SEPULTURA: MORBID VISIONSThe most obvious of these is Sepultura's Morbid Visions. I first heard this album when I was just beginning to get into Sepultura. Of course at the time, Sepultura was more of a groove/nu-metal band, so when I heard this proto-blackened death metal album, I was shocked and frankly disappointed. However, over the years, this has become one of my favorite Sepultura albums. Its rawness and brutality is the reason.
SAXON: INTO THE LABYRINTHOne of the biggest bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970's/early 1980's, Saxon is also one of the few bands from that scene to have put together a long and productive career. Nevertheless, for some reason I was just not totally impressed with this 2009 release upon the first time I heard it. However, its catchiness eventually caught up to me. This is not a completely metal album, more of a borderline hard rock/metal album and that's probably what caused me to dislike it at first.
EDGUY: TINNITUS SANCTUSGerman power metal band Edguy is kind of a weird group. I expected something along the lines of Primal Fear, Blind Guardian, Helloween, or Gamma Ray when I picked up this album, but that is definitely not what I got. What I got was something similar to Saxon's release, more of a hard rock style with little to none of the typical elements associated with German power metal. It was their sense of humor and their ability to write a good song that drew me in after my initial disappointment.
VANDERHOOF: VANDERHOOFThis was an album I received in a lot of cut-out CDs I bought from a seller on ebay one day. It was not one of the main drawing points, and in fact I had never heard of the band. Vanderhoof is the side project of Kurdt Vanderhoof, guitarist for Metal Church, so I expected something similar to Metal Church's style. Vanderhoof though was created for the guitarist to play a style more along his main influences, which was Deep Purple-style hard rock/heavy metal. It took some getting used to as I was never the biggest fan of Deep Purple, but this album really is pretty damn good.
GARDENIAN: SINDUSTRIESAfter hearing their Soulburner album, I decided I kind of liked Gardenian's brand of Swedish melodeath. It was poppy and infectious, but still pretty decent, so I picked this album up cheap. This was a complete departure though, experimenting with progressive song structures and longer songs and abandoning many of the more accessible elements of their sound. The album was challenging and different, but eventually that is what appealed to me. To the point that I realize this is the better Gardenian album.
Let's open it up. What do you think?
The two that come to mind are two that I first heard the same day. I think I discussed it on my blog, but my high school friends and I each decided to do a blind buy at Hastings one day. I picked Iced Earth's Something Wicked This Way Comes, a friend picked Death's The Sound of Perseverance, and I don't remember what my other two friends picked. Both of those albums would have been new at the time. I loved the music in both, but the vocals turned me off. About 7 or 8 years later, I picked them up again and now they are my favorite albums from those bands, which are bands I love a great deal.
ReplyDeleteWell, I can't say that I initially hated this album, but I wasn't that interested in it. I really like the album by Six Wire (I can't remember the name of it). Oh, wait. Sorry, that might be off-topic.... :)
ReplyDeleteWah wah wah.:)
ReplyDelete