Favorite albums of all time?

In my opinion, one of the best and most influential metal albums of all time, for better or worse influencing the next decade of a huge number of metal bands in a major way. None of those bands had a singer like Patton to pull off what they were trying to do though. A band that had a huge breakthrough finally on their previous album gave everyone expecting more of the same a huge middle finger. Incredibly divisive at the time, but opened up the concept of what a band could do for me in a huge way. Still totally holds up from start to finish.



Rush rules, period. But as a bass player, this one is pretty insane. Yes it is peak keyboard era Rush (at least tied with Grace Under Pressure) and on this one, it feels like Geddy seized every moment that wasn't keyboard heavy to go totally insane on his bass lines. This album was probably the single biggest influence on how I started approaching the role of bass in a band.



One of the best lineups of musicians around, and they went out on every limb possible. Completely different from their debut, the kind of album that forces you to pay attention and wonder what the fuck led this band to record almost every song on the album. I would say this is probably my number one all time favorite album, again hugely influencing how I thought about music. I even had a college level music theory professor tell me "you aren't supposed to write music like that, it doesn't follow any rules". Uh huh.

Staredog said:

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That is indeed a fantastic album. Good one.

Alex said:

First time ever seeing an album from Rush's worst era on an all time album list.

Soundgarden - Superunknown
Steven Wilson - Raven that Refused to Sing
Dream Theater - Scenes From a Memory
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork
Muse - Absolution
pretty much all the "classic era" Stevie Wonder albums
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Rush - Farewell to Kings
first Rage Against The Machine album
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
King's X self titled album

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Been thinking about this one for a bit and most of these are extremely close to ones I would pick:

Soundgarden - Superunknown; I don't know how much we listened to this in school. In 10th grade or 11th grade I even did a reading of Fell On Black Days in AP English class.
Dream Theater - Scenes From a Memory absolutely. Even though Images and Words was my first introduction to DT, Scenes from a Memory is my standout and I can listen to it non-stop. It really propelled me further down the Aeryon and other band rabbit holes.
Muse - Absolution; I'd actually pick Showbiz here just because we got it when it came out in college and wouldn't shut up about Muse to our friends. No one took us seriously or wanted to hear about this "FUTURE ROCK" which is the only way we could describe it. Muscle Museum and Uno go worn out on our dorm stereo.
Rush - Farewell to Kings; That's too difficult to pick. Caress of Steel or Fly By Night would be my immediate go-to, but no way can I pick a single Rush album.

Other things I would include:

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime; there's a theme between Rush, Queensryche, Dream Theater of me getting really in to concept albums, and it still exists today beacuse...
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth III; About the only thing I like more than H&K firearms is Coheed.
Pain - Midgets With Guns; This was a local band that was our first real "roadie" style experience. We'd travel all around the SE to see them. Just a small band out of a small Alabama town but we were in High School and they were so cool.
Self - Subliminal Plastic Motives; Another small band from Murfreesboro, TN that we traveled all over to see. Spongebath Records was a great label with a lot of cool bands.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads; I could put Tool - Opiate, Korn - Korn, and a couple of others here. I had an unhealthy childhood and resonated with some dark, angry stuff due to that. I still love all these albums but view them very different than I did back as a 14-16 year old.
KMFDM - Angst; Light and A Drug Against War are incredible. I liked Rage, a lot, but skewed different on the sort of political output.
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes; I don't know, this is another one where so many artists could go during this phase of my life...

A lot of other ones that got me through some rough times. This is a difficult road to go down and capture everything!