M. Shadows comments (excerpt)

Considering all of this, we hit up the band’s frontman, M. Shadows, to see what metal albums resonated most with him. “When I made this list, I was trying to think of records that really impacted me stylistically, like, ‘Wow, you can do that with heavy metal,'” he tells Rolling Stone. “So I tried to think of those landmark moments in my life when I heard a different sound that sparked something.”

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Dream Theater, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory (1999)

This is the first Dream Theater album that I gave a true chance to. I remember being at Warped Tour in maybe 2004, and the Rev [Avenged Sevenfold’s late drummer] was playing it in our van. We had a new CD player and he was playing when he had to drive, and I remember getting that CD, grabbing a Walkman and sitting in the back of the van and just immersing myself into that record.

I loved the story. I loved everything about Dream Theater on that record. Then I was able to go back and now I’m very familiar with their whole discography, but that record to me changed everything because it’s the first time I ever really heard a story on an album. I hadn’t even listened to Operation: Mindcrime yet. This is the first true concept album that I really got into, and it made me think of things differently. I thought it was put together so well with progressive nature of it, and the melodies were brilliant. It was the first time I was really introduced to John Petrucci and his guitar playing, which I feel, even though he’s one of the most highly revered guitar players, is underrated, because I feel that he’s not only technically brilliant, but he emotionally always plays the right notes. This record just showed me that you can tell a big story with heavy metal. You can get a lot onto a CD and it doesn’t always have to be these cut-and-dried songs. You can make an adventure out of all of it. And so that really opened my eyes to that.