10 Amazing Albums that Will Shape Your Life

As a musician, it is just as important to listen to music as it is to play it. It’s the same as being an author or any type of writer. Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read and write a lot.” Now, it is slightly different, but honestly, there are no two ways about it; if you don’t listen to music a lot, then what is the point of being a musician in the first place? The albums and artists I am about to talk about are the ones who have shaped me the most throughout my life; some of these are straight from childhood, and others are from later life and directly tied into making me realise the type of music I want to make with my band.

Again, these are some of the many choices for music lovers. I’m also going to attempt to keep this to one album per artist, but in some cases, it just hasn’t been possible, I’m afraid. I am also adding in the year each of these albums was released, as some of them have been in the game for a while, and I know some people will think they peaked after a certain point in their careers, and I just want to hammer home that isn’t the case at all.

Let’s talk about some music and albums that will shape your life. 

10. Along Came A Spider – Alice Cooper (2008)

This was the first album I had ever brought with my own money. My mum showed me Alice Cooper when I was 4, and I had her old copy of his Greatest Hits album, but that was about as far as my knowledge of him would have gone. In 2008, a 7-year-old me had his mind blown when, on a family trip to HMV, I noticed the voice playing through the PA sounded very familiar, and I noticed a shelf full of the new album from Coop himself. I couldn’t believe he had more songs than the 20 or so I had already heard, remember at 7 years old I didn’t have a lot of concept of what an album was, and that was me honestly.

I bought the CD (which I still have to this day) with my pocket money, and from the moment I got back into my Dad’s car, the thing got played religiously. To this day, it is still probably my favourite Alice Cooper album. Remember that this is the latter half of Coop’s career, and in my opinion, it is about as good as any of his big hits. I’d soon find out a few years later that it is a concept album about a serial killer, which, in all honesty, made me love it even more, haha!

9. Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls – Murderdolls (2002)

So, young me had just been shown Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson (the holy trinity of shock rock, as I like to call them; more on them later). Whilst playing with either WWE or some form of Universal Monster toys, I noticed on Scuzz TV a few guys singing a cover of White Wedding by Billy Idol, with a singer who sounded like Alice Cooper and a band who looked like they could play for either Coop, Zombie or Manson and I was immediately hooked.

Once again, Mother Dearest came to the rescue and happened to have a copy of their debut album, Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls, and I had found myself another band to fall in love with from the looks of it. It only lengthened when I discovered the video for Dead In Hollywood, which features Marilyn Manson, and then shortly after finding out that the guitarist was Joey Jordison, who was also the drummer for Slipknot at the time. This music was simple, effective and straight for the throat; to say it blew my mind would be an understatement. 

8. Skeletons – Wednesday 13 (2008)

Keeping it close to the Murderdolls family, I also learnt shortly after discovering that frontman Wednesday 13 had his solo project of the same name. I believe my introduction to him was when I realised many of the songs Murderdolls was playing were reworked versions of songs from Wednesday’s old band, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13. However, my first album experience with him would have been the 2008 Skeletons. At the time, this album was just everything I wanted in music. It was fun, hard rock that flowed exceptionally well and had enough of that Alice Cooper vibe I wanted to hear. In my opinion, the production side of things is the only downfall this album has, and is why it is so underrated. It would be regarded as one of his best albums if he remastered or re-recorded it with a modern production. 

7. Hellbilly Deluxe 2 – Rob Zombie (2010)

It’s a criminally underrated album. If this album had a different name and was not billed as a follow-up to Mr Zombie’s extremely successful Hellbilly Deluxe, it would have been better received by the fans. Honestly, though, this album has so many god-tier Zombie songs!! I don’t know how you wouldn’t like it if you are a fan of Zombie’s other work. Honestly, there is nothing you shouldn’t like here. Songs like Sick Bubblegum, Jesus Frankenstein and Mars Needs Women are all Rob Zombie at his finest. If you haven’t heard about this hidden gem, go check it out; it is 100% worth your time.

6. American Idiot – Green Day (2004) 

I’m sure this album has influenced every musician my age in some way, shape, or form. I’m not sure what to say because the album is just that huge, and for me, it was one of the ones I have always listened to. I remember seeing the video for American Idiot on Kerrang TV; then, I just seemed to know all sorts of Green Day songs. If you regularly had Kerrang on, they were a hard band to avoid, as they never seemed to be off of it. I think I could probably act in the Basket Case video. Green Day are the first band I have ever seen live, so they will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’ll always love them. Simply put, listen to Green Day.

5. We Are Chaos – Marilyn Manson (2020) 

As far as I know, this is the most recent album here.I have been a fan of Manson for as long as I can remember (regardless of whatever controversies may follow him). I would probably name him as the most significant influence on my band, E.B & The Deadlights, as would many others. This album resonates so much with me because 1) it is brilliant, and 2) I would not like to be typecast into one genre of music.

When Deadlights started, I knew rightly due to a dark image and a song or two which contained screaming; we would be shoehorned into being a metal band regardless of the type of songs we were putting out, as unfortunately, some people just think like that. For some reason, it never clicked to me that my favourite artists didn’t care much about what genre they would be labelled into; they just did their own thing, and We Are Chaos is the album I kept coming back to. Honestly, it is one of those albums I will put on to listen to one track and then end up listening to the whole thing from start to finish. It is a masterpiece and up there with Antichrist Superstar in every way. 

4. Welcome To My Nightmare – Alice Cooper (1975) 

I did say there’d be a few recurring artists appearing here. This album is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. You have taken rock ‘n roll and Broadway together and made one unstoppable Frankenstein monster out of them. It has horror, love, drama, a boatload of theatrics, and too many genres to mention.

Alice Cooper is underrated in how much trailblazing he has done for the music world. I know everyone says Black Sabbath started metal (and I agree to an extent), but take a song like The Black Widow and imagine how heavy that must have been back in 1975. No one would have heard anything like it. This album and Alice Cooper, in general, deserve much more praise for all he has done in and for music because no one else has or ever will again have a career as Coop does. 

3. Mechanical Animals – Marilyn Manson (1998)

So, Manson released Antichrist Superstar, practically became public enemy no.1 and one of the biggest stars of the ’90s. He was more or less considered a metal act, which he was, but he wasn’t, if you get me. But for talk’s sake, let’s just say yes, he was a metal artist. So what did he do? Write an album that was incredibly different from the previous ones he had done, including the one that had made him a star and just went full-on. Ziggy Stardust, in all honesty, and boy, did it work.

As far as classic Manson goes, the album is probably my favourite. I am a man who is not a big fan of long albums, but this one is the exception. This hour-long masterpiece tackles the trappings of fame and drug abuse, something Manson himself was probably dealing with, and contains some of his biggest songs, such as The Dope Show, Rock Is Dead and Coma White. If you ask ten Marilyn Manson fans what their favourite album of his is, at least seven of them would pick Mechanical Animals. 

2. Bat Out Of Hell – Meat Loaf (1977) 

Bit of a curve ball if you’ve read the rest of this list. As I’ve said before in previous articles, when I was younger, a Beach Boys or Prince song would be played for every Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson song that followed, so it wasn’t all shock rock for me. Meat Loaf is still a theatrical rocker, so it isn’t far from home. Honestly, if you don’t like this album don’t worry, it’s ok to be wrong sometimes. My number one recently dethroned this in the best album ever written, but honestly, I am still torn at times.

This album has everything from epic rock classics to beautifully soul-destroying ballads—it has a song for everyone. Meat and Jim Steinman both wrote some perfect music when they weren’t working together, but together, they were just about untouchable. Bat Out Of Hell is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) albums ever written. It is an album every person on God’s green earth should hear at least once, and may both Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman rest in peace.

1. Sex, Death & The Infinite Void – Creeper (2020)

It’s another recent one, and honestly, it sometimes surprises me how much I love this album and the band. Creeper is a band most people reading this list probably haven’t heard of, but they have released an absolute modern masterpiece in Sex, Death & The Infinite Void. This band have just tossed the genre out the window, and after five years of releasing three eps and one album, which at heart were punk rock releases, the band decided to tear down their musical and visual house and rebuild completely.

They have landed on an all-out rock n roll fest with sprinkles of British pop and many other genres. This album widely opened my eyes when it came to making music and made me realise that just because you have released one album with one primary sound doesn’t mean you need to stick to that one sound for your entire band’s discography. This album has gotten me through quite a bit in the last few years, both creatively and personally, and I would say that having just toured with the likes of Alice Cooper and The Cult, if you currently have not heard of Creeper as of now, you will have very soon.