Every once in awhile I come across a band or album that after halfway through the first song I know I have found something special. I can recall a number of times where I was just frozen by pure amazement of what I was hearing.

A long time ago: Immortal - Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss, these guys pretty much got me started on black metal many years ago.

Urgehal - Dead Cold December
Sargeist - Let the Devil In!
Faagrim - Don't remember what song, but it was fucking awesome
Endstille - Crucified
Mourning Forest - The Cave
Besatt - Hellish Whispers
Lutomysl - Jet Black Metal Art
Zorn - Spottgeburten
Folkvang - Split with Pagan Hellfire

Timeless Miracle. As soon as I began listening, I knew I had to have more. I've probably listened to "The Red Rose" more than 50 times. And their single, solitary album has become one of my all-time favorites.

Same with Battle Beast.

Vulvagun. As soon as I heard the title track to "Cold Moon Over Babylon," I was enamored - it was seriously like the musical equivalent of falling in love with some hot chick who you get along with like a charm. Love at first fucking sight.

I remember having Pagan Altar's Lords of Hypocrisy around on my mp3 player for a very long time but never listened to it, always postponing. I clearly remember getting off work and heading home by bike (a good hour) and just randomly thought; well.. let's finally check it out then.

From the moment the title track wasn't even halfway done I was cycling with my eyes wide open just staring out into space. Blown. Away.

Amon Amarth blew me away when I first heard "Gods of War Arise". It was a complete accident, but I've been hooked ever since. Later, a friend recced Death; it was something off of The Sound of Perserverance, but nothing could ever top the Amon Amarth experience, which was my first real introduction to metal.

Why did those albums amaze you on the first listen?

Sacramentum's "Far Away from the Sun" amazed me on the first listen because the production fits the music perfectly and it's not quite like anything else. The riffing generally uses big chords and the lead playing uses a lot of big intervals and fills in the sound a lot - it's as thick as a lot of BM albums filled out with keyboards and two guitars, but it's a trio without excessive layering on the guitars.

Confessor's "Condemned" makes an impression because there's space in the mix, everything is clear and separated in the sound a bit, but there's a lot of interesting stuff going on. The music is really unusual, and all of the odd rhythmic things going on between instruments, coupled with an uncommon vocal style for that type of stuff, makes it almost disorienting if you focus on it. The first time I heard the band was actually seeing them live, which was a hell of an experience.

The album I'm listening to at the moment - "Beyond the Haunts of Men" by Thrall was one which really gave me that "oh fuck, I think I'm on to something here" feeling when I first listened to it - at the time I'd never heard black metal which was so desolate and screamingly hostile towards humanity. It's not low-fi, and it's not super technical, but it certainly has that certain something.

Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light, by Woods of Ypres was one of those albums I started listening to and by the time it finished, I'd already put a copy in my basket on Amazon. It's beautiful and memorable, and ridiculously re-playable. It was all I listened to for days at a time afterwards.

I saw A Forest of Stars live without having ever listened to them, and was absolutely blown away by their weird, quirky approach to black metal - a truly unique band. I bought their latest album at the merch-stall, and proceeded to be blown away again when I got home.

I listened to "Mother Earth, Father Thunder" by Bathory a couple of years ago and it was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard at the time. It still is, to an extent. I'd never heard an atmosphere like it, and I loved it instantly.

There are plenty of others, too.

Carach Angren its the most recent example, the first song i listened was The Sightening Is A Portent of Doom
and holy shit!! I have never been a Symphonic Black Metal entusiast but this guys blew me away instantly...the instrumentation,
the variety of vocals, the riffing (not just mad tremolo picking and blast beats) and of course the imaginery
that sorrounds this dutch band.
Then what totally defined my love for their music was their latest album, Where The Corpses Sink Forever
the whole concept and the complexity and beautyness of the songs. The interpretation its almost teatrical...
damn its so expressive!! The vocals really take everything to a whole new level.
Listen to this and tell me what you think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeYHq8kaeos

Cry for the Moon by Epica...everything flowed so well.

I've got two. First, there was when I heard The Violation by Fleshgod Apocalypse for the first time last year. The fact that they were mixing crazy fast death metal with orchestra and that they sounded so good together was what got me to get the entire record. I still consider it the album of 2011. Second, there was listening to Monolith of Inhumanity by Cattle Decapitation in full earlier this year. Before that album, Cattle were a band that I was just kind of indifferent to. After reaching the third song on the record or so, I immediately named it the album of 2012, and it still is for me, despite Dethalbum III and Torture giving it a close run for its money.

Phlebotomized's Immense, Intense, suspense amazed me with a flurry of string instruments, faster paced riffs, and those isolating and majestic keyboard instrumentals. I literally replayed every song just to soak in each moment of the album, they just don't make death metal like that anymore. Literally all of Virgin Steele from the Marriage of Heaven and hell to the House of Atreus 2 is just amazing to me, whenever I spin an album from that era I know its going to be amazing.

The first time I heard Amon Amarth when Cry of The Black Birds was released as the lead single off With Oden On Our Side. I was shocked, amazed and glued to the play button on myspace.... It was when I was still into a lot of melodic death but these guys just took that and turned it up X10 with Cry of the Black Birds.

The first time I heard Accept was a similar situation. Heard Teutonic Terror off Blood and was amazed by how awesomely bad ass and intense it was despite being only a mid paced song.

WELL, TO BE EXACT, THE VERY FIRST BAND THAT BLEW MY MIND WAS HERMETICA WITH THE ALBUM "ACIDO ARGENTINO", NOT ONLY THEIR SOUND RAW, AGRESSIVE AND FAST, BUT THE LYRICS ALSO, I REMEMBER IN MY YOUNG 8 YEARS I THOUGHT "WOW, THESE GUYS DON`T TELL SHIT!!!" AFTER THAT ALBUM I`VE STARTED TO HEARD OTHER BANDS, AMONG THOSE THERE`S JUDAS PRIEST WITH THE "PAINKILLER" ALBUM, ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL, TILL TODAY I`M STILL BEING GRATEFULLY SURPRISED BY SOME BANDS THE LATEST IS KING DIAMOND WITH THE ALBUM "20 YEARS AGO ON A NIGHT OF REHEARSAL", ACTUALLY THE ALBUM BELONGS TO KING DIAMOND AND BLACK ROSE, BUT AS THE BEGGINING OF DIAMOND`S CAREER IT`S ABSOLUTELY GREAT!

What? I can't hear you!

I saw Monarch! for the first time some years ago and it was amazing (even if I was not into drone back then)!
I describe the show as been sitting down at the edge of an abyss watching a monster emerging slooowly from the deeps, flying around you and, finally, going back down to the abyss.
It was REALLY amazing!

CALM DOWN WITH THE CAPS LOCK.

Anthrax - My first metal band, and my first foray into music in general. Before hearing Anthrax and thrash metal, I hadn't really connected with any music that I had heard (on the radio). I decided to check them out after my class' single metalhead raved about seeing Anthrax live. He did his best air guitar impersonation, accompanied by the guitar riff of AIR (played by his mouth).
I made a mental note of the band and song, and checked them out after school. I was blown the fuck away. I couldn't believe that music like this wasn't being played on the radio. I ended up listening to AIR over and over again (as well as a few other Anthrax tracks that I could find off Kazaa/Limewire/whatever it was at the time, such as Be All, End All, Deathrider, and the cover of Remember Tomorrow)

Later that year (2003), on Boxing Day, I ended up buying Spreading The Disease, State Of Euphoria, and Persistence Of Time in a 3/$10 deal at HMV.

Suffocation - Human Waste
Burzum - Dunkelheit
Municipal Waste - Repossession
Carach Angren

All of which helped me get more into thrash, death and black metal.

Oasis, Led Zeppelin, Guns n' Roses, Queen, The Beatles.
And they still remain my Top 5 EVER. Unfortunately I do not get amazed, nowadays, as I did when I was a kid eheheh
But, I just heard Sickrites today - no, I had never heard of them - and the blew me away eheheh

Exhorder, Bathory, Dark Angel, Metallica, Godflesh, Sabbat, Defender(NL), Norden Light, Apollo Ra

All bands that left me gawping like a fish when I first heard them...

Yngwie Malmsteen, the original 'Rising Force' album, to be exact. The night I heard this album for the first time, I was changed forever. It was exactly what I had been looking for in music without knowing it. The technique, the sound, everything came together perfectly, and at that moment, I just knew. I've listened to a lot of different music since then, and some of it has affected me profoundly, or dazzled me, but none of it comes close to how much that one album and musician impacted me as a musician.

Dark Angel definitely. Kind of blew my mind that something was that fast but wasn't death metal or grindcore (as I was not really into thrash back in my early days of metal). Still one of my favorite thrash bands.

A non-metal album would be First Four Years by Black Flag. I wouldn't be into hardcore or anything other then metal if I didn't listen to that album. Just true aggression.

Let me think...Blind Guardian!, the first time i listened to Follow the Blind i was just fucking blown away with the insane speed yet catchiness. Hard to beat a song like Valhalla.

Iced Earth - Night Of The Stormrider is another, just an onslaught of Jons riffs.

I'll throw in the song that did it too.

Metallica (Battery)
Iron Maiden (Aces High)
Annihilator (Crystal Ann)
Naked Raygun (Soldier's Requiem)
Adolescents (Kids Of The Black Hole)
Christian Death (Romeo's Distress)
Slowdive (Alison)
Swans (Miracle Of Love)
Feelies (Moscow Nights)

There were all ones where I was like "FUCK".

I have this and I really like it, too. I haven't heard it in a little while but I agree with you: it's not lo-fi or technical, but it's got something.


I liked Fleshgod Apocalypse since Oracles, but I agree that Agony is in a world of its own. Cattle Decapitation is also a band I never really investigated but I love Monolith of Inhumanity.

For me, I'll go with Isis. As soon as I started playing Panopticon, I knew there was something awesome about this band. Immediately got some of their albums and I really like them now.

I also bought Havohej's Kembatinan Premaster pretty much on a whim, without hearing very much of it at all. After the first listen I realised exactly how great it was and reviewed it accordingly. I still love it to this day and play it regularly. Too bad the debut isn't as good.

Not including obvious gateway bands from when I first started listening to metal, Ulcerate comes to mind.

Bathory, Venom, Burzum and Emperor. I didn't think anything as low-fi and crappy as Burzum could hold such dark feelings. It was great. Bathory was pretty much the same thing.

Negura Bunget.... holy shit. The opening track on Om is a work of art like nothing else. It's still one of the coolest things I've ever heard to this day.

Same for me. It was that exact video, as it happens. I came across it in a thread on another forum where people were recommending Euro power, and I opened a few tabs up for some videos. None of them really stuck with me, until I heard TM. The melodies were just better than anything I'd heard before, and there was so much energy in the music. And I love the vocals, despite the fact that they're really not standard Euro power metal fare.

Damn I love that band.

Much like Battle Beast and Theocracy, Timeless Miracle is a Catchy Hook Factory that produces only the highest-quality melodic hooks and vocal lines. When you hear their samples of "Voices from the Past" and "Queen of Egypt" from that album THAT THEY NEVER FINISHED AND/OR RELEASED, they still have energy and inspiration to spare.

I'm just gonna go weep bitterly now.

Judas Priest Painkiller amazed me at first. The intro is not really that hard to play, but it's still fantastic.

A Celebration of Guilt by Arsis. Too bad their new stuff is such a disappointment
I'm not expecting much from their upcoming album, either.
Hate from Poland also comes to mind.

Cannibal Corpse= Hammer Smashed Face. First death metal song I heard and thought it was unreal.
Suffocation- Pierced From Within. I think this was the first album I heard on amazon a long time ago.
Primal Fear- Found them in similar artists of Judas Priest, wow.
God Dethroned- First heard them on Metalmeister and have loved them ever since.

I forgot about Dark Funeral and Vital Remains as well.

There have been so many so I'll just mention the latest.
I read a review about Ancient VVIsdom's A Godlike Inferno.
Checked the opening track, "Alter Reality".
Went batshit insane, and approximately 23 seconds later ordered the vinyl.

Needless to say, I have trouble staying in my pants waiting for the upcoming album.

I was some 14 (about 15 years ago) old when I bought Metallica's Load. Actually thought that was good. Heh. But then I bought Ride the Lightning and was amazed. The solos of Fight Fire with Fire and the title-track. The whole Fade to Black. Creeping Death. It virtually changed my life.

Same happened with Iron Maiden couple of months later. Powerslave remained my favourite album for some time. And I guess I haven't progressed that much. Iron Maiden is still number one band for me.

Powerslave is one of my favourite Iron Maiden albums -the solo on the title-track is something which I can mention in this thread - blew me away, and the album as a whole is fantastically solid. I love the artwork too, as I'm intermittently a big fan of all things ancient Egyptian.

While I'm here, Black Breath are another band which utterly blew me away - Sentenced to Life was the most crushing, intense and destructive thing I'd heard in a long while - I'd bought the EP and both albums within days of first hearing it.

Social Disservices, by Panopticon blew my away on first listen. The amount of emotional flagellation is draining. The bleak, but understated subject matter, the horrid screams and tortured delivery. Ugh, it's absolutely crushing. The very first time I listened to it, I decided to give up on making music for awhile, because no other album in recent memory has left me feeling that exhausted and spent. What a joyous and crushing celebration of sadness.

I think the only time this has happened to me was when listening to Odroerir's "Gotterlieder" for the first time. And I think it was the harmonized vocals that did it for me. This also spawned an interest in folk metal that I hadn't had previously.

Drudkh - Forgotten Legends - I think this record outdoes all other when it comes to creating atmosphere, listened to it about 5 times the first day I got it.

Demons and Wizards- ST - perhaps as close to perfect as a metal album gets, every minute is amazing, a true mix of Blind Guardians vocals with the crunch or Iced Earth

Apart from NWOBHM albums which introduced me to this genre, some of the works which completely took me by surprise listed in the order of amazement are.

Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Meshuggah - Chaosphere
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Hellhammer - Demon Entrails
In Flames - Clayman
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

I guess these albums can be considered accessible within their genres and did help me discover harsher sounds, Celtic Frost definitely tops the list. \m/