Turn the clock back 25 years. A young 14 year old teenage boy from Brooklyn,NY receives from his loving parents his first cd/tape deck mini stereo system and a copy of the Mortal Kombat Annihilation soundtrack. This would open doors too a world of music and taste that would later define a large portion of what would build his character as a young adult and perhaps as a current “Adult” if that is what you would call me. Music has always been in my life but it wasn’t so much a thing I would relate and perhaps in many ways rely on until that point and even at 14 I was still exploring what my taste or as the kids call it today “vibe” would be.
Growing up with two older siblings who also both liked completely different music from each other. Sister likes “pop and some Rap” Brother likes mostly “Rap” we all grew up with parents who enjoyed “Jazz, Pop, Rock and Blues” So from my point of view the door was open on music but not something I would step thru till that point. My cousin is probably one of the first people who helped me the most in opening doors. He had a copy of The Original Mortal Kombat Soundtrack that had come out in 1995. That soundtrack had bands that I enjoyed sooooo much. Which is what brought me to find the first album I ever bought which is Fear Factory Demanufacture.
Which we both discovered from this scene..
Amazing movie amazing scene..blah blah.. BUT yes.. Discovered Fear Factory from that album and figured I would listen to more of what that band had to offer and fell in love. That album to this day “Demanufacture” is still probably top 5 albums of my life. Without Fear Factory I would be a very different person in terms of taste and what I came to discover of myself.
I was also lead by great friends into enjoy the works of Pearl Jam which to this day I can say still admire that grunge steady kinda pop rock feel to it. It was aggressive but it wasn’t as extreme as Fear Factory. It was hard and at time morbid but it was all cutting away at parts of myself I felt I wanted to explore more of.