Album 2 of 12

Album that changed my life:
"The War Within" by Shadows Fall

Here's another of those releases that resides on the fringes of "real" metal. It's one which I rarely play anymore, but it served admirably as a gateway into the scene. Early in 2006 I had sufficiently digested my initial Mushroomhead purchase, and I was ready to start looking for more of this wonderfully heavy music. Well, yet another trip to the cd section of Wal-Mart had me notice this album and think to myself "This looks like a heavy album. I think I'll give it a try." It was not a disappointment, providing me with some of the most extreme music I had heard up to that point. And since I knew what I was looking for this time, unlike with the Mushroomhead album, this one appealed to me immediately. Prior to picking this up I was still looking at metal with some skepticism. This cd convinced me that I should try adding at least a few more metal bands to my music collection. For that reason, it ranks high even amongst the albums on this list for the impact it had on my musical development. Soon, based on the encouragement provided by this release, I would discover the album that tore open the floodgates. In a matter of months my world would be changed forever.