Guns N Roses
This was the album that made me want to be a musician. When I was a kid, all you could hear on the radio were bands like Staind, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Creed, etc. Nothing about those bands appealed to me, so I was not into music that much. That is, until I rediscovered this masterpiece. I was a little kid when my older brothers played this nonstop back when it first came out, so I had pretty much forgotten about it by the time I was a teenager. I found a tape of the album and decided to play it back for old time's sakes. Little did I know that it would change the course of my life forever. The awesome guitar played by Slash and Izzy, the primal beats layed down by Steven Adler, the thunderous bass of Duff, and Axl's banshee screams sold me from the first song. Also, check this picture out and tell me it doesn't just scream Rock and Roll:
THAT is what I wanted to be when I grew older. It perfectly portrays all that I imagined a Rock Star should be. Of course, I'm not glorifying the lifestyle anymore, especially after I found out about all the drugs and stuff, but at that time I thought it was awesome. I still get a smile on my face when I see this picture, though. I also love their other albums, but this is the one that marked my life more than any other.
Van Halen
I found out about Van Halen after one of my cousin's friends came over to the house and jammed on a couple of their songs. I was still in shock after getting into GNR, so when I finally got to hear this album, it was amazing. Eruption is the song that everyone talks about to this day, and with good reason. A lot of people are still trying to imitate what they hear in that glorious 1:42 that Eddie recorded on tape as an afterthought, including me. However, the entire album is pretty good as well. I like most of the albums, even the Sammy Hagar ones that every DLR fan seems to hate, but like with Appetite for Destruction, this was the first sample I had of Van Halen's genius, and it definitely changed me. Oh, and Alex Van Halen is the most underrated Rock drummer ever.
Megadeth
After getting into GNR and VH, I went through a period where I started to like other Rock and Glam bands like Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Dokken, etc. I still like to listen to those bands every now and then, but I still felt like something was missing. It's like I knew there was a whole different level of Rock and Metal out there that I still hadn't discovered. At the suggestion of some High School friends, I started to get into Metallica. It was certainly different from everything else I had heard. I came home one day after purchasing Master of Puppets, and my older cousin once again introduced me to a new band. He literally said, "Metallica's got nothing on these guys called Megadeth. If you're getting into Thrash, check THEM out." Wiser words had never been spoken. I checked out a couple of songs from this album and was FLOORED. I thought that it totally blew Metallica out of the water. Like, there was NO competition whatsoever in the guitar department. None. Zero. I still like Metallica, but Megadeth just made them seem like child's play. There are a few albums that I don't like as much, but overall, Megadeth have a pretty consistent sound, if only because Dave Mustaine is the main songwriter and only permanent member.
Queensryche
There was this show on the radio many years ago called The House of Hair, hosted by Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. He would take requests from people, talk about a band's history, some personal anecdotes, and other miscellaneous stuff. I would listen to it as often as I could, trying to discover any other bands that I could get into. One of those times, he played a song called Eyes of a Stranger. I listened to the music and was surprised at how good it sounded. The vocalist rivaled Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson's operatic range, the drums sounded heavy, yet focused, the bass was powerful, and the guitar work was excellent. The production sounded very dark and foreboding, but that was to be expected given the subject matter of the lyrics. At the time, I had no idea bands did concept albums, so this was the first time I heard about how bands in a genre called Progressive tended to write albums with lyrics that told a story all the way through the album. I got into Queensryche's older albums quickly, but I'm sad to say that I'm not a fan of anything from the late 90s to the present day. Even Operation Mindcrime 2 was not that great of an album, especially when the one from the 80s sounded better production-wise.
Dream Theater
I once read an article on a magazine called Guitar One (which has been out of circulation for many years, sadly) about a guitar player named John Petrucci and his band, Dream Theater. He gave a lesson on some of the techniques he used, talked about his band, etc. I decided to check them out, and at first, I didn't get it. The songs seemed way to long for me. I'm not saying I thought they were bad or that I didn't like them, just long. The flow of ideas was nonstop, new riffs and directions were explored constantly within the same song, and that threw me off. I was especially intrigued because I was not able to keep a constant beat when listening to them. One day, it just clicked. I was able to follow their arrangements and make sense out of them. I thought they were brilliant, and I still do. Every album is different from the last, but these guys never cease to surprise me. Needless to say, this is the band responsible for getting me into writing in odd time signatures.
There are other bands and artists that I like and that influence me, like Iron Maiden, Fates Warning, Jason Becker, and Porcupine Tree. However, I would say that these 5 bands are the main ones when it comes to trying to figure out what Tainted Equilibrium is all about.
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