10 Most Controversial Album Covers Of All Time
9. Appetite For Destruction (Original Cover) - Guns N' Roses (1987)
If the world was unprepared for Guns N' Roses sleazy heroin chic and wild rock n roll back stories and behaviours, its no wonder that Appetite for Destructions initial cover art was deemed unfit for human consumption. Inspired by a Robert Williams painting, the sleeve captured a woman, underwear exposed, traumatised and disconsolate after falling prey to the unwanted sexual advances of a gruesome robot. The covers portrayal of rape and distress was all the ammunition major retailers needed to refuse to stock the album, forcing Geffen to provide an alternative, less horrific replacement.
The graphic art was, however, retained to be used as an insert, augmenting Axl Roses primal screeching and seedy, devilish desires. A painting as shocking to the system as the band's filthy, promiscuous coke-filled sound, the album is seldom released with its original art, a testament to GnRs vulgarity and unseemly nature. That's a compliment by the way.