Five albums that changed your life

Yes: Fragile    (First prog album I ever bought. That was in the mid eighties)

King Crimson: In the court of the crimson king    (Guaranteed that I always be a prog fan)

Rush: Permanent waves    (Before listening to this album I thought Rush was lame heavy-band...)

Le Orme: Felona e sorona    (First really impressive theme(conceptual)-album that I heard)

Riverside: Out of myself    (It hit so hard when i listened to it for the first time, that I would remain Riverside-fan even if it would have been their only 'gem'... fortunately other gems followed)

following some sort of timeline:

Incubus - Make Yourself



The first band I fell in love with was Incubus, and what an amazing record Make Yourself is. I guess it was like, 10 years ago when I first listened to this album and I still love it how I did back in those school days.

Helloween - Keeper of the seven keys part II



Oh man so many memories come to my head with this album. Amazing record, great and funny songs. A completely enjoyable ride and one of my favourite metal closers ever. Also, Michael Kiske was a big inspiration for me in my singing (2 years ago I could sing almost every Helloween song, now I have some problems with the high notes due to cigarretes )

Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy



My first prog metal record. Nothing to say here.

Pain of Salvation - Entropia



Amazing record and one of my favorites thus far. It was the first PoS record I bought, and really got me into prog.

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King



Well my first prog rock record. Completely changed my perception of music.

I can't say that any album changed my life outside of music so I will try to fulfill the requirements of this thread as best I can.

1.
Paradox Hotel - The Flower Kings:
This is the first album I ever anticipated. I bought it on it's release date, which was a particularly beautiful spring day. I got home from high school, instantly hopped in my car and drove to my local FYE. I hadn't preordered or requested this at all and in retrospect I shouldn't have expected them to carry it. Luckily they did. I put it on in the car, instantly fell in love with it, drove to a park on the lakefront and sat on a bench listening for a couple hours. I now equate the album with a beautiful warm sunny day. Some specific songs also have other thoughts tied with them. Fantastic day.

2.Fragile - Yes:
The first prog album I ever listened to (it happened to be on vinyl). In the spring of 2004, I was at the tender age of 14. My friends and I would usualy spend time after school at Brian's house. One spring day we were outside doing whatever kids that age do and Kyle decided to put on some music. He had a CD with "Yours is No Disgrace," "Starship Trooper," " I've Seen All Good People," and "Don't Stop Believin," "Separate Ways," "Lights" and "Anyway You Want It" by Journey. The Yes portion of that CD was my first introduction to prog. I brought it up at home and my mom had Fragile and Close To The Edge on vinyl. I listened to Fragile first and loved it.

3.
Lizard - King Crimson:
This was my first introduction to a jazzy sound in music. I loved the sax and thought it was all instantly accessible outside of the titular track. It was fall of 2004 and my friend Aaron had gotten this album one day then lent me a burnt copy the next day (although at the time I didn't know it was the next day). After I had given the album a listen, I jokingly accosted him in the halls (I still remember quite well where) and questioned him as to why he kept such a musical gem from my ears.

4.
MDK - Magma
My first introduction to Zeuhl. I heard "Da Zeuhl Wortz Mekanïk" from the free mp3 stream here on PA to try expand my horizons and I liked it fairly quickly. I got the album shortly thereafter and got pretty much what I was expecting. Not particularly memorable or anything but it introduced me to one of prog's more obscure genres so I guess that's good.

5.
And I really can't think of a fifth one. MDK was even tough to think of and I'm not entirely sure it deserves a place on this list. Maybe "Meet The Flower Kings" because I have never fallen in love with a song quicker (less than a second with the opening track "The Truth Will Set You Free." Sophomore year of high school probably late fall of 2004), maybe "Wish You Were Here" as the biggest letdown. I really don't know. Also, no non-prog album can be in here. I have probably less than 20 non-prog CDs, and I can count on a hand how many I actually like.


Edited by TheCaptain - September 28 2009 at 14:49

So I've been watching this thread bounce across the main forum page for a few weeks now and never really had anything constructive to add.  I could never think of any one album that truly changed my life or had a life changing impact.  Sure, there's a slew of albums that have strongly influenced my musical tastes but I couldn't think of anything that actually had a profound and life changing impact on me . . . until last night.

I rented a concert video from one of my favorite bands and was instantly taken back to high school, my very formative years if you will.  As I watched the video I realized that my sense of fashion was still rooted in the late eighties.  Every day I wear a jacket to work, at times with a pair of jeans.  I prefer the dark jacket with a white shirt or turtle neck.  Generally an upscale look, and it all comes from what I will now consider a life changing album:



Yes, for as derided as it is on this website, Invisible Touch was probably the most influential album in my life.  This really was the moment in my life when I adopted so many of my current mannerisms, yet I hadn't considered it until I saw the video last night.  The video for the title track and Tonight Tonight Tonight in particular were both examples of how a band should look. 

And yes, even today I accept that the song Invisible Touch is a little cheesy and that the album itself is not on the same level as some of their earlier works, but you know what . . . at that time and place, they were amazing and, apparently, highly influential.

Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny
Queensryche - Operation:Mindcrime
Dream Theatre - Images & Words
King Crimson - Three Of A perfect Pair
Rush - Signals

1. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour.  The Beatles were the band that really got me into music.  I was obsessed with them.  While I owned Anthology 2 first, MMT is the first "real" Beatles album I had.

2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon.  Floyd was my second musical love and DSOTM is probably the album that cemented that for me.

3. Savatage - Streets.  While I don't really enjoy them much anymore, and the band has done a lot of things to irritate me, this album really opened up the world of metal to me and melodramatic type stuff.  From this I really got into european power metal, thrash metal, etc. 

4. Dream Theater - Images and Words - DT became possibly my all time favorite band and got me into modern prog.  After this came Spock's Beard, Shadow Gallery, and lots of others...

5. Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Blacknuss.  This got me to really start looking into jazz (along with Mingus Black Saint and the Sinner Lady).

Edited by mystic fred - September 26 2009 at 03:02

BLACK SABBATH ~ Paranoid
YES ~ Close to the Edge
PINK FLOYD  ~  Animals
IRON MAIDEN ~ Piece of Mind
MORBID ANGEL ~ Covenant

there are really sooo many others I'd like to add ( Rainbow ~ Rising , ELP ~ Tarkus etc. ) but oh well....

but just recently in the last week  
ANEKDOTEN ~ Vemod ( just got me back into prog again in a big way )

Edited by PeyoteWereWolf - September 24 2009 at 06:41