Music has had a significant impact on my life for as long as I can remember.

Growing up, my parents always had music playing in our vehicles, often country like Johnny Cash, but as I got older, other things grabbed my attention.

I can still vividly remember two key moments in my young, music life.

The first was the Christmas I received a CD player boom box and 3 CDs. It was the first time I’d been given music as a gift, and it changed my life. I had that CD player for a few years before upgrading to the mega 6-disc changer!

Those first 3 CDs? Tiffany’s Greatest Hits, Alan Jackson’s ‘A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ’bout Love),’ and Tom Petty’s ‘Into the Great Wide Open.’ I played those albums an insane amount in my bedroom, singing along at the top of my lungs.

The second key music moment was hearing our neighbour’s son – Bob Moody Jr. – blasting White Zombie’s ‘La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One’ maybe a year later. Bob was a few years older than I was, and he was the cool guy in my small town. At least in my eyes. He used to catwalk his BMX up and down the road in front of our house and on weekends he’d always have parties – teenagers galore with loud music blasting. He would lend me CDs of his (just like how his mom would lend me her Stephen King books) and his heavy metal loving music mind definitely influenced what I liked. I borrowed countless albums from him. From White Zombie to GnR to Rainbow Butt Monkeys to Bon Jovi and Judas Priest.

Not long after, I discovered Columbia House and from there, my music taste evolved and expanded. (If you’re not aware of what Columbia House was, it was a mail in CD/Cassette business, where you got like 30 CD’s for free to start with and then had to buy 5 over the next few years to fulfill your contract. It was amazing!)

So, while trying to figure out some content for here, I realized that I’d not spent much time sharing the music I love.

I’ve chosen 30 albums that I absolutely adore, though there are far more albums out there that could’ve easily made the list. Some I kept out simply because I wanted to only chose 30 and do three posts. Like The Crow soundtrack. What an amazing batch of songs that album has.

Today, I’m sharing the first two on my list (Which was put together without any particular order of which are my more favs of the others.). For each album, I’ll share how I came to discover the album and some of my fav tracks on the album!

Without further ado, here are the first two albums on my list.

Knocked Loose – A Different Shade of Blue – 2019

I’d previously heard Kentucky’s hardcore punk/metal band Knocked Loose on Liquid Metal before, with their song ‘Billy No Mates,’ and while I didn’t mind it, it didn’t grab me. That changed when their song ‘Mistakes Like Fractures’ was released, and I couldn’t help but bang my head.

It was frenetic, chaotic and an absolute monster, though in comparison to some of the other tracks on the album, it’s not even as heavy as they are. Usually, I’m not a fan of the vocalists screamo approach, for this album, and the subsequent releases they’ve had, it’s grown on me.

From the opening boom of ‘Belleville’ to the insanity that is ‘Forget Your Name’ which has a legendary guest appearance by Keith Buckley, the album simply fucking slams. Their subsequent EP’s and Albums have been solid, but ‘A Different Shade of Blue’ – in my opinion at least – is their perfect album.

Stand out tracks – ‘By the Grave,’ ‘Guided by the Moon’ & ‘Forget Your Name.’

Live – not yet!

Six Feet Under – Haunted – 1995

One of the first albums I ever snagged from Columbia House – which was purely because of the cover art – SFU’s ‘Haunted’ has been in constant rotation for me ever since it arrived. I wasn’t a fan of Cannibal Corpse back then, had never even really heard them before, so I wasn’t aware of who Chris Barnes was or that he’d been kicked out of CC or any of that drama. All I was aware of was when the first song – ‘The Enemy Inside’ – kicked in, I was in for a treat, and the album never relents. To this day, I still think this is the best SFU album they’ve released, though there are many, many solid releases in their discography. Barnes previously said that this album was Death ‘n’ Roll, and I have to agree. Mid-paced for the most part, each song chugs along and delivers atmospherically. There are a few faster bangers as well, but this showcases the band just as they rocketed into stardom and when Barnes was arguably the best death metal vocalist on the planet.

Stand out tracks – ‘Still Alive,’ ‘Human Target,’ & ‘Haunted.’

Live – sadly no!