Your Music Evolution

Well I have jumped from genre to genre trying to fin new things to absorb and enjoy. I start with as far back as I can remember, and when my musical evolutions really took off. I'll list bands/artists I feel were stepping stones.

Back in my early teens, in middle school was around the time music became enjoyable for me.

Korn - Yeah, this was a group I loved back in the 90's, my younger brother actually got me interested. This would later help propel me into harder stuff, but I rarely ever listen to them anymore.

Stabbing Westward - Another group I discovered during my Korn phase was this. I found their album, Darkest Days, to be very good. Solid instrumentation, decent vocals, a good mix, a good group. I still listen to them from time to time, but I often have them on a backburner for top songs.

Video Game Music - For a period of several years and most all of high school, VGM was my music obsession. I built A huge album collection, ranging from games I had played to games I hadn't but liked the music. It is still my largest area of music, but slowly others are catching up. Haven't had many new VGM albums as of late.

Billy Joel - I can thank my dad for introducing me to this guy. It was late in high school when I was looking through my dads old music, and found Billy Joel. I easily liked most of his work, he is a great songwriter and piano player, and not a bad vocalist. I still listen to him from time to time.

Porcupine Tree - This was after high school, but a friend of mine reccommended that I listen to this band. I picked up their newest album at the time, In Absentia, and I was hooked. The lyrics were good, the musicianship was flawless, a good mix of progressive and rock elements. I eventuall spread out and started getting their older, more experimental albums, and they are still a favorite of mine today.

King Crimson - I found out about this group from a friend, and I went and bought the album Red, and became addicted, this was one of the godfathers of Prog rock, and still in heavy rotation with my other music.

Dream Theater - This band I found out about a bit after finding Porcupine Tree, a bit different in style, but I grew to love DT as Well. I began with Scenes From A Memory, and it is my favorite album to this day from them. Though, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence comes close. This band was a platform to my current music obssession, Metal.

Metallica Yeah, I had heard them earlier in my life, but for the first time, I actually enjoyed them. I got most of their albums in a quick span of time, and the quickly became a good group for me, I haven't listened to them as much as of late.

Opeth - This was a bit of a long call for me at first. I had heard metal before, mostly thrash/speed metal, but I decided to expand my horizons. So I come across a song from Opeth, Harvest from Blackwater Park, and I really liked it. So I bought the album, and along came my first understanding of the growling vocals. I had a bit of adjusting to do to like it, but in time, I branched out even further into the death/black metal underground.

Sunn 0))) - After playing around with the black metal scene for some time, I discovered doom metal, specifically Sunn 0))). It struck me as odd first, like a mix of death metal with post rock, both ambient yet chilling. This expanded my views on metal even further, and now I really like the doom genre one of the most unique metal types.

Kamelot - I had heard some power metal before, but I mostly did not like what I heard. So I cross this album, Epica, one day at a music store, and just for fun, decided to purchase it, not knowing what to expect. I was surprised when it came to be one of my favorite albums of all time though. Everything about this band clicks with me, the guitars, the drumming, and I must say, Roy Khan is now one of my favorite vocalists. The album was awesome, nary a song I deemed as skip-worthy, so I went and gobbled up their other albums, even the ones with their old vocalist, though he is not as good. This is one of my all time favorite groups now.


There is much more in this cycle, but these were the important steps, my collection of over 14,000 song would have not been possible without evolution. My biggest area is till VGM, which trumps my second biggest genre metal, by several thousand songs. There's even some genres I did not mention such as classical, jazz, ambient, noise, and folk that I also enjoy. Most of my music is just diverse to say the least.

Jam it back in, in the dark.