Judas Priest, Sad Wings of Destiny Classic twin guitars, solid rhythm section and vocals that epitomized the voice of metal for decades! Halford could hit soaring highs to lulling lows and carry it all in between. The use of layered vocals building through delayed harmonies really had a great appeal to me for adding a natural effect and depth to a recording. And again, this album has a variation in styles including a piano and vocal piece, all which pull your emotions in different directions. Vocally though, Halford's range and delivery would be a major influence on me.

Candlemass, From the 13th Sun While I have had several bands and records influence me in many ways, these previous records were all from my earliest years, that I believe have had the greatest impact on me as a musician. That being said, there is one record I want to include that had a major influence on me much later in life, in fact it was only about three years ago.

I was going through some very emotionally traumatic things in my life and my guitarist, Brandon, had this playing one day and it grabbed me. One of those records that you can somehow identify with on some other level as if it speaks directly to you and I latched onto it as an outlet for my pain. I feel it influenced some of the more aggressive and direct song and lyric-writing for my more recent works with both Project Armageddon as well as Vendetta Diabolique. I wanted to put that frustration, anger, and hurt out there in the music and the words even.

Project Armageddon plays Saturday, November 29 at Rudyard's with Vanity Crimes, "Ganesha," and Giant Kitty.

Jef has a new story, a tale of mad robot nurses and a man of miracles called "Sleepers, Wake!" available now. You can also connect with him on Facebook.

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