Five Albums That Changed My Life

History

"[T]ell us about the five albums that changed your life," says Islander. It sounds like the kind of question an amateur interviewer would ask. Because it's exactly the kind of question most people want the answer to. After I read the original post over at No Clean Singing, my first thought was to whip up a quick list and blast it out there in the comment form. But the question deserves more thought than that.

This isn't, "What are your five favorite albums?" That's pertinent information, yes. But it only tells of current taste. It doesn't tell you anything deeper. But this question asks for your history, your personality, your memories. It invites you to tell a story.

I've already done a thorough explanation of every aspect of my metal history, but how many people are going to read all of that? This breaks it down into something a little more digestible, in chronological order based on when it changed my life.

1. Metallica: Metallica (1991)

8th grade. Sleepover at my friend's house. He wanted me to hear his dad's tape, but he didn't think we were supposed to be listening to it. The first heavy chord of "Enter Sandman" forever changed me from the kind of person who did not care about music in the slightest to the kind of person who would eventually write several album reviews a week. I really can't overstate the impact this had on me. It was the first CD I ever bought, and while I don't hold it in such high regard today, nothing will ever be more significant.

Toxic Holocaust: From the Ashes of Nuclear Destruction (2013)

Compiled

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Hmmm. I am not quite sure why I am reviewing this. I did not realize it at first until listening to it for the first time that this is a compilation rather than a full-length release. I realized it finally when I kept thinking to myself "I know I have heard this song before". I guess it helps to pay attention occasionally.

Anyway, I am a big fan of Toxic Holocaust so even though this is a compilation, I enjoyed listening to it. This is a collection of tracks off of EPs and splits that the band has done over the years. Toxic Holocaust has a lot of music out there and this puts together some of the rarer tracks for easier consumption. That is what a good compilation does after all.

Vestiges / Panopticon: Vestiges / Panopticon (2013)

Splitting Vinyl

The Flenser is always out there giving it away for free in the hopes that people will feel compelled to buy the vinyl. It seems to be working out well for them. Among those releases is a Colin Marston-mastered split from Kentucky’s Panopticon and D.C.’s Vestiges.

Panopticon released the phenomenal Kentucky last year, earning the number three spot on my end-of-year list with a brilliant combination of black metal, Appalachian folk, and miner protest songs. Vestiges, on the other hand, doesn’t even have a Metal Archives page, so I went into that one blind.

Impiety: The Impious Crusade (EP 2013)

Stealing

The esteemed Metallattorney should be writing this review. He’s written about them several times. In 2009 he wrote, “Impiety has been one of the most extreme, powerful bands in underground metal for years.” And I pretty much operate on the assumption that he wants to hear everything from Hells Headbangers. Because it’s completely within his realm of expertise, and he’s expressed such admiration for them, first dibs on anything from Impiety should have, by all rights, gone to Metallattorney.

I guess he just did too good a job at selling them. He hasn’t sold me a lemon for the better part of a decade, and Impiety is no exception to that winning streak.

Kylesa: Ultraviolet (2013)

Drifting

The first time I heard the Pixies was at the end of Fight Club, and I didn’t find out the band’s name until about a year later. In other words, I was barely aware that there was such a thing as indie rock in the 90’s. Growing up in a tiny town in northeast Nebraska, I didn’t know anyone who listened to it, although I suspect my hipster cousin (who went to school in the nearby tiny city) was probably aware of it. Hell, I’m still barely aware of what indie rock is. I’ve listened to The Mountain Goats and sometimes hear whatever indie band-of-the-moment is on Letterman or some TV commercial, but that’s about it. I think Coldplay might have something to do with this conversation, but I don’t know. If you do know, and you think the references I’m making are completely off base, then all the better.

When people say that the Kylesa of today sounds like 90’s indie rock, I have only the vaguest idea what that means. It sounds right from what very little I’ve heard, but my exploring that angle would be disingenuous, asinine, and a complete waste of time. Instead, I’ll just say that I love the new Kylesa. They’re not the best metal band out there, but they are certainly one of the most unique and interesting.

Plant a Tree

I love to landscape at my house. To plant a tree and watch it thrive--there are few things better in this world. At my house I've planted a dozen or so trees and numerous bushes, and undertaken an erosion-reducing engineering project, among many other things. Our neighborhood has been in existence for 8 years, but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we've done more landscaping in the 13 months we've lived here than anyone else has done in all that time, with the possible exception of one young childless couple. We certainly have more trees than anyone else. We even owned another house in the neighborhood for 4 years, and we've done more here than we did there.

There is still more to be done.

To work with your hands and see the concrete fruits of your labor is a wonderful thing. In our modern society there are few jobs where that can be done, and that's a shame. Who takes pride in doing one small piece of a larger puzzle? Who can stand doing work if it is work that can never be complete, that needs to be done over again every single day?

If you've never done it before, or it's been a while, you need to plant a tree. Watch it grow and thrive. It is one of the greatest things you can do in this world.

Sidhe: She Is a Witch (2012)

Lacuna Mass

Around 2005, there was a time that I was really into female-fronted gothic metal. I devoured as much Nightwish and Lacuna Coil as I could find. (Don’t laugh. I heard about the stuff you were listening to.) It was a phase I outgrew quickly, but there are a handful of tracks from either band that I wouldn’t mind hearing again.

Italy’s Sidhe brings up a lot of those associations, at least with respect to Lacuna Coil. The singing style, and plenty of the music (like the riff which opens "She Is a Witch"), bears a strong resemblance to Lacuna Coil. But it also owes a good deal to Candlemass, in many other places (like “Witchcraft Way”).

Man's Gin: Rebellion Hymns (2013)

Doggamn, Don’t Let It Go

Any time you read the words “dark Americana” on this blog, you can blame Man’s Gin. Sure, I’ve always liked acoustic-electric material on the order of Alice in Chains Unplugged going back to my teenage years, but Smiling Dogs is the album that sent me down this rabbit hole. It’s the reason I listen to things like Steve Von Till, Dax Riggs, and Wovenhand nearly as much as I listen to Suffocation, Darkthrone, and Evoken.

Rebellion Hymns is the long-awaited follow-up to Smiling Dogs, and it is well worth the wait. Not only does it continue in the dark rock/country/folk of its predecessor, it builds on it.

Solothus: Summoned from the Void (2013)

A Band to Watch

I reviewed the demo from Finland’s Solothus at the end of 2011, declaring them “a band to watch.” The record was straight-forward, simple death/doom but with a lot of great things going for it. There is just something special about certain metal demos.

Now the band is signed to Memento Mori and they’ve unleashed their debut proper, Summoned from the Void. They’ve kept a lot of what you could hear on the demo: dynamic tempos from slow to mid-paced and back again, hefty death growls, and a caveman level of sophistication, to name a few. But they departed significantly from their demo in at least two key respects, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Amon Amarth: Deceiver of the Gods (2013)

We March Again to Reach Valhalla’s Mighty Royal Gates

This would be the second entirely unnecessary review in as many weeks. Instead of writing a typical review, I considered writing a vignette of a Viking battle scene. At the thought of inviting such a direct comparison between my words and the experience of hearing Amon Amarth, I decided against that option.

Deceiver of the Gods is the eighth full-length record from the mighty Amon Amarth. They only need one more to have as many albums as there are homeworlds in Norse cosmology. If you’ve got any of their previous seven records you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you don’t have any of their previous seven, you need to buy this one, buy another one, or get the Hel out of here. There’s not another way. If you don’t love Amon Amarth, then you can’t claim to be a metalhead.