Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian recently sat down with Music Radar and went through his list of the Top 10 albums "that blew my mind." Following is an excerpt from his rundown.

KISS - Alive (1975)

Scott Ian: “I don’t know if it’s the first album I ever bought, but it was certainly early on. I heard Rock And Roll All Nite on the radio before I knew what they looked like and thought the song was amazing.

And then it was not long after that, seeing them on TV, and still not knowing they were the band that played Rock And Roll All Nite until they actually started playing and then I thought, ‘Holy crap!' because when I first saw them it was on a talk show, and it would have been a daytime thing, because it wasn’t as if I was staying up late at night, and KISS wasn’t on Johnny Carson in 1975 or anything.

So, I saw these guys sitting there and I didn’t get it at first and I think my initial instinct was, ‘What is this? This is weird to me.’ But then they started playing Rock And Roll All Nite, and that’s all it took. It was like heroin for kids at that time. Because they were horror and comic books and rock ’n’ roll all mixed up into one bloody package. It just kind of mainlined right to my brain.”

Run DMC - Raising Hell (1986)

Scott Ian: “Even before The Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin was already sampling guitars on LL records. And there were already heavy guitars being played and/or sampled on Run-DMC records. There was just something about that sound: these really kind of heavy voices rapping over guitars and heavy beats. There was just something about it, and even before The Beastie Boys, I was already feeling that.

It started for me with listening to Run DMC and LL Cool J, and The Beastie Boys way, way early. Anything that was coming out in ’81/’82… stuff like Whodini. It was mainly Run DMC and LL from the early stuff, that’s what really caught me. I started college in the fall of ’81 at St John's University, ironically the same place DMC [Darryl McDaniels] was going. Although, I never saw him around, I don’t know if he’d started going then or was ahead of me.

At one point, I would listen to Iron Maiden and Run DMC on a constant loop on my Walkman all the time. It moved me in the same way. It filled a void in my soul that music fills. I can’t tell you why, it just did.”

Go to this location for Ian's complete list.

Five years after the release of Worship Music, Anthrax’s Grammy-nominated "comeback" album, For All Kings (Megaforce Records), the hotly-anticipated, 11th studio album from the thrash-masters finally found its way into the hands of fans last Friday, February 26th, and is off to a sizzling start at retail, radio and press.

Check out BraveWords scribe Aaron Small’s new Anthrax feature at this location.

For All Kings tracklisting:

CD1:
“You Gotta Believe”
“Monster At The End”
“For All Kings”
“Breathing Lightning”
“Suzerain”
“Evil Twin”
“Blood Eagle Wings”
“Defend/Avenge”
“All Of Them Thieves”
“This Battle Chose Us”
“Zero Tolerance”

CD2 (Bonus Live CD):
“Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t”
“A.I.R.”
“Caught In A Mosh”
“Madhouse”

To read BraveWords scribe Martin Popoff's review of For All Kings, click here.