Did you dig your favorite album at first listen?

Dark side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Genesis - Foxtrot

I got these albums in 1973 when i was 11 & they really did blow me away!!! First time into prog as my cousin who was 5 years older played these albums to me.

        so where do we begin
        and what else can we say?
        when the lines are all drawn
        what should we do today?


it was the summer of 1997. i was just getting into prog metal with bands like Dream Theater, PoS, Mekong Delta and stuff. but there was always a special band which i had a soft spot in my heart for: Fates Warning. Jim Matheos' songs of Parallels and Inside Out really got me. but at that time things weren't looking that good.. Frank Aresti and Joe DiBiase - both members from the start and at least 50% responsible for the sound i loved - had left the band. the previous LP had released in 1993. and now what? i know i could trust Matheos, Alder and Zonder but how would it sound like? and i kinda figured out that since Aresti had left, Matheos would write all the music. i hadn't listened to a single note in advnace. all i knew was that it would be a concept album of a single 55-minute song. 'ambitious', i thought. and that the producer would be Peter Collins, well known from his productions for Rush.
anyway, when A Pleasant Shade Of Gray was finally released i didn't buy it at once for the reasons mentioned. then, i read a review in a magaziine: 10/10! still, i couldn't know what it sounded like cause the review was very 'sentimental' and didn't describe it at all. but, since i trusted the guy who wrote it, i went out and got it.

OH, MY GOD!!!!

it was (and still is) the best album ever! Matheos free from Aresti was able to achieve perfection! it's the best concept, the best artwork, the best production, the best lyrics, the best drumming, the best music i had ever heard..

   close our eyes awhile
   as mornig shadows play
   and listen to the rain
   wash the long night away

   face to face we'll awake
   to see another day
   and with hope in our hearts
   embrace this shade of gray

   this pleasant shade of gray...

Edited by toolis - September 28 2007 at 09:08

It was 'in the court of the crimson king'

Well, my fave is The Lamb...first heard it at age hmm...maybe 12 or 13?

Bought it cuz I heard the title track on our local rock station and liked it. I remember listening to it a few times and really only liking a handful of tracks...came back to it a few years later and haven't looked back. Brilliant.

Atavachron wrote: micky wrote: Atavachron wrote: didn't dig it, didn't understand it... but that's what happens when you hear Tarkus at the age of nine sucker!!!! ... I was diggin Sister Sledge, Abba, the Bee Gees, and Donna Summer at that age,  thinking about all the coke and wild women I'd find when I got older you were way ahead of me

I came up short at the finish though

I was confused and scared the first listen of Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle. I didnt know what was happening. I just happened to stumble on the album on accident and later realized that this was an Avant-garde masterpiece!

didn't dig it, didn't understand it... but that's what happens when you hear Tarkus at the age of nine

Relayer - Yes


It did take a few weeks to grow on me, and I did lose my attention in some spots, but all in all, it BLEW ME AWAY!!!

With most prog albums, it will take some time to sink in. But Yessongs was an immediate kick in the ears!

My favorite progressive rock album is In Absentia, and when I first listened to it, I knew it was amazing and it was very special! 

Edited by darkmatter - September 25 2007 at 17:23