The 15 Albums that changed my life!!!

1- Jethro Tull - Aqualung

"This album is really my first introduction to progressive music I think, my father played this album everyday in the car in a cassette every morning in the way to the primary school".

2- Peter Gabriel - Secret World Live

"Despite this is a live album, it was another cassette my father had, the music made a HUGE impact on me...musically and emotionally".

3- Dream Theater - Images and Words

"Without a doubt an album that made me realize that I was going to be a musician AND a guitar player, those Petrucci lines were totally inspiring to me, I remember that after discovering this album by a friend at school, we played it from top to bottom in repeat doing homework!"

4- Joe Satriani - The Extremist

"I started to play guitar at the age of 12, I learned my first chords on an acoustic obviously but hearing at this music and discovering G3 (that one with Eric Johnson) by other guitarists pals, I was totally inclined by the electric guitar, rock and metal music!! but, I entered this realm of instrumental electric guitar extravaganza, and of course Joe Satriani and Steve Vai came into play here, this particular album, changed the way I saw the guitar, and the things you can do with it!!!"

5- Rush - Exit...Stage Left

"Another live album, and my first introduction to this great band, I've became fan after that, I remember hearing it for the first time in my headphones in a crappy CD player, those that you carried like ipods now, LOL the discovery of this band and this music was made by an older brother of a friend at high school, he was a drummer, and he was a BIG Rush fan, despite is NOT a music of my generation really I became totally hooked and found a LOT of similarities in Dream Theater's music as well. With tracks like YYZ, La Villa Strangiato, and Tom Sawyer, my musical life changed!"

6- Tool - Lateralus

"This album, was one of those albums that impacted me in so many ways, I remember the packaging, really amazing, it became a trademark in the way I saw a band, rock music, the presentation, lyrics, everything... suck a great album"

7- Jordan Rudess - Feeding the Wheel

"Back to the prog world, I discovered this album surfing the web, and so Magna Carta (label) artists as well, this album was TOTALLY shocking for me, it was like "music like this exist in this world??" I discovered lots of things with this albums, time signatures, rhythms, sounds, I mean something totally new to my ears!, it changed my musical life, and was my first introduction in discovering old progressive music like Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes etc."

8- Leonardo - The Absolute Man

"One of my favorite albums of ALL time!!, this album is a very special one for me, it grew so much in me, it was a very fine discovery and redefine the way I saw music. It was a music so amazing and well produced, and something I've NEVER encountered before, those layered voices, orchestration, the concept, the story-line, the characters, it is a various artist album, just looking at the sleeves I discovered new artist and music. My first introduction to concept albums was with Dream Theater's Scene from a Memory album, and Rush's 2112 after that, but, this one, was like a WHOLE Opera!!!"

9- Spock's Beard - Snow

"This particular album was also so new to my ears, lots of counterpoints, fine arrangements, eccentric songwriting, and lots of musicianship, my first introduction to Spock's Beard and neo-prog stuff and to Neal Morse, one of my favorite songwriters and composers of ALL time, this was SO new to my ears, and shocked me in every sense of the word, and let's face it, I was born in 1987, so MY generation of progressive music is: Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, Fates Warning, for this guys it's obviously the 60's and 70's so everything is like a timeline!"

10- King Crimson - The Power to Believe

"This was my first introduction to what it is my FAVORITE prog band ever! and it is its latest work, but this Crimson line-up was the one I've drowned to, of course I dig more its classic albums!, this was another album that changed the way I saw progressive rock and music in particular"

11- Frameshift - Unweaving the Rainbow

"A fantastic, cool and under-grounded progressive rock album, I discovered it through research in LaBrie (Dream Theater's vocalist), it made think more in production and in writing more progressive music, it changed lots of things in my musicianship too!"

12- Planet X - Moonbabies

"Another "this album is gonna blow your mind" album, this opened up lots of different senses of what was music for me, so eccentric, and out of the box, Donati's musicianship and drumming totally was a huge evolution of what i thought of rhythms, syncopation, ostinatos etc.

13- Mattias "Ia" Eklundh - The Road Less Traveled

"This is a guitar oriented album, but this album was special for me, it opened up so new boundaries for me, both on the music and in the instrument, this guy later will be one of my guitar heroes."

14- Magellan - Impending Ascention

"I bought this album after digging almost all Trent Gardner discography, but this one in particular is old, and was one of the proggy things that I dig the most, such a great album and songs, it is truly a prog masterpiece"

15- Tribal Tech - Illicit

"Later on I was interested in jazz music specially in fusion (rock with jazz) and this album was the one that made me enter in that complex world, it changed me in every sense of the word and made me a better musician after digging it!"