10 Greatest Hair Metal Albums Of All Time
5. Love Gun - KISS
Hair metal fans tend to believe that the genre only really got started the moment 1980 started. Up until that point, we had been stuck in the doldrums of classic rock and needed something to pick us up out of our seats again. Then again, it's not like the more theatrical side of heavy music was necessarily a new thing.
Out of all the bands to come out of the '70s, KISS pretty much checks off every box for being the prototypical hair metal band, complete with some of the most glorious stage get ups imaginable. Aside from the amazing face paint, the most hair metal adjacent album of the band's glory days has to be Love Gun, which could serve as the unofficial bible for the genre.
Some party rock anthems? Check. Songs that are about the rock and roll lifestyle of sex and drugs? Yep that's there too. A taste for the more excessive sides of rock and roll? I mean, just look at the album cover and you'll find your answer. From the title track to some of the deeper cuts like I Stole Your Love, this is the kind of rock that just a few years down the road would be adopted by the Sunset Strip kids and sold back as hair metal. You may have your own hooks...but never forget the shadow that you're living in.