[djskrimp]

Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" -- I want to play guitar!
Depeche Mode "Violator" -- Guitar doesn't always have to be in rock context!
Ozzy Osbourne "Diary of a Madman" -- Guitar is a part of the greater whole, which is the song!
King's X self-titled -- Virtuosity and soul can reside in the same song!
Devin Townsend "Ocean Machine" -- I FUCKING HATE YOU, GUITAR! WHY YOU NO SOUND LIKE DEVIN!?!?!

Ooh, I like this:

1. Rammstein- Mutter- First metal album I ever bought, which introduced me to heavy music in general. Without these guys, I would not be who I am today.

2. Opeth- Blackwater Park- First music which really touched me emotionally. I was going through a hard time, and was amazed to hear how much soul was in the songs. The 'unusual' chords made me feel very nostalgic, as they were reminiscent of the type of music my parents listened to.

3. Spirited Away Soundtrack- I remember crying to the music at the movies when I was 7. That film opened my eyes, and its soundtrack was what brought my appreciation of music to a new level.

4. Talking Heads- Little Creatures- Made me into the musically quirky person I am today. Every song is a killer.

5. Devin Townsend- Ki- I had liked Dev for a year, and bought Ki as soon as it came out. It could not have come at a better time, as I was going through my first bipolar depressive episode. Every night I would listen to Ki with a cup of green tea, and just be immersed in the music. Knowing that Dev has the same kind of problems as I do gave me the strength to go on.

Stone Temple Pilots - Core
Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Pearl Jam - Ten
Devin Townsend - Ziltoid
Drive By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark

Nirvana - "MTV Unplugged in New York"

Not sure of including live albums but what the heck. Big influence on me whilst growing up, especially the man himself, Kurt Cobain. So when I got the MTV Unplugged album I was blown away. Here was a man that continuously struggled through life and managed to show it all in this amazing performance. The way he sang, especially in songs like Where Did You Sleep Last Night, it was like hearing a man anxiously waiting to die.

Opeth - "Blackwater Park"

Yep, a behemoth of an album. It was with this album that I started to visualize more with music. For example the song Harvest. I could picture a sad tale of despair and set it in a dark forest in a medieval era, all in my head. Well, something like that.

Pain Of Salvation - "Be"

As I heard more progressive rock music, I started to open my mind a little more. So then I eventually landed into these guys and with that, found a masterpiece. Its lyrics, musical arrangements and overall concept just took me whole.

Devin Townsend Band - "Synchestra" (I contemplated between this and Terria but decided that Synchestra was the one.)

First Devin Townsend album I heard and will forverer be on my playlist. SYL came first but I was more eager to hear his solo stuff. The whole thing striked me with so much beauty as well as musical creativity that I never heard before. I was ultimately hearing an album that not only blends other world music styles (Middle eastern, Phrygian stuff, etc.) but crafts all the songs in a magnificient way. There were tracks that had a comforting feel to it (Let It Roll, Babysong and Sunset.) all the way to tracks with strong arena-like energy (Pixillate, A Simple Lullaby and Triumph.). Just mind-blowing.

Meshuggah - "Catch 33"

Now it took me a long and I mean long time to get into Meshuggah, but I made it. Catch 33 just became one of those records that had a unique spark to me. Along with its intricate riffs and haunting clean passages It really helped me with my songwriting, especially writing lyrics. As a result, it ended up being an album where I had to force myself to listen from the start to understand it.


Yeah I wrote a lot for that, but with albums like these I couldn't resist writing so much . I haven't even reached my 20's yet, so I guess more records in the future will continue to influence me, as they should.

Throw in my batch:
The first two I heard when I was about 10.

Green Jello - Cereal Killer Soundtrack. I was used to my mother's music (Queen, B-52's, etc), so this was a good suprise to hear something both rockin' and funny that I had found on my own; it was also one of the first metal albums I had heard (if you want to call it that).

Metallica - Ride The Lightning. The first album of theirs I had heard, and before Fight Fire With Fire had even finished, I was a fan; from this I began seeking out other like-minded bands.

Pantera - Far Beyond Driven. Re-invigorated my deisre for nasty, harder, louder metal.

Strapping Young Lad - Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing. My first introduction to all things Dev.

Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia. I had known of black metal before, but I was never really drawn to it, until I heard this album; ironically, I never cared much for their later releases (except La Masquerade Infernale, but that had good songwriting).

Hmm...

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Here starts my appreciation for music. For the first time, music wasn't something I just heard, but something I listened to.

Rammstein - Mutter
I remember the precise moment when my interest in metal started. The very second the guitars crash in after the synth-intro in "Feuer Frei", I was sold.

Rammstein - Reise, Reise
For making me pick up the guitar. Jamming to "Dalai Lama" was where it all started.

SYL - Alien
HooooolyshitwhatthefuckisthiswherediditcomefromIdon'tevenJesus'ballsonastickIfuckingloveit! Music would never be the same again.

Dev - Ocean Machine
Gave me "Funeral", eventually all the other songs and gradually the whole discography. No more words. They don't do it justice.

In no particular order:

Cardiacs - Sing to God (Parts 1 & 2) - The single greatest album ever produced by human hands or otherwise, and I'm prepared to defend that statement to my death. And despite the sheer brilliance of his music, Tim Smith remains to be the most impossibly human human on the planet.

Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine - Stunning, gorgeous, mournful and fully identifiable.

Tom Waits - Blood Money - Just listen to "Starving in the Belly of the Whale".

Ween - Quebec - The first Ween album I ever heard, and man...it did some weird things to me. I still can't explain it, but it's there.

The Devin Townsend Project - Addicted - About four or five years ago I was depressed out of my skull and in a generally awful place thanks to a psychiatrist who didn't understand one iota of what I told him, and instead put me on a truly impressive/unhealthy amount of medication. I can honestly say that I can't remember huge chunks of my life thanks to that guy. Anyway, when 'Addicted' came out, I had switched psychiatrists and was in the middle of weening off of the meds. And that album, plus the help of an understanding psychiatrist and an extraordinary therapist, really helped me through some miserable withdrawal-spawned times. That album was my driving force, and thanks to Dev (and the others I mentioned) I can happily say that I'm almost two years without medication, and functioning fine.

Korn - Issues
The beginning of acclaiming rock music, still very good music to me.

Limp Bizkit - Significant Other
Along with Korn the most memorable album of that time.

Opeth - Blackwater Park
First steps into "real" metal. Mindblowing, "Bleak" changed everything. I'd rank the MAYH album above BWP though.

Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
First steps into Black Metal, even if it's no black metal - that album is still a classic to me.

Strapping Young Lad - For Those About to Rock (DVD)
Of course no album, but I got hooked to SYL and Devin in general by this monstrous outcome of live energy and musical mindfuck. I couldn't believe how crushing the music was (and still is of course) and above all that crazy singer switching from "high grunting" to screaming to sheer beautiful opera-esque vocals within seconds and the SAME singing line...

"Bleak" changed everything

BAM! Me too, brah. Literally changed my taste in music after hearing that.

Daft Punk - Discovery
Picked for being the first album I ever properly bought (Craig David wasn't bought by me ) and for also being a damn fine album, why it gets a mention here.

Sum 41 - All Killer No Filler
Currently listening to this as I type because this thread has made me do some revisiting. Wasn't really into guitar music at the time (wasn't really up on it to be honest) and so hearing this album kinda blew my mind. Then bumped into Warning by Green Day not long after.

Gang Starr - Moment Of Truth
Not the seminal GS album, but this is the one that recurs with me the most because I felt it combined everything the duo learnt into what I felt was a magnum opus backed up by a fantastic title track. One of the great hip-hop acts ever.

Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose
I know Colour & The Shape should be here but its not because this was the first Foo's album I ever tried and I choose it for that reason. Stacked Actors FTW.

Devin Townsend Project - Ki
Got into DT around the SYL Alien phase and so heard pretty much everything up until The New Black so Ziltoid onwards was brand new. Of everything I've heard though this is the one I go back to the most and for that reason gets my vote.

This isn't gospel though. So many albums I wish I could place here, no such thing as a top five for me. But that would be the five that changed everything.

As I lay Dying - Shadows are Security: Basically helped me through the latter stages of adolescence teaches one not to fear tyrants to follow your own path and even when theres so much evil in the world today try to focus on the good and helping one another.

Hypocrisy- Catch 22: really opened my mind about how shallow people are and the bullshit they can try to throw at you skew something good into bad how self centered people can be and to not deal with drama and bullshit

SYL- City: This is probably the most influential album I've listened to opened my mind at a young age about how the world runs plastic people running around trying to master material art how fake and shallow most people are dont listen to what people try to force on you fear campaigns making people live out their boring lives ect. real cool

That's all I can think of right now if more come to mind ill do another post for sure cool idea for a thread too

Devin Townsend- Infinity
Devin Townsend- Terria
Ulver- Blood Inside
Strapping Young Lad- Alien
Type O Negative- October Rust.

What can I say? I like Dev

Alice In Chains - Unplugged
Mother Love Bone - Apple
Megadeth - Rust In Piece
Guns 'n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Devin - Ziltoid/Ocean Machine/Cooked on Phonics
Sa Ding Ding - Alive
Ensiferum - Iron
and finally,

Footprints In The Custard - Oh God, It's Warm

..although the last one I was directly involved in, it did a lot of eye opening for me with regards to actually recording an album. Totally threw the direction of my life around. I'd be a chemist or a geologist now if it wasn't for that album. It's a shame you nobody can listen to it- It's really bad!

Pretty much the late 90s.

DT- Infinity, Ocean Machine

SYL- City

Dream Theater- Images and Words

Tie- Michael Jackson-Thriller/Kiss-Alive

for me the albums that changed my life would be;
Pearl Jam - Ten, this was probably the first rock album i bought it, around 11 or 12 i believe and even flow was probably my favorite song for four years got me started into rock and the genres that led me to listening to metal and everything else.
Metallica - Master of Puppets.. Orion alone basically hearing that bass line in the middle section made me pick bass up almost five years ago now.. still a really decent album in my mind a bit overrated but it is very good
SYL - Alien.. to this day ive never heard such chaos in an album i remember my uncle played it when he came over from alberta at the time i was 15 and actually felt a bit scared listening to this as he drove around town.. for two or three years i never knew the bands name after hearing it till a buddy posted a video link of love?..
Misfits - Collection II.. i never really minded horror but hearing this basically made me fall inlove with the genre from movies to everything else definately a big album for me, personally and for a while me and my buddy just would drive around blasting the crap outa this record as we travelled around the province(s).. so many great memories with this album
DT - Terria.. this album basically made me want to pick up and learn to play guitar; earth day alone made me want to work on learning that riff such an awesome riff, such an awesome record as a whole, also this was the first album i heard of dev next to addicted and it got me completely hooked to all of his work.