what's an album that CHANGED you?

tell me about an album that permanently altered the way you think. could be about something simple or something complex. preferably, pick a nicheish album. my pick is (Untitled-0007-0020+0001) by JOHNNASCUS. It's based off the anime serial experiments lain, and it changed the way i view technology. Would highly recommend listening

I know edelweiss is not nicheish anymore because of normfags, but still.

Gonna be real here, it was Nirvana - In Utero.  I was in grade 5 (10 years old) at the time in 1993, saw the music video on Muchmusic for Heart-shaped Box, and something just made sense in my kid brain. I begged mom for the tape (can’t believe she got it for me). It was like my brain finally found the ability to appreciate music. Through the years it tumbled into the obsession with finding heavier and extreme music. 

Might be lame, but it was such a catalyst.  

If I had to name one, one of the albums that definitely changed me was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. In fact, I have it on CD hehe :3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYxo8K59xZo&list=RDzYxo8K59xZo&start_radio=1

@soupbeing

Hitler was a sensitive man.

This isn't really "niche", but
Hades: The Nine Stages Of Change At The Deceased Remains by My Dead Girlfriend was the album that convinced me to start listening to albums in their entirety with the proper track order, and made me realize how important even the order of the tracks in an album is.

Weirdly, that was not something I ever did before listening to that album for the first time, I was always the type to just listen to songs individually outside of their proper context. A product of primarily only listening to game soundtracks and openings/endings to shows I liked when I was a kid.

I liked the way it told a story that progressed with each track (the first track being the "Prologue" to the Nine Stages of Change, it being a relatively upbeat song with a kind of melancholy undertone to it, then progressing with nine other tracks, with the 10th track being the ninth and "final" Stage of Change and being an outwardly depressing-sounding song about losing someone while you're still alive)
It helps that the story being told also really got to me, This might be the only album I wish I could listen to for the first time again. That first experience of listening to it in the afternoon, dozing off underneath my window while basking in the sunlight, and then waking up as the final song closed out with the sky getting dark as it got late is something I don't think I'll ever be able to experience again.

So now, whenever I find out about a band I hadn't heard of before, or when I'm listening to an album for the first time, I try to listen to it all the way through without skipping songs.

Some other albums I like that kind of progress a story with each track are Eyedea and Abilities - First Born, Senses Fail - Still Searching, and siinamota - Yume no Manimani

f# a# infinity by godspeed you black emperor.......listened to dead flag blues and was obsessed, then listened to the rest of the album, and admittedly it didnt grab me initially! but then i listened again and it was amazing, i still hold it very dear to my heart.....just perfectly melancholic and beautiful....

tokenainamae’s タイムマシンが壊れる前に and slipknot’s self-titled. haven’t been the same ever since. they both got me through tough times even though their sounds are different.

https://youtu.be/vDkHR80rNtw?is=TaYSQDXhR1PX6y6G

its very special to meヾ(｀・ω・´)ノ

Soon it will be Cold Enough by Emancipator fundamentally changed how I interact with and appreciate music. 
It is now the soundtrack to my life. 

some honorable mentions are 
Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
Within the Realm of a Dying Sun - Dead Can Dance
Navigator - Omega Tribe
Private - Speedometer
Fauna - Haken

siamese dream by the smashing pumpkins!!

🩷💜🖤 @hikikomoricutie Been an Underscores fan since Everybody's Dead!!! released :D I love all of April's stuff!

🩷💜🖤 Jane Remover's album Census Designated honestly saved my life back in 2023/2024 :p, it helped me come to terms with my identity & also with my confidence!

https://youtu.be/Eh6w488nJ2w?is=B1xJ-qVU1Fo6JfgB

Among others. really its multiple but this is the first full album that set if off. when i was about 17 ish, i was basically entirely unaware of the underground of heavy music and actual REAL death metal, grind etc.
 Remember at the time the net wasnt quite so categorized and traversable as it is now, you largely remained ignorant of anything unless you were really nose diving into stuff.
Well my cousins boyfriend at the time, took me to the Pahrump nevada walmart parkinglot, around 1 am, and we parked the car, and we smoked a whole bunch of dope just chillin together. And then he opened up the world of heavy music to me like i never fucking knew. 
up till then the heaviest shit i knew was slayer, or slipknot (ew), i was basically a dorky numetal kid, the furthest from predictable base metalhead i got was owning a couple testament albums lol. Most everything i had was basically the "top of the iceberg, shit that every kid knew" stuff. Thought Marilyn manson was edgy xD.
 Bro threw on the whole "world downfall" album for me,   plus a bunch of goregrind, powerviolence, crust punk, Brutal death metal, sludge metal etc. Dying fetus, ballgag, devourment, rompeprop, torsofuk, dying fetus, suffocation, dystopia, nausea, heamorhage, Eyehategod, magrudergrind, agoraphobic nose bleed, etc etc etc.
Fucking entirely blew my fucking head off and gave me what my soul had been waiting for that whole time. basically within a week im dead serious like everything i listened too changed completely, i dropped all that other shit so fast it just got so weak to me xD. absolute gear shift in life for me. 

@hikikomoricutie OMG WHAT I WAS LITERALLY GONNA PUT THAT ALBUM HUH 

@embrace NICOLE MENTIONED 🩷💜🖤🥹🥹🥹