When I was growing up in Chicago, there was this record store wayyy on the NW side called “Rolling Stone Records” (This was circa 1996 and I was about 13 at the time)

They had imports and all sort of random records - They used to have these listening stations where you could listen to CDs that the employees would pick out and put in there.

I was a big fan of industrial rock (NIN, Stabbing Westward, etc..) which was all the rage at the time and one of the employees pointed me to this album that had just come out by this band “VAST - Visual Audio Sensory Theater”

I popped on the headphones and listened to it and it ended up becoming one of my all-time favorites.

The first song has this minute-long orchestral intro - I looked up at the guy like “wtf is this?” and he tells me to just wait…then it drops into this crunchy power riff, I was digging it, but then I move on to the next track, which was “Touched” and bought the CD there and then.

(For those who weren’t around back then, buying a CD was a big deal for kids with no money, you only invested in CDs that you knew were gonna listen to 1000 times because they were ~$15 each which would be like $30 now)

I still listen to a few of the songs periodically, but that recommendation stands out for me.