10 Hard Rock Albums That Were A Nightmare To Make

10. No Code - Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam really had everything a band could want in the mid 90's. After conquering the world with their debut Ten and selling even more records off the strength of Vs. and Vitalogy, the band were being heralded as the grunge band which would pick up the mantel left by Kurt Cobain in 1994. However, behind the scenes, things were looking a bit grim.

Based on 3 successful albums in a row, Eddie Vedder was getting more and more uncomfortable with his own celebrity and wanted to minimize the band's exposure as much as possible. While trying to put together No Code, the band were also in an ongoing battle with Ticketmaster, where they were still fighting tooth and nail to make sure ticket prices weren't out of reach for their fans.

No Code does have some gems on it, put the rough and tumble nature of the record seems to come from the push and pull dynamic, with the band trying to build off momentum and Vedder trying to actively stifle it. The atmosphere was allegedly so uncomfortable that bassist Jeff Ament wasn't even told about recording until 2 weeks into the project. Though not many Pearl Jam records would be considered bad, this is the one album where you can hear the tension in every single note.