10 Best Hard Rock Soundtrack Albums

People going into a movie called the Decline of Western Civilization aren't really expecting anything too cheery. Operating as a pseudo-documentary, most of this film was a way to encapsulate everything that made the start of the hardcore punk scene feel dangerous in the late '70s. Given that it's all about the energy that comes with punk, you'd better believe that the soundtrack had to deliver.

For a straightforward punk affair though, there's little in the realm of icons here, with the Ramones and the Clash nowhere to be seen. This is a different animal than the early days though, as bands like FEAR and The Germs push the boundaries of what constituted heavy music at the time. Back when parents called this kind of hardcore "just noise," songs like I Don't Care About You and Lexicon Devil became the theme songs to every suburban kid looking for something more than just heavy metal on the radio.

Whenever you throw on an album like this, you're practically torpedoed into the pit of a punk show, where fists would fly and you could leave with a few broken bones if you weren't careful. Even though albums like Purple Rain were rewriting the pop rock formula around the same time, this is where you went if you needed the true adrenaline rush.