Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Today we're starting a new column on Rocks Off, where we ask local heroes for their top five absolute desert island discs, the records that made them the musicians they are today. This week; Doomstress Alexis, vocalist and bassist of Project Armageddon.

Iron Maiden, Live After Death While this isn't a studio album, it is a live collection of five great albums Iron Maiden put out and it captured such energy from their show and from the audience. Steve Harris' bass playing and Bruce Dickinson's vocals are probably the two biggest influences on me musically, both as a singer and a bassist, as well as being a performer onstage.

This was also my introduction into heavy metal around the time I was five or six years old listening to all my older brother's records, so those early years probably have had the biggest impact on me. I also liked that they could write a short, three-minute, single-worthy song or a 14-minute epic and they would play them both live. This album just has it all.

Black Sabbath, Master of Reality If you play metal you have to chalk up some credits to Black Sabbath for pretty much defining the genre. Growing up, this album just really hooked me with the heavy grooves and riffs and Geezer's bass playing of course. Lyrically it really resonated with me, and it's crazy that the things Sabbath was singing about in the '70s are still going on today; fear of nuclear weapons and war, mass pollution and corporate greed.

One of the other key things about this record though was how they could still include songs with such melody and heart right along the heavier tracks. They were Black Sabbath and they wrote what they fucking wanted! Not being afraid to be diverse had a massive impact on me.

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV This record just rocked and rolled! Plant's singing is incredible, the songwriting is great and again they aren't afraid to be diverse in their styles.

This was also a record that really gave me a much greater appreciation of the drums as more than just a background percussive rhythm instrument, but something that can really take the forefront or lead in a song. This whole album just invokes such a range of emotions as well.

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