Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

Message board

* FAQ    * Register   * Login 



Reply to topic
Author Message Previous topic | Next topic
MetalVermont
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:23 pm
Posts: 255
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:57 am 
 

I actually was thinking of a fun 2-part topic, but that's too long for the subject line. So . . .

1. What is your favorite metal album of all, and what is the story behind it?
2. What is the album that blew you away the most upon first listen, and is it the same album or a different one?

Me: I'll start with the 2nd one first; the album that most blew me away upon first listen is Ride the Lightning. I had first gotten into metal after a kid on my bus had the Scorpions blasting on his boombox, and then hearing Quiet Riot on the radio. Got into Crue and Maiden and then heard Metallica on the local late-night radio show Metal Shop. A friend at school made me a copy of Ride the Lightning on cassette and man did I BLAST that thing constantly on my Walkman in 84/85. Just so jaw-dropping for the time.

My favorite metal album of all time is probably still Images and Words. Balanced my love of metal with amazing musicianship and melodies and vocals and songwriting and prog. Got that one in the summer of 2003 after finally having internet for a few years and discovering on-line metal sites. This was before the days of YouTube so all I had to go on were reviews of albums. With a limited budget as a father of 2, I needed to research before I purchased. I hadn't discovered this site yet, but read many reviews on a now-defunct site and the still-going Metal Observer. Based on those reviews I finally got I&W and it took a while to sink in, I had never heard anything that complex before - but it ending up really hitting home.

Who's next?

Top
 Profile  
simonitro
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 3:41 pm
Posts: 473
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:49 pm 
 

1. Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond
2. Since started my journey into metal around 1999 or so, I was listening to the usual... you know... Metallica, Iron Maiden and so on until discovering Blind Guardian which is the first time listening to something called "Power Metal" and didn't know what was it beforehand and this is back in 2002 when I discovered the band with their new album at that time "A Night At The Opera" and really loved that style. A friend mentioned that this genre is called Power Metal and I'm like "Cool!" So, decided to start listening more to the band and in 2003, they released a Live album and loved it and decided one day to listen to "Somewhere Far Beyond" because the Live album have tracks from that album and it seems that's Blind Guardian's most refined album and from then, this is it. Everytime I go back to it, I remind myself "AAAH!!! That's why that's my favorite album ever." It's the feeling to it when everything just connects more than being logical or reasonable about it.

Top
 Profile  
steve1234
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:11 pm
Posts: 29
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:45 pm 
 

1. Slayer- Reign in Blood
2. Same album and it ties into the story behind why it is my favorite. In the late 90s getting into metal I bought Slayer's Diabolis album and was left unimpressed. I like the album but having heard that Slayer were these metal legends I expected something else. I had seen a music video that combined Black Magic and Raining Blood and expected more of that. Realizing I liked older Metallica albums even though I was not a big fan of Load and Re-Load I decided to give Slayer another go and buy Reign in Blood. Angel of Death started and the rest lived up to that start so I have been hooked ever since it is one of the few albums I never get sick of and can play at any time without needing a feeling for it.

Top
 Profile  
LithoJazzoSphere
Veteran

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:11 pm
Posts: 3576
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:57 pm 
 

Favorite is Blackwater Park. I was on some guitar forums in the early 00s, and they kept bringing up Opeth as this amazing band. I eventually checked it out and just could not stop listening to it. I didn't like the growls at first, but years of listening to it and branching out to other artists wore me down. Mikael's voice is magical, and the mixture of heavy rhythm guitars with acoustics and the melodies (particularly with e-bow) and leads were riveting. Lopez' playing has so much feel to it as well. It almost singlehandedly made me learn fingerpicking on guitar to play some of the parts.

The one that blew me away the fastest was about a month before, with In Flames' Colony. I'd read an article about them in Metal Maniacs shortly before then, and their name made me think they had this incredible guitar tone. I was right. The pick scrape into "Embody the Invisible", the heaviness of the rhythm tone and drums, it was a level beyond anything I'd ever heard before, and honestly, not sure I've heard anything that tops it since, it's in the ultimate sweet spot. I'd heard Fear Factory's Demanufacture a few months prior, and that album sounds fantastic as well, but it's well, more "robotic" (kind of intentional, most likely). But on Colony, even the leads, acoustic passages, and lower-gain leads (like "Zombie Inc.") have this unparalleled searing warmth, which is apropos given their name.


Last edited by LithoJazzoSphere on Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Top
 Profile  
Benedict Donald
Veteran

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am
Posts: 3066
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:53 pm 
 

My two favorites are below. And the #2 blew me away (and still does) as no other ever has.

1 Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
My all-time fav by, what I consider to be, metal's all-time greatest line-up. It's difficult for me to articulate exactly why I fawn over this album so, but, ultimately, it's due to its combination of succinct, yet powerful songwriting, combined with a phenomenally thickly dark, yet contrastingly hopeful, atmosphere. Few albums are able to emit both so naturally and effectively. There are also small nuances that just raise it above all others (Dio's "ah, ah oh, yeah, yeah....yeeahh" part at 2:16-2:35 in the title track; the mellow mid-section of "Die Young"; the ending of the title track; etc. Purely manna from heaven). If one album truly captures the "metal aesthetic", this is it.

2 My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans
As with Heaven & Hell, this album is defined by its atmosphere. When I first heard this, an entire new world of musical possibilities was opened. Its combo of classical, doom, death, and prog (yes, to my ears, there's a heavy element of progressive metal here), coupled with the Shakespearean lyrics, and unique art/presentation was the perfect antidote to what I considered a relatively weak era for metal. NOTHING out there was even remotely similar in grandiosity and feeling. And, to this day, it's an emotionally exhausting listen (meant as a positive!).


Last edited by Benedict Donald on Thu Dec 30, 2021 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Top
 Profile  
Cabecao
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:59 pm
Posts: 172
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:58 pm 
 

1. Sepultura - Arise
2. Machine Head - Burn My Eyes

I'd heard Beneath the Remains in 1990. At the time it was up there with anything else I'd heard, chug, double kick, growls etc. Arise imo was a little more polished, a tad slower but whatever it is they did just clicked with me. The addition of some tribal type percussion added a bit of the exotic to the sound. Overall the whole package just drew me in, the artwork, layout etc. I remember hearing snippets here and there but either didn't have the $ or it wasn't available. I finally got it (I now have 3 - 4 versions of it) and paid about $34 for it with Xmas money I'd been given. It was more than the going rate for CDs back then but I didn't care. I was so happy I got it.
While I love the entire album it's hard for me to find anything that hits as hard as the first three songs - Arise, Dead Embryonic Cells and Desperate Cry

I started out listening to thrash and tried to find similar sounding stuff whenever I could. It led me down the death metal path as well as into other areas. I'm a sucker for the galloping chuggy riffs and that hasn't changed. I remember buying Far Beyond Driven by Pantera and thinking it was awesome. But only a month later I read an article in a magazine about Machine Head. I had seen the album in my local music store about a week earlier but overlooked it (I'd done the same with the article). After reading the article I got the guys to play it in the store. I nearly fell over. The crunch of the guitar tone, the harmonics and the GROOVE. It was an instant buy and I flogged the CD relentlessly. I would constantly show it to mates who hadn't heard it before. Songs like Davidian, Old, None But My Own, The Rage to Overcome, Blood for Blood and Block are ball tearers that are on my workout playlists still.


Last edited by Cabecao on Thu Dec 30, 2021 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Top
 Profile  
lordcatfish
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:44 pm
Posts: 1461
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:59 pm 
 

01 Children of Bodom - Follow the Reaper
I got this album around 2001 / 2002. I had got into music with nu metal / pop punk in 2000 and was gradually getting into heavier stuff. My brother had seen In Flames support Slipknot and was looking to get into similar(ish) bands. He'd downloaded "Bodom After Midnight" and their cover of "Aces High", but never really dug into them further. I'd listened to and enjoyed both songs, so went out and bought the album that had "Bodom After Midnight" on.

02 Same album. This absolutely blew my mind at the time (and honestly still does sometimes). I couldn't believe someone could write something like this, and layer so many catchy guitar and keyboard melodies on top of the riffs to create such an atmospheric album (it helps that the production is spot on). It was chaotic and energetic, and every song was so memorable. I didn't know too much about the band at the time, and the only picture I'd seen of them was in the booklet. I vaguely knew of the Lake Bodom murders too, and to 13 year old me, hearing the music would evoke images of a cold, windy, desolate lake. It just didn't feel like the product of five guys in a studio recording. All these years later, I remember how I felt first hearing this album, and those same images pop up in my head.
_________________
last.fm

Top
 Profile  
acid_bukkake
SAD!

Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:45 am
Posts: 2232
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 6:56 pm 
 

1. What is your favorite metal album of all, and what is the story behind it?
White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000
My older sister bought this as my first CD for my 10th birthday (a couple months after it released). I was digging whatever Metallica songs I'd heard on the radio, and really liked "More Human Than Human," so she just bought it for me on a whim. A childhood of Michael Jackson, whatever Disney soundtracks were around, and George Thorogood didn't prepare me for that opening riff of "Electric Head Pt. I - The Agony." It just blew my prepubescent brain out of its thick skull. As I grew older, I just learned to appreciate it as a fluid album more and more. Its only weak song, IMO, is "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains," and even it serves a valid purpose to cool the listener off between the constant groove/industrial horror of the first half into the increasingly atmospheric (by groove metal standards) second half. Ending with "Blood, Milk, and Sky" (and, technically, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" after those few minutes of silence) is just about perfect.

2. What is the album that blew you away the most upon first listen, and is it the same album or a different one?
Nile - Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka
In the four years between turning 10 and evolving into a growing metalhead at 14, I'd given a few death metal songs a try here and there, but was always turned off from it. It didn't have the catchiness of White Zombie or Pantera, it didn't have the great composition work of Metallica or Iron Maiden, and, to be honest, the growls turned me off. Why would I want to listen to muffled Slayer riffs with the Cookie Monster singing? Seemed lame to me. Then I gave this album a shot after reading an interview from a performer I enjoyed (pro wrestler Jerry Lynn) where he hyped the living hell out of this release. Bought it, figured whatever, and popped it into the Discman before heading off to school...and had that same feeling as when I first heard Astro-Creep 2000. It sent me down the path into Skinless, Exhumed, Dying Fetus, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, and the myriad of well-and-lesser-known death (and, especially, brutal death) bands that make up the bulk of my listening today.
_________________
Dembo wrote:
It just dawned on me that if there was a Christian equivalent of Cannibal Corpse, they could have the song title I Cum Forgiveness.

darkeningday wrote:
I haven't saw any of the Seen movies.

Top
 Profile  
pressingtoplead13
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:05 pm
Posts: 740
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 8:25 pm 
 

I love the idea of this thread.

1.So Its really hard to pick a favorite album of all time because I feel like this changes ever so often. I suppose my favorite it "This Is Exile" by Whitechapel. I had been a big fan of death metal and grindcore before the whole deathcore seen exploded, I also was graduating high school as the scene was starting to catch on, alot of my buddies were into alot of metalcore and slightly delved into death core so I was that elitist kid that was strictly against it because "it was core" "it wasnt true death metal" blah blah blah, I did however enjoy Whitechapel's first two albums quite a bit. Years went by and although I mostly listened to Death Metal i always had a soft spot for "This Is Exile". It was so hard to deny how great of a vocalist Phil Bozeman was, the production was almost spot on what I look for and my god those hooks and breakdowns interwoven with blast beats was everything I ever loved about extreme music in the first place. Once i'd finally gotten past the fact that deathcore wasn't "true" this album really became totally infectious to me. I got to see them a couple times in 2018 when they did the 10 years of Exile and it made me love it even more. Such a great album, IMO its nearly flawless from start to finish, my only complaint is the couple lines in Messiahbolical where they use the thrash group shouts, it just feels so out of place. Otherwise such an amazing album.

2. I guess the album that blew me away the most when i first got into was "Enemy of the Music Business" by Napalm Death. I had listened to quite a bit of nu metal and hard rock over the years, but it wasnt until I stumbled upon Napalm Death that the whole extreme metal thing really hooked me. I'd heard Napalm on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack and thought they were the most extreme thing i'd ever heard, So I went and bought their two newest albums at the time Enemy of the music business and Order of the Leech. For whatever reason I choose to listen Enemy first and was beyond hooked right off of the bat. The energy of that album was immense, never before had I heard music that just felt angry, not in a "i'm trying to scare people look how tough i am thing" but an album that genuinely was just pure auditory rage and energy. The riffs, the blast beats were all something that I was hooked on instantly, also at the time I was going down the path of trying to find the most extreme vocalist I could find with a deep voice and at that very moment Barney had topped Burton Bell whom I had previously annointed king. I still like this album quite a bit today, I feel its very underrated in their catalog.


On a side note: Who has an album that did not click right away but they eventually grew to love?

3. "Souls to Deny" - Suffocation I bought this when I was already into alot of the florida death metal scene, when I first heard it, something about it just didnt click. I felt like it just washed over me with very few memorable hooks, it wasnt as easily digestible as Morbid Angel who at the time was probably my favorite band. A few months later I decided that maybe that album was just shit and I tried Pierced From Within and it hooked me, afterwords i went back and delved into Souls To Deny and now its one of my favorite albums, as well as Suffocation easily a top 3 band for me.

Top
 Profile  
On_Stranger_Tides
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2019 6:14 pm
Posts: 170
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 9:30 pm 
 

For the first, it's pretty much a toss up between Crystal Logic or Awaken the Guardian -- both have so many important memories attached to them. The first I copied from a friend in 2005 or so after falling hard for Open the Gates. The first time I listened, I must've played "Necropolis" and "Dreams of Eschaton" half a dozen times each. I was living in this mouse-ridden studio apartment in Boston and thoroughly dissatisfied with my situation. The Road was just what the kick in the pants I needed.

Though either of the above would serve as valid responses for #2, I'll go with For Mircalla simply because of recency bias. Bentley's riffs are sublime.

Top
 Profile  
Immortal666
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2003 6:32 am
Posts: 942
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 4:38 am 
 

My all-time favorite album is 'Master of Puppets' by Metallica. The first time I heard the title track was on a local radio station in 1989. This station mainly played synth pop/post punk/new wave so it was a surprise to hear something heavier. I thought I was listening to 2-3 separate songs but apparently it was one long, badass song. The same radio station then played other Metallica songs like 'Seek and Destroy', 'Whiplash' and 'Sanitarium'. So that really prepared me to experience the entire Metallica experience. I looked around the local music stores wanting to buy a copy of Puppets, but it wasn't released locally at the time. Only And Justice For All and The Garage Days Re-revisited EP was available at the time. I decided to pick AJFA and was also blown away by that album. Months later, around the New Year leading to 1990, I was walking around an older district of the metro and stumbled upon a store that sold underground metal stuff. And then I saw a copy of Master of Puppets there! It was a bootleg copy and the sound quality wasn't the best but it was still enough for me to be blown away by how awesome the entire album was.

The album that blew me away at first listen was Slayer's 'Reign in Blood' it just beat out Puppets by an inch. I had already heard of Slayer before as I owned a copy of South of Heaven. But even that didn't prepare me for the all out assault to the senses of Reign in Blood. I was a freshman in high school in 1990 and it was the first week of school. I went to the mall after school to check out any metal titles to score. I was surprised to see a copy of Reign in Blood in the record store racks. I immediately bought it and rushed home to listen to it. I slid it on my cassette tape player and then hell was unleashed! For the next half hour, I was enraptured by the sheer force that emanated from my boombox's speakers. It was fast, unrelenting and evil. It was short enough that would keep you begging for more and you had no recourse but to listen to it again once the two sides were done playing. No other album comes close to that initial listening experience I had with Reign in Blood.

Top
 Profile  
Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
Posts: 35180
Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:25 am 
 

Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction. The quintessential metal album, I think. The riffs are fantastic, it's catchy as fuck, all the performances are like a lightning rod at full strength. Everything it does it excels at. I found it through this site along with a bunch of old USPM and trad shit, and all of it was a real defining part of my high school years and continues to be great whenever I play em.

As to what blew me away - well I guess the above album was one. Slough Feg - Traveller is another; when I heard that at 15 or so I was really fucking stunned. But honestly I always hear new stuff I get obsessed with; recently it's been Agalloch - The Mantle and David Bowie - Blackstar. Always more shit to be stunned by.
_________________
Cinema Freaks latest reviews: Black Roses
Fictional Works - if you hated my reviews over the years then pay me back by reviewing my own stuff
Official Website

Top
 Profile  
Lagartija
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:27 am
Posts: 2042
Location: Catalunya
PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 11:22 am 
 

Impossible to state just one, I would have to do one for each genre at least as they all opened different doors for me.

Top
 Profile  
TheEtreum
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:41 am
Posts: 136
Location: Hell on Earth
PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 11:26 am 
 

It was 1992, and a boy listened to a Sunday midnight metal show in the radio on his walkman. His room was dark, and the feeling of doing something forbidden was strong. Almost all people related that music with satanism and evil and feel really scared when they heard it. The boy had started growing his hair out and wearing torn jean jackets and pants some months ago. As soon the guy in the radio announced the next songs with his cavernous voice, the boy click the record bottom of the walkman under his couch... His mind was blow away, he never has listened to something like that. He listened to the songs for various months, at the same time that 'You Could be Mine' of Guns N' Roses and 'Enter Sandman', 'Cherry Pie' and Nirvana. Later that year the father took the boy to a department store, and the boy picked the cassette from a shelve. Was 'Fear of the Dark'.

After that, one day a friend lent him a cassette of 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son', the one that would become his favorite album of all time.
_________________
Last.fm
Bandcamp

Spoiler: show
Always remember that metal stands for love, peace and democracy.

Top
 Profile  
MetalVermont
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:23 pm
Posts: 255
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:37 am 
 

Cool story! FOTD is underrated for sure, I like 10 of the 12 tracks.

Top
 Profile  
Sick6Six
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:01 pm
Posts: 1987
Location: Woodstock, IL
PostPosted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 1:39 pm 
 

I don't know if I can ever pick a single favorite album, but I do remember a few that really blew me away at first listen over the years.

When I was in like first grade I was already listening to GnR and Faith No More, but I remember very vividly going to Coconuts music and finding some Metallica tapes in a big bin at the front of the store. I wanted to (have my mom) buy one, but she said "I don't know honey, they might be too rawr rawr for you" LOL. Then a year or 2 later I heard Enter Sandman on MTV right before leaving to walk to school and I was just completely stunned... This story is so embarrassing... So I then convinced my mom to buy me all their albums like that same day, but back then there was no good way to lookup a bands discography, so I just went to a few stores and picked up whatever I found.

Shortly after that I discovered Slayer - Show No Mercy, by randomly browsing through a music store again. I thought the cover art was cool, and I remember the chick at the counter telling the other guy working there "I told you someone would buy it". When I got home and listened to it I was also blown away at how fast and evil it sounded.

Deicide and Cannibal Corpse were pretty much my entry into more extreme metal, but I always thought Chris Barnes vocals were embarrassingly terrible and Deicide was the better of the two. They never hit me as hard as Cryptopsy - None So Vile did many years later. I remember being really high and felt like the music was just completely consuming me.

I remember the first Darkthrone song I ever heard was something I downloaded of WINMX and it was such awful quality, maybe a bootleg live recording? I thought it was so bad, yet was strangely intrigued to explore more of this black metal. Then what really first clicked for me was Immortal and Lord Belial oddly enough. I think the first Immortal song I heard was In My Kingdom Cold which just gave me crazy goosebumps, and I still really love that song. I proceeded to check out the rest of their albums and ATHOW and PH really knocked my socks off as well. Lord Belial's - Enter the Moonlight Gate was a completely different and weird style and I was blasting it every night while passing out when I first discovered it. I very quickly got into all the other usual suspects like Mayhem, Burzum, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone etc. and really never got off the black metal train since then. Then Drudkh - Forgotten Legends recently after that was just so overwhelmingly emotional and love at first listen.

Just this year I was completely blown away when I discovered White Ward by accident. Spotify randomly selected Love Exchange Failure the title track and I was like "what the hell is this and how is it similar to what I was just listening to?" But I totally loved the city jazz vibe right from the start, and then it turned into metal and I was like OK I see what's going on here and it's fucking magnificent and perfect.
_________________
My Bandcamp collection

Top
 Profile  
Coastliner
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:49 am
Posts: 667
Location: beyond the blue on some ancient, tattered Fates Warning cover
PostPosted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 3:03 am 
 

MetalVermont wrote:
1. What is your favorite metal album of all, and what is the story behind it?
2. What is the album that blew you away the most upon first listen, and is it the same album or a different one?


Two questions, one answer: Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian

The story? John Arch. Those arabesque vocal lines and lyrics (that upon closer inspection talked about very real subjects and situations) were like a hallucinogenic fruit found in a faraway forest forgotten for fenturies for eff's sake. I couldn't find my way (did I say "fay"?) amidst the bramble thickets of that virtuoso clutter…

As for question two, the honourable mentions are:

Queensrÿche – Rage for Order
Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time
Voïvod – Nothingface
Crimson Glory – Transcendence

To this day, I'm amazed at how layered that production was, how guitar synthesizers can create atmosphere, how funky a metal band can (unintentionally) be and how much a metal album can sound like designer furniture with not one rounded corner in the wrong place.
_________________
"The scary thing is: Tony still looks like Tony, whereas I don't look like me."
(Ian Anderson)

Top
 Profile  
DanielG06
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 8:11 pm
Posts: 535
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2022 5:14 pm 
 

1) Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
2) The same album. I know it's generic, but the way the synths and lead guitars open the album, it was fucking magical to hear back when I didn't worry about anything, and I don't think I've ever heard an album that has moved me as much since. That album was probably the sole reason I'm a metalhead, I still think that no other metal album can hold a candle to it.
_________________
I'm the King of the necrobumpers

Lee Harrison wrote:
Evolution is call evolution I doubt that Oystein Aarseth wasn’t stab at death he was thinking the same bullshit of ‘90…

The sound of perseverance didn’t even came out under the name of Death….

Top
 Profile  
jose_G
Metalhead

Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 1:02 pm
Posts: 488
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:31 am 
 

i cant but i love read this thread!

Top
 Profile  
MetalManiaCometh
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:32 am
Posts: 92
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 3:58 pm 
 

I don’t think I could ever just pick one album that is my all time favorite as I have a bag full of records that I could equally say are my all time favorites. But I can definitely say there was one record in that bag I mentioned that was practically the engine that really kickstarted my love for the metal genre as a whole because of it.

Overkill’s Horrorscope

I’m pretty sure I told this story in the Horrorscope review I did but I have no issues repeating it. Growing up, I was pretty lucky to both have a dad that was into the metal scene when he was growing up in the 80s and 90s and an older brother who was a metalhead as well. In my town, there’s only 2 stations that played rock or metal music. One station played classic rock with occasional classic metal songs thrown in and the other station played the more modern / newer stuff with, again, some classic metal songs thrown in. I was well aware of bands like the Iron Maiden, Dio, Judas Priest, Ozzy, and the big four. In regards to the big 4, Metallica was usually the one played the most, mostly a bunch of stuff from The Black Album, couple songs from Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets, and One off …And Justice For All. The only stuff they really played from the other 3 was like, Madhouse, Raining Blood, Peace Sells, and Holy Wars. I liked them all, me favoring music from Slayer and Megadeth over the other two. My dad had a portable case of cassettes of various metal albums, namely more of the “popular” acts but I’m glad he had them as it did help refine my tastes when I was pretty young. I was able to listen to Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, Rust In Peace, Peace Sells….But Who’s Buying, and Spreading The Disease in full and greatly enjoyed them all. But then this is where my brother came in as he carried a sizable case of CDs and I was able to get my Slayer fix from him.

Fast forward some time, maybe when I was around 9 or 10. Now, it was clear I was going through that angsty pre-teen phase and the band I was really into was Korn. All I did was listen to Korn. I’d buy any cd with their name of it, listen to their stuff on repeat. I was hooked for some reason or another. Reflecting back, I always cringe at this time as I’m not a big fan of the band now, I listen to them occasionally but they’re not something that comes on my rotation. So it was during the spring of…2010? 2011 probably? Anyways during spring me and my family drove to a much bigger city than my town, about 50 minutes away and went to the mall in that area. FYE was the store I and my brother usually went to so of course that was our first destination. My brother and I go straight to the metal section and start looking through it. I was just browsing random bands, I was probably slowly but surly making my way to the Korn area to look at their releases and my brother stops me, hands me this cd and tells me “here, get this, you may like this one”. I take it from him, looking at this black album cover with a big skull with bats wings and the only words on it was above the skull bat spelling out “Overkill” in a green font logo. I thought it looked pretty cool, took my brothers word, and bought it.

I got back to the car, grabbed my portable CD player and case (full of Korn CDs of course) and pressed play. My first thought when I heard Horrorscope was, “what the hell is this” but in a positive way, not a negative way. Mind you, I’ve listened to plenty of Slayer, of Megadeth, of Metallica, of Anthrax, of whatever. But this record, this band, practically gave me an euphony. Overkill was just…different. It wasn’t anything I really heard and the closest to this feeling was when I listened to Slayer years before but I never fell head over heels for a band like this until I listened to this record. For some time I thought this was the only record that the band put out, I didn’t have internet at this time. But then we did get the internet, I began searching the band, found a little website with tons of different metal reviews called “No Life ‘Till metal” and saw that they actually had 14 other albums on top of Horrorscope and it wasn’t even their debut and the rest was history. I soon got into Kreator (them being my 2nd favorite band at that time, still my 2nd favorite thrash band), Annihilator, Artillery, and then a plethora other albums, bands, and genres. I don’t think I’d be as into the metal scene if it wasn’t for Horrorscope, with Overkill still being my all time favorite band.

Another album that kinda caused a similar reaction as Horrorscope did was Deaths Sound Of Perseverance. I had a really hard time getting into the the death metal genre as I tried listening to Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide, etc. and not being able to sit through them. But after listening to Sound Of Perseverance that all changed. Something just, clicked, and that record is probably my personal favorite to this day (it’s not their best though).

Top
 Profile  
Benedict Donald
Veteran

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am
Posts: 3066
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:47 pm 
 

Coastliner wrote:

Two questions, one answer: Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian

The story? John Arch. Those arabesque vocal lines and lyrics (that upon closer inspection talked about very real subjects and situations) were like a hallucinogenic fruit found in a faraway forest forgotten for fenturies for eff's sake. I couldn't find my way (did I say "fay"?) amidst the bramble thickets of that virtuoso clutter…


Awesome.
While "Heaven and Hell" is my all time fav, "Guardian" is right behind it. Love your description of it!
That was truly a one-off, once in a lifetime phenomenon, where everything came together perfectly. The stars truly aligned to produce this magnum opus. "Guardian" truly takes you on a journey into another space & time.

Top
 Profile  
MetalVermont
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:23 pm
Posts: 255
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:52 am 
 

So no one else has a story they want to share about how they discovered their favorite album? One page? Okay . . .

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 2944
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 4:17 pm
Posts: 794
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:17 am 
 

Around 81/82 I was at a friends house. He had an older brother, who was a total metalhead. My friend "borrowed" some of his older brothers records. He played Too Fast For Love by Motley Crue and I was just mesmerized. I never heard anyone doing fast double bass like that. I don't even know if there was a store where I grew up, that sold Venom and Motorhead. My choices for records was Caldors or Sears. That was the place to get records then. Up until this point, the heaviest stuff I had heard was Deep Purple, maybe Mountain. I have never heard anyone play that fast of double bass, or guitars tuned that low. It seemed extremely heavy at the time. I was really hooked. The fact that they were supposedly a satanic band (their imagery) made it even more like something forbidden that I shouldn't be listening to. Which of course always makes something more appealing.
When I was able to get my own copy of TFFL, I played it over and over. Totally hooked on it.
These days it seems like elevator music compared to the stuff out now. It stands the test of time for that style. Still one of my favorites to this day.

Top
 Profile  
Benedict Donald
Veteran

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am
Posts: 3066
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:42 am 
 

wizard_of_bore wrote:
Around 81/82 I was at a friends house. He had an older brother, who was a total metalhead. My friend "borrowed" some of his older brothers records. He played Too Fast For Love by Motley Crue and I was just mesmerized. I never heard anyone doing fast double bass like that. I don't even know if there was a store where I grew up, that sold Venom and Motorhead. My choices for records was Caldors or Sears. That was the place to get records then. Up until this point, the heaviest stuff I had heard was Deep Purple, maybe Mountain. I have never heard anyone play that fast of double bass, or guitars tuned that low. It seemed extremely heavy at the time. I was really hooked. The fact that they were supposedly a satanic band (their imagery) made it even more like something forbidden that I shouldn't be listening to. Which of course always makes something more appealing.
When I was able to get my own copy of TFFL, I played it over and over. Totally hooked on it.
These days it seems like elevator music compared to the stuff out now. It stands the test of time for that style. Still one of my favorites to this day.


Their first two albums are classics. Great song after great song.

It is funny to think back to a time when Motley Crue was truly considered "evil" music. LOL

Top
 Profile  
Sick6Six
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:01 pm
Posts: 1987
Location: Woodstock, IL
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:27 pm 
 

I never got super into Motley Crew, but I did have a few of their tapes back in the day. The song "Looks That Kill" totally kicked my ass when I was like 5. Just listened to it right now and it's still awesome.

edit: So I went my whole life until just now thinking it was "Crew" and just learned it's "Crüe" WTF :lol:
_________________
My Bandcamp collection


Last edited by Sick6Six on Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Top
 Profile  
MetalVermont
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:23 pm
Posts: 255
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:55 pm 
 

Yes the first 2 Crue albums are great listening. Mick Mars got a killer rhythm tone going on those.

Top
 Profile  
JCP524
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:37 pm
Posts: 77
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:28 pm 
 

Probably Awaken the guardian by Fates Warning. got it used and bought it because of the cover art. took a while to sink in but I was blown away by the vocals and the arrangements. I thought I had found a real underground gem but soon realized it was everybody else favorite too.

The first album I fell in love with was Metallica's Black album. Still love it but it's not my favorite anymore and not even my favorite Metallica album.

Top
 Profile  
Terri23
Veteran

Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:53 am
Posts: 3177
PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:58 am 
 

Sick6Six wrote:
I never got super into Motley Crew, but I did have a few of their tapes back in the day. The song "Looks That Kill" totally kicked my ass when I was like 5. Just listened to it right now and it's still awesome.

edit: So I went my whole life until just now thinking it was "Crew" and just learned it's "Crüe" WTF :lol:


You had their tapes. Didn't you ever look at the cover?
_________________
metaldiscussor666 wrote:
American isn't a nationality

Riffs wrote:
It's been scientifically proven that appreciating Black Sabbath helps increase life expectancy, improves happiness, bumps your salary by 11 thousand dollars annually, helps fight cavities and increases penis size.

Top
 Profile  
Forever Underground
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:35 am
Posts: 1151
Location: Galiza
PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 5:06 pm 
 

1. That honour would go to "Srontgorrth (Die Macht erfasste das Meine wie die Angst das Blut der Anderen)" by Nagelfar, it's weird because the first few times I listened to the album I didn't like it. I discovered the band through direct connection with The Ruins of Baverast, until not long ago I considered "Rain Upon the Impure" my favourite album, so I was curious to know the band that the mastermind was in previously. I liked the debut "Hünengrab im Herbst" very much at first but when I tried Srontgorrth I couldn't get past the first song, I came back to it from time to time and little by little I started to like it more, but only the first song, the same process was repeated with the 5 songs, until I became familiar with all of them I didn't listen to the album in its entirety. And well, to this day I worship it in every aspect, I love every detail of it. In fact when you manage to buy it in physical format you get to have the version that contains a second cd with the versions of the first three songs in their demo format and in their debut album plus a meddley of 18 minutes that they played live. In total it ends up being 138 minutes of music that I listen to from start to finish every time I play it.

2. And this one would be for Нехристь by Nokturnal Mortum, I'm quite a fan of all the ukrainian band's discography in general and I love how in every album they offer something different but this one just blows my mind, I know there are many people who don't like it and I understand that because it's quite chaotic and inaccessible, but when I started to notice that control in the compositions, the variety of styles and the perfect use of the mix between raw black metal and folkloric approaches I couldn't do anything else but fall in love from the first listen. My favourite moment is the ending with the flutes in "In the Fire of the Wooden Churches" and the version of "Perun's Celestial Silver" much superior to the Lunar Poetry one.

It really pisses me off that this is their most openly NSBM album because it's a true gem.
_________________
MetlaNZ wrote:
As I write this I'm mentally body slamming an innocent old lady walking down the street like that dude from Scatterbrain.

Top
 Profile  
In Die Nacht
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:56 pm
Posts: 23
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:16 pm 
 

Dehumanizer.

Enter: angry Ronnie.

Existential menace while maintaining catchy riffs and vocal hooks on every song. People may get too caught up in the robot on the front and opening track "Computer God" opining technology coming to rule over humanity. While all that is prescient and still valid 30 years later, the album runs deeper. Megalomania, questioning one's purpose, feeling trapped on this planet and facing lies.

It doesn't spin on its heels either and suddenly give you hope. It stays neck deep in abandonment and oblivion.

"All together, you'll never...be stronger than me."

Top
 Profile  
Oxenkiller
Veteran

Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:42 am
Posts: 3613
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:53 pm 
 

Favorite album of all time? Tough to think of just one but I'll go with "Reign in Blood" here. Just the perfect amount of savage speed, aggression, and riffs, and all these years later I have never tired of it. Though plenty of other albums- Master of Puppets, Diary of a Madman, and Heaven and Hell, would be right up there.

My first time I heard Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" album I thought, this is it- the ultimate band. I was literally just 12, maybe barely 13, and that may be part of it; when you are a kid, things like this make such a huge impression on you, particularly in your formative metal years, that its hard to shake. I got it right around the time it came out, and "Peace of Mind came out shortly after that. I thought, and still do, that every single song on that album is a keeper, yes even "Gangland" and "Invaders." Just blown away by the guitar work, Bruce's vocals, and the metal attitude coming from it- Iron Maiden was the ultimate band for me (until I heard Metallica a couple years later, of course.)

Top
 Profile  
Le_Lendemain
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:43 am
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:54 am 
 

Discharge | Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing.
Fresh off of Tragedy self titled album and '' Can We Call This Life? '' I wanted to absorb its influences, I was into self deprecating and apocalyptic hardcore punk, local NJ bands mostly, Tear It Up, Down In Flames, A New Enemy, Survivors, etc.. Dead/Alive Distro based in NJ now defunct (R.I.P.), I ordered the Italy Earmark 180 gram Discharge LPs “Why” and “Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing”. As a child grew up Motley Crue, Metallica, Megadeth, Def Leppard, Pantera, but nothing prepared me for HNSNSN. At the hands of Discharge is when I full time changed to extremes. Sitting there sometime in ’03, putting the headphones down, having sat through that record, strangely feeling plowed, zen-settled, yet hyper-active, wanting to put the needle back to first groove to selfishly feel this all agian, the unrelenting power, an addiction. “If I could stand this what else is there?” This was slightly the time where the internet was not even a second thought, liner notes, word of mouth, and thank yous were far more important.

Not surprisingly this record gets stronger and stronger, as years go by, and that it was cut in ’82, is an anomaly. That was my metal album that got me into deeper open to all sects of metal.

Now, my favorite ‘’ metal ‘’ record is a toss up between Autopsy | “Mental Funeral” , My Dying Bride | “ Turn Loose The Swans ‘’ or Deathspell Omega | ‘’Paracletus ‘’ as of the recent year discovery of Lordian Guard “ Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God ‘’, however, Discharge holds its place as my first extreme instance of withstanding such unleashed power geared in a wall of sound metal. That very feeling as having withstood its lay of chaos. I had a similar experience with Repulsion | Horrified a year later…

Top
 Profile  
HideYourHole
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:28 am
Posts: 239
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 10:34 am 
 

I'm not really sure what I would call my favorite metal album, but the one that blew me away the most on first listen was probably Monolith of Inhumanity by Cattle Decapitation. I hadn't listened to The Harvest Floor so I wasn't aware in their shift in tone, and I don't think it's a monumental piece of metal history or anything but it's the only album I can think of where I was pretty much sure I would love the whole album after finishing the first song. Just the vibe absolutely connected with me on that one. Still listen to it frequently, though I wouldn't even necessarily say it is near the top of my favorite metal album list.

Top
 Profile  
doomicus
Metalhead

Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 5:58 am
Posts: 1261
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 7:42 pm 
 

Favorite Album off all time: Brocas Helm - Black Death. From the cover art to the idiosyncratic production, this album sort of just bloomed for me the more and more I listened to it. Definitely wasn't a love at first sight affair, and I really didn't know what to think of it the first time I heard it. It just is clever as all hell and embodies a very individualistic space, being both very traditional and unlike anything else. First exposure to Brocas Helm as a whole was seeing the infamous photo of Jim Schumacher with his red bass posing with a tank in the background and just KNEW I had to hear them. From there I tracked down Black Death. Listened to the Album until layer by layer it won me over and I became obsessed with it.

Album that had the biggest impact on me the first time I heard it: Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. This was one of the first legit doom metal albums that I was ever exposed to, and I was blown away by the raw emotion, atmosphere and sheer heaviness of it all. Totally redefined how I viewed metal as a whole as I had never equated slowness with heaviness in the way that I did after hearing it. Really shaped my tastes in metal too.
_________________
Drink and drive, I drink and drive
Got mothers against me I'm still alive

Top
 Profile  
Rottir
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2015 6:48 pm
Posts: 95
PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:06 am 
 

Opeth, Blackwater Park.

Around the turn of the millennium I was a hardcore kid (e.g. H2O, Ten Yard Fight, Madball, Sick Of It All, Trial, Strife) that was starting to get into metalcore (e.g. Shai Hulud, Converge, Unearth), when people in my scene started talking a lot about the influence of melodic death metal, particularly the 'Gothenberg sound' with bands like At The Gates. So I picked up albums from ATG, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and Children of Bodom, and while I enjoyed those albums and practically wore them out, in the aggregate they didn't really make that strong of an impression.

Then I discovered Opeth's Blackwater Park. Here was a band that was melodic without being 'melodic', featured massive songs, acoustic interludes, crooning alongside guttural growls. I was blown away and immediately hooked. I also first discovered the album in the peak of autumn, and have memories of wandering around the woods of my parents' farm listening to it via headphones and being blasted with a brain-chemical mix that has never since been replicated. It's just the perfect album for me, and I think 'The Drapery Falls' is one of the best songs every written and recorded in popular music across any genre.

Top
 Profile  
Ghost of Christmas Last
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:37 pm
Posts: 101
PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 2:32 pm 
 

1. Shaarimoth - Temple of adversarial fire
No story here really, suppose it goes to show that not everything has to have a story.

2. Skaphe - Skaphe3
When you think all has been done and tried before, an album like this comes along and shatters the preconception. Almost couldn't believe what I was hearing!

Top
 Profile  
Kalimata
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:29 am
Posts: 525
Location: France
PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 4:17 pm 
 

1- Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
It was not my favorite album at the first listen some 29 years ago, when I was discovering metal (I was more into Master ofPuppets). But I quickly got more interest in Iron Maiden than Metallica and Seventh Son progressively became my favorite. Since then I never get bored of listening each second and each instrument of this album.

2- Septic Flesh - Esoptron
This album instantly blew my mind. It was like the music I was expecting for at the time and a band finally did it. I still find the album brilliant though not as perfect as before.

Top
 Profile  
Maggot penetration
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:16 pm
Posts: 274
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2022 5:28 am 
 

Not going no to single out one but all the early, personal classics I never got bored of, from early Slayer and Bathory to Possessed and so on.

Top
 Profile  
jimbies
Noose Springsteen

Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:52 pm
Posts: 4145
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2022 10:54 am 
 

Mine is also Opeth's Blackwater Park.

Prior to its release, I had only heard a couple of songs i had downloaded on file sharing networks, which included Face Of Melinda. I was originally drawn in by the promos of the album showing the cover art (also one of my favourties)

Once BWP was released, and I was waiting for my CD copy to arrive at my shop, I downloaded the tracks Harvest and Patterns In The Ivy.

I still had NEVER heard Mikael growl at this point, and didn't know they had death-vocals. I assumed they were an Anathema type band with a lot of atmosphere. I still remember how shocked i was when I heard Mikael explode with that first vocal line.

I still listen to the album start-to-finish at least once a year, and I'm still just as in love with it. Perfection.

Top
 Profile  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: An Ferbasach, Caspian88, Google [Bot], Metallic Shock, SanPeron, Wilytank and 71 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

  Print view
Jump to:  

Back to the Encyclopaedia Metallum


Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group