"WOW!" albums

We all have albums that we like, but I think everyone has some albums that I would think of as "WOW!" albums. What I am thinking of are albums that may be great, original or you might just hear them at the right moment. Yet for whatever reason these are albums that just have a huge impact on you when you first hear them. I remember hearing Iron Maiden's "The number of the beast" for the first time when I was like 14 and it just blew me away. The music was and is so incredible and it really impressed me and drew me in. There are a lot of albums that I would say are good or great, but not a lot that have had that kind of impact on me. Don't laugh, but for me Twisted Sister's "Stay Hungry" was a WOW album at the time I first heard it. In 1984 I was listening to the radio a lot and knew their two big singles, but hearing the entire album just struck me. It's not one of my favorite albums of all time and I don't like it as much as I once did, but it was important to me at the time and I still remember that feeling of awe. The whole energy and the importance of every song just struck a nerve at that point. When I was first getting into speed metal I would say that Metallica's Master of puppets, Slayer's reign in blood and Anthrax's Spreading the disease had a similar effect on me and actually all three of those albums still do. I didn't get into Led Zeppelin or Rush until I was 19, but I remember hearing Rush's 2112 and Led Zeppelin's Houses of the holy for the first time. This was around the same time and I heard both on a walkman after buying them. It just seemed so amazing to me to really hear the depth of their music and what I had been missing for years. Those two albums in some ways changed how I listened to music because they got me to try to listen more deeply and not just to what's on the surface. There are many more albums like this for me, but I will stop for now. Anyway I will quit rambling and just ask....

**What albums have been "WOW!" albums for you?