because it's your list, but I'm reading that and I'm like "Wha? Wha? Wha? YES! YES! Wha? YES! YES! Wha? Wha?" Haha. No in between there at all.
All good! To me that's the interesting part of looking through a thread like this (and why I drop back into this forum after so many years). Everyone has a different set of influences and it's interesting to see things from different perspectives. For me, all of these albums significantly influenced my trajectory as a music fan and as a guitarist. An album like Thrice's Artist in the Ambulance might not be a conventional pick, but it broadened my horizons and was the first album that pushed me to look past the music that I was into at the time. At 18 years old, it was the first time that lyrics significantly clicked with me and Dusin Kensrue's delivery and contrast was a lot different than the traditional metal that I always listened to. It was an awakening of sorts, and in many ways, opened my mind to lots of things on different ends of the spectrum. Whether that's extreme metal, jazz fusion, traditional prog rock - all of that started with Thrice (and really probably The Illusion of Safety, but The Artist pushed that boundary much further). No longer was I confined to the traditional heavy metal box that I grew up with.