25 Albums That Influenced Me Musically

Azvareth asked me to put together this week's list, and here it is.

Some Important Albums that Influenced Me Musically

These are in no order. Not necessarily my favourite albums ever, but they all had some big impact on the very way that I perceived music. It may or may not be what you expected from me, but nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy it.

My Bloody Valentine Loveless

Loveless is a bit of a strange one to pick as anyone's number one album. It's inaccessible; everything is embedded in swirling noise and intense feedback. However, it's the overwhelming beauty of this crashing dissonance that makes Loveless the best album ever. From the moment Only Shallow starts, the chills start running down my spine as the expanse of guitar effects and noise swallows me into its comforting ocean. This is what music is all about something that lets you escape from conforming to the norm of reality for the best part of 45 minutes. Simply put: aural sex. Aural sex in its most pleasurable form.

Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans

This album is basically everything that progressive rock is about. The 4 songs on this double LP are essentially 20 minutes of random doodling each; but, Yes, with their technical prowess and skill at being enigmatic and hard-to-get, make 80 minutes of random doodling into one of the best progressive experiences of all time. Many class this album as pretentious [bleep]ery, and even fans of Yes are divided on whether or not this album is one of the bands' masterpieces or not. I think, though, that Tales from Topographic Oceans is the best progressive rock album ever. You don't get any more progressive than thinking you've completely changed song about 4 times when listening to one twenty minute epic.

King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson

First progressive rock album ever. My favourite King Crimson record along with Discipline. It's mesmerising from start to finish. The title track is good with its distorted vocals and vague subject matter, but the highlight here is really Moonchild. 12 minutes of amazing, amazing music. This album is definitely worth the listen even if you aren't interested in progressive music, because it simply has an air of perfection in the apparent pretence of it. It's not a pretentious record at all; something that I wish that could be said of its contemporaries.

Slowdive Souvlaki

Slowdive is a band that is often overlooked because of their far more acclaimed older sister, My Bloody Valentine. However, Souvlaki is a gem of shoegaze. It's so chilling, depressing; so beautiful. From the relaxing tone of Alison to the downright tragic Dagger, this album never fails to keep me interested no matter how many times I listen to it.

Boris At Last -Feedbacker-

I don't really have a lot to say for this one. It's one of those albums that you actually need to listen to to be able to grasp how amazing it is. I will say this though: the second part of this one-song album simply crushes me to the ground. It's so bleak.

Alcest Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde

I used to think that this album was really uninspiring and boring. I was a fool. This album is simply breathtaking. Alcest was formerly a black metal project but Neige switched over to shoegaze due to a dislike of the goings on in the black metal scene. A good thing he did.

Asobi Seksu Citrus

It's no Loveless, but it sure is bloody good. Dreamy soundscapes abound, you can just lose yourself in the bristling layers of guitar and drums surrounding simple pop songs. It also has amazing cover art if you pick up the UK edition. One of the best dream pop albums I've ever listened to by far, is this. It's nothing new, but it's a perfection of an art.

maudlin of the Well Bath and Leaving Your Body Map

I put these two together because they're supposed to be listened to back-to-back. I'm not too sure of the concept behind the pair, but I do know that it involves astral projection and related themes. If you don't mind bearing with the really, really awful metal parts (which do grow on you), you're rewarded with probably some of the best avant-garde music written in the past 15 years. maudlin of the Well tried to explore and I kid you not the astral plane, to create music from there. This was done via lucid dreaming. These two albums are art.

Mono You Are There

Mono is a band that puts an emphasis on delicate, escalating melodies that suddenly change from sparse guitar picking into crashing tidal waves of distortion and noise. You Are There is one of the most evoking, emotional and ethereal post-rock albums that I've ever had the great, great pleasure of listening to. The first time I listened to it, You Are There made a huge impression on my opinion of post-rock: it made me like the genre on a much deeper level than I already did. Essential.

Broken Social Scene You Forgot it in People

I think this might just be the greatest indie rock record ever recorded. It's gentle, and it speaks to me in a way that few albums have ever done before. This album alone is why I think people should dip into the world of indie music because it's just so good on a number of levels it mixes post-rock, shoegaze, and alternative rock in such a way that it almost becomes a genre of its own. Broken Social Scene have never failed to impress me with their work, but You Forgot it in People is so exceptionally perfect that it makes all of their other albums (which are all amazing) just seem average.

Sacramentum Far Away from the Sun

The best album Dissection didn't make. Oh, wait. Far Away from the Sun is a masterpiece of melodic black metal along with Vinterland's Welcome My Last Chapter. I've yet to find another band that writes such rich, melodic riffs as Sacramentum.

Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters

I think that Two Hunters is a masterpiece of atmospheric black metal. It's got everything that makes an atmospheric black metal album long songs, sparse layering and amazing vocals. Despite the long songs, this album is far from boring. It's soaring and dynamic through all 4 songs and it's one of the reasons why anyone should consider dipping into metal.

Mogwai Young Team

Mogwai's debut album is their best. It's noisy and full of dynamic movement which is unusual in post-rock these days. The song 'Like Herod' is almost shoegazing in places, with its crashing dissonance changing suddenly into nothing. This album shows Mogwai's loud/quiet dymanic off, and that alone makes it a worth-listen.

Amesoeurs Amesoeurs

Post-punk mixed with black metal? Sure thing. Amesoeurs is a dark and cryptic band. They also have Neige (from the previously mentioned Alcest) working with their music. It's a very dark, sobering experience you have depressive black metal riffs over 1980s post-punk vocals; and there are a few post-punk songs thrown in to balance out the black metal. Amazing album; shame they're never releasing anything again.

Gorguts Obscura

This album will rip your face off. Not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for newcomers to the metal genre. This is over an hour of some of the most technical, brutal, and shocking death metal ever recorded. I'm not even sure whether or not this album is actually death metal or not because it just borders on so many different boundaries of musical theory and technicality.

HORSE the band The Mechanical Hand

You're probably thinking that HORSE the band is lame metalcore with random Nintendo sounds. Well, I call it delicious and different post-hardcore. It's pretty standard fare stop/start sonic thrash riffs, breakdowns and hardcore vocals, but it's the use of the 8-bit keyboard that makes this album one of my favourites. Brilliant stuff.

Neurosis Through Silver in Blood

This album is the soundtrack to the apocalypse. The concept of it is about a nuclear apocalypse and it's probably one of the bleakest, most crushing albums that has ever been written by a human being. I can't describe this album in words. You honestly have to listen to it yourself to understand what I'm trying to tell you about it.

Thergothon Stream from the Heavens

The first funeral doom metal album ever recorded. This is the single most depressing album ever conceived. You just feel hopeless after listening to it; it's like the band is telling you to end your life because you're going nowhere. Weepy guitars, death growls from hell and some of, if not the worst clean vocals ever make this album unique. Another reason why more people should dip into metal.

Unbroken Life. Love. Regret.

I think this may be the best hardcore album of the 1990s. It's perfection in 40 minutes of aggressive riffs and vocals, and that's all that really needs to be said about the album.

Katatonia Brave Murder Day

Death/doom metal that's much better than My Dying Bride. I used to be a fan of the newer Katatonia albums but I've got to say that Brave Murder Day is an absolute masterpiece of doom metal. Yet another reason why more people should open up to metal; I can't stress this enough. Sometimes there's beauty in brutality, and Brave Murder Day is one of those albums.

GZA/Genius Liquid Swords

This album is my favourite hip-hop record ever. It's so perfect: it has the lyrics, flow and attitude that make a brilliant hip-hop album. It's an album I put on whenever I want to relax and just enjoy some music that's not crashing through my ears.

dalek Abandoned Language

Noise-hop, industrial hip-hop, shoegaze hip-hop; simply put, this album is an amalgamation of various influences including Einsturzende Neubaten, Merzbow, and My Bloody Valentine. The atmosphere is dark and brooding and the lyrics reflect this; dealing with hard-to-get subject matter wrapped up in great lyrical hangers.

The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream

This album feels a little out-of-place in a top 25 dominated by some obscure music oddities. However, Siamese Dream is a favourite of mine because it's some straight-up, take no prisoners alternative rock from its heyday, the 1990s. It has everything that makes an alternative rock album awesome: it changes genres, it has those awesomely crunchy distorted guitars with feedback and its subject matter is dark and angsty; all wrapped up with some of the best lyrics ever written in alternative rock history.

Warning Watching From a Distance

Warning is a band that makes you feel that there's no hope. Watching From a Distance is unrelentingly slow, massively heavy and deeply gloomy. Warning's funeral-like pace is garnished with the introspective lyrics and poignant vocals of Patrick Walker, who sings about the melancholy that human beings face in life. I keep saying this, but this album is another one of those gems that make it worthwhile for non-metal fans to dip their feet into the sea of metal music.

Anata - The Infernal Depths of Hatred

Anata is a band that surprised me with their debut. Anata's debut (this) album is made up of some of the most mind-blowing technical death metal ever written. It's proficient and melodic full of rich harmonies and awesome solos. I place it on the pedestal of technical death metal perfection it's not soulless [bleep]ery like a lot of bands in the scene, and it strikes a sense of awe that you'd never thought you'd feel whilst listening to this type of music.

Thanks for reading!

I recently got into The Conductor's Departutre by Anata, so I'll have to check out The Infernal Depths of Hatred (you got the name wrong - http://www.metal-archives.com/release.php?id=7355).

They're definitely up there with the best in tech-death.

I only knew a few of those bands and such, and only one of those albums would be one my list.

only album i would have on your list is GZA - Liquid Swords

I cant beleive you have that but you don't have wu-tang clan's 36 chambers

I have never heard of most of the bands in your list, but after reading your descriptions I will make it a point to check them out (the ones that are available on Spotify anyway). Nice read!

I'm with you on about 10 of those albums, the rest are just "meh" for me. But then again, albums that influence people are completely subjective. Thanks for making a list :thumbup:

It's hard to say something about this list for me, since I haven't heard of like 75% of that list. I will try and listen to some of the metal things you've recommended.

I haven't heard 75% of your list, but I'll check it out.

Good list, I like most of the stuff I've heard off there, and at least heard of most of the bands. I'll probably be checking out some of the ones I haven't heard, though for some reason My Bloody Valentine doesn't really do anything for me, so I'm a bit hesitant about the shoegaze.

Good list, I like most of the stuff I've heard off there, and at least heard of most of the bands. I'll probably be checking out some of the ones I haven't heard, though for some reason My Bloody Valentine doesn't really do anything for me, so I'm a bit hesitant about the shoegaze.

Good stuff. There is actually a few albums on here that I really want to put on my top list when I get the chance. :thumbup: (I'm sure you can guess some of them).

I've actually heard of a lot of these bands. I really need to try out MBV though and shogaze in general. I've been pretty lazy with getting new music lately but I plan on really hitting it hard this summer. :)

Also I like that you mentioned Alcest. I heard some of his material before and then forgot his name. Awesome.

 

 

Alcest Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde

 

 

 

I used to think that this album was really uninspiring and boring. I was a fool. This album is simply breathtaking. Alcest was formerly a black metal project but Neige switched over to shoegaze due to a dislike of the goings on in the black metal scene. A good thing he did.

 

 

 

 

Gorguts Obscura

 

 

This album will rip your face off. Not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for newcomers to the metal genre. This is over an hour of some of the most technical, brutal, and shocking death metal ever recorded. I'm not even sure whether or not this album is actually death metal or not because it just borders on so many different boundaries of musical theory and technicality.

 

 

HORSE the band The Mechanical Hand

 

 

 

You're probably thinking that HORSE the band is lame metalcore with random Nintendo sounds. Well, I call it delicious and different post-hardcore. It's pretty standard fare stop/start sonic thrash riffs, breakdowns and hardcore vocals, but it's the use of the 8-bit keyboard that makes this album one of my favourites. Brilliant stuff.

 

Good man. I know at least 15 of the bands you mentioned, but I haven't necessarily paid all that much attention to them, or I haven't heard the album you mentioned. Definitely going to use this list as a basis for albums to check out next.

illmatic- nas

life after death -biggie

illmatic- nas

 

 

 

life after death -biggie

What?!?!

if these two albums were not on his list then it is not a list.

if these two albums were not on his list then it is not a list.

:lol:

if these two albums were not on his list then it is not a list.

Apparently you didn't read the title then.