Five albums that changed your life

1. Nightwish - some best of :
my friend introduced me to metal via Nightwish, because he knew of my sensitivity (read : dislike black or death metal). Without this band I would not have gone on to listen to prog metal and prog rock.

2. Pendragon - Not of this world :
my first neo-prog rock album, and still one of my favourite. With this album, I quickly started listening to Pendragon, which is now my favourite band with Riverside.

3. The Who - Who's next :
my parents put it in the car every time we went on vacations, as a young teenager. Without my parents' taste for 70's rock and The Who, I wouldn't have gone on to be keen on 70's rock myself.

4. Riverside - Second Life Syndrome :
listened to it on a plane by night... What a impression it made on me ! I have since become a Riverside fan.

5. Pink Floyd - The Dark side of the moon :
for all the reason mensionned for each album above.

Many, but perhaps these were the most important.
1) Genesis Live.
This album got me into music. Not only how it sounded, but also the pictures on it in the strange light. I just loved the eerie guitar tones in the quiet part of "The Knife".
2) Gong - You.
This album made me want to become a drummer; it definitely had an enormous influence on me.
3) Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn.
I loved the contrast between the fast and, compared to the other side of the album, heavy music and the dreamy sounds and voice of  Rosi on the other. The album that got me into Krautrock.
4) Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time.
The album that got me into Hawkwind. I loved the "brain saw" sound of the keyboard in "Assault and Battery - The Golden Void" and all the other freaky stuff.
5) Tangerine Dream - Alpha Centauri.
I loved the whole album, but especially "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola"; I imagined a comet crashing into a planet on this one.

Well let me start with a disclaimer. I've always been a fan of classic 60's and 70's rock. When I was eight years old I became a fan of metal. Throughout highschool those forms of music where all that I listened to. I became a big fan of Rush, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull during my junior year. I didn't know they where considered prog until barely two years ago. One of my best freinds that I met at community college liked Rush, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull alot and informed me of prog as a genre and other bands that I should check out. So this list is a mix of prog, metal and classic rock.

Hmm. Not as drastic as the thread title suggests, but albums that were my embryonic prog interest, and thus transformed me into an elitist music geek wasting too much time here (joke) (or is it?) (joke again) (OR IS IT?) :

Kansas - Song For America
Rush - 2112
Yes - Fragile
Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards
Jethro Tull - Aqualung

or something like that.

  

ClemofNazareth wrote: The energy this album exudes is incredible, and all the songs are timeless. If you have to ask, you won't get it. Made for a powerful soundtrack to an interesting time in my life.

I second the vote on Chicago II - a classic in jazz-rock fusion (do we get an "Amen" from Dick Heath?)  I also "get it" regarding Heart's first album - truly under-rated as far as pseudo-prog goes.  Definitely, you nailed it with Marillion's MC - probably my all-time favorite album from them, and from the 1980s in general...

Mmm...life changing. Good idea for a thread!

1. Dark Side Of The Moon - When I was around 16 years old, I was searching through my Dad's LP collection looking for something to listen to. I had never been much of a music fan before but I was curious to find something worth listening to. I ran across this striking album cover with no wording on it. I took it to my room and put it on the turntable. The record was scratchy as hell, but the strange vibe and laid-back, dreamy sounds came through loud and clear. I fell deeply in love with the album over the next couple of weeks and listened to it over and over until I had to buy the cassette tape and hear the music without the pops and cracks. This led me on a voyage of musical discovery over the next couple of years wherein I slowly acquired the entire Pink Floyd discography. Remember, this was before the internet and, living in a small town, most of the albums were tough to come by. This was a magical time in my life.


2. Yes - Classic Yes. A compilation, but it definitely changed my life. And it won't be the only compilation on my list. I was working at a Pizza Hut in my late teens. I had this really cool boss who had a CD collection numbering in the thousands and a $20,000 hi-fi home theater system (laserdisc baby!). We struck up a friendship and one day we were talking about music at work and he said, "If you're into Floyd, check out some other bands like Yes and ELP". I took his advice and went to the Wal-mart looking for some Yes to buy. All they had was Classic Yes so I scooped it up and went home to put it on my new CD player (this was one of my very first CD's). I was instantly blown away! If I remember correctly, "Heart of the Sunrise" is track 1 on that CD, and, well, you can imagine my reaction. Here was a band with music as adventurous and epic as Floyd but with the ability to play circles around any other band I'd ever heard. I started to seek out new albums, not just by Yes, but by all the classic prog bands. The rest is history.


3. Rush - Chronicles. Yep, another compilation. I had always liked the little I'd heard from Rush as my older brother and one of my uncles had been fans while I was growing up. That same uncle told me one day, "If you're into Yes, start buying some Rush albums."
Man, I'm glad I did! I decided to go with Chronicles as it was a good cross section of their career to that point. I wasn't sure which "era" would be for me. I fell in love with disc 1 and started from the beginning as far as filling in the discography. It took me a few years to begin to love the later stuff as well.


4. Genesis - The Lamb. I had already bought Nursery Cryme, then Foxtrot, but it hadn't clicked for me yet. I just couldn't put my finger on why, and to this day, I'm still not sure why I didn't like those albums at first as they're two that I absolutely love now.
But when my uncle (the same one as above) put on The Lamb one day while I was at his house, it finally clicked. From the first piano diddles to the end of disc 1 (we only listened to disc 1 that day), I was enthralled. I think part of it was the sound. It was so much more dynamic sounding than the two albums I had previously heard. That nasty, massive bass sound particularly fascinated me.
After I bought the CD for myself, I bought Selling England, and again I loved it from the start. I decided to give Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot another chance, and I could finally see the brilliance. And again, the rest is history.
The Lamb isn't even in my top 3 or 4 Genesis albums now, but it's the one that started the fascination for me.


5. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia. After discovering ProgArchives, I started to explore some of the highly regarded bands here that I had never heard of before. By far, my favorite discovery was Porcupine Tree, and the first CD I got was In Absentia. I immediately liked "Blackest Eyes", "Trains", and "The Sound of Muzak" especially. This led me to exploring more of their back catalog. And yet again, the rest is history. They are now my favorite modern band bar none.


Sorry for writing a book.

My Five:
De- Loused In The Comatorium - The Mars Volta- This album started my prog career off, yes a new band. From begining to end what a amazing roller coaster of a album.

Lateralus - Tool - This is know as the Tool Masterpiece and it is, the music is so powerful on this album, Still I have never hared such beautiful dark music.

2112 - Rush - This was my introduction to the greatest porg trio of all time. The title track speaks for itself. All three memebers display such great musicanship. And this band is very dear to my musical heart.

Red - King Crimson - Not my first KC album, but this album really intoduced to the dark side of prog. The last album of my favorite KC lineup. Brufrod,Fripp and Wetton..... and it could not get any better.

Panopticon - ISIS - This album introduced me to the post metal scene. My brother lent me this cd and i was amazed. I never heard a metal band sound like this. The atmosphere is like nothing else. Very epic music,now the post metal genere is a fave of mine.

Wow, five that changed my life. That's tough because there are so many. Okay, right off the top of my head:

Edited by meptune - June 17 2009 at 02:58

Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros


Deadwing - Porcupine Tree (Before this album, I didnt really listen to music)


Close to the Edge - Yes


The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place - Explosions In the Sky


( ) - Sigur Ros

---Honorable Mentions (Other albums I considered while making a top 5)---
Between Now and Then - O.A.R.
F# A# Infinity - GY!BE
Lift Your Skinny Fists... - GY!BE
Ghost Reveries - Opeth
Part the Second - Maudlin of the Well
Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue - Kayo Dot
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
Per Un Amico - PFM
In Rainbows - Radiohead
Fear of a Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree
Crack the Sky - Crack the Sky
10000 Days - Tool