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Nirvana - Nevermind - Was there anybody who grew up in the 90's that didn't own this album? This is the album that got me into music in general. It was the first album I owned, along with Offspring - Smash, Soundgarden - Superunknown, and Silverchair - Frogstomp.
Metallica - ...And Justice For All - This album set into motion the events that define who I am today. I had heard Enter Sandman and the Black Album before I heard this album, and I just wasn't really interested in Metallica. After I heard "One", though, I had to have this album, and then subsequently bought every album released before it. This album made me start playing guitar, and start growing my hair long. When I moved out of state (I was 13 years old), I didn't have any friends and only had my guitar and Metallica albums. They kind of shaped my personality and outlook on life in general. When I was a little older, I joined a band and experienced a lot of... experiences. I give this album credit for almost everything that happened to me after I got it.
Primus - Frizzle Fry - For a period of time after Metallica, I was very close-minded when it came to listening to music. I only listened to metal, anything that wasn't metal was pussy shit (pardon my language but I had to accentuate the immaturity of that statement). My older brother introduced me to this album and it just blew me away. It showed me that music can be awesome, and not be metal. Because of that, I started giving other bands a chance, and it just kind of opened up a whole new world of music to me. A musical epiphany if you will. Even after Primus' magic has dwindled, Les Claypool still manages to churn out the same musical genius on his solo albums that made Primus special.
In Flames - Colony - This isn't my favorite In Flames album, but this is the first In Flames album I ever heard, and it reassured me that metal is, in fact, NOT dead, or dying for that matter. It was during a sad period in metal: Metallica cut off all of their hair, and started releasing rehashes of the same music over, and over, and over. (I'm sorry, but Load and Reload are basically remakes of the black album). Megadeth started getting really pretentious and silly (Risk, anyone?) Pantera was on a long break, and their last album was just not that great (Reinventing the Steel). Sepultura turned into a nu-metal Korn-ripoff band. I was convinced that metal was in its final death throes, and then In Flames came riding in, on their shimmering steed, and pulled me from the wasteland of mainstream metal. Through In Flames, I found out about many other Swedish metal bands that were also excellent, i.e. Soilwork, Arch Enemy, and Dark Tranquillity. Then, that branched out to other Scandinavian metal bands, i.e. Children of Bodom, Amorphis, Ensiferum, Kalmah, the list goes on and on. In Flames showed me that metal will never be dead.
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