10 Best Hard Rock Intros

Once the hair metal scene died a pretty ugly death, the stage was set for the new alternative nation to show their stuff. As opposed to the more introspective songs of the rest of the grunge scene, Alice in Chains were the first of their kind to sound genuinely haunting, almost as if Black Sabbath had a baby with Elton John. However, much like their influences, Alice in Chains knew that they could take their time when it came to making musical perfection.

As opposed to the more heavy offerings on the band's drug opus Dirt, Rooster opens somberly, as Jerry Cantrell strums his guitar through open chords. Even though the intro only uses major chords, the harmony choices that the band use to dress up the intro are filled with melancholy, almost as if to prepare you for the story of the horrors of war before a word is spoken.

As the intro breaks the one minute mark, the verse never shifts out of first gear, but once the chorus eventually kicks in, the sudden change in dynamics hits you like a ton of bricks, as if you're right beside the titular Rooster, watching bombs go off all around you. There was definitely a lot of heavy material being discussed in the world of grunge, but not many were able to paint a picture with music quite like this.