10 Greatest Hard Rock Album Openers

For any fairweather hard rock fan, it's a bit of a tough sell for someone to sit through an entire album of material. Though a handful of tracks here and there will typically be enough for the usual fan, the idea of spending 40 minutes in this headspace can sound a bit exhausting. However, you usually have a better argument if you have a great song to kick off everything.

Through each generation of rock musicians, bands have come out with great records that pack one hell of a punch from the very beginning. As opposed to gradually throwing you into the album experience, these songs hit the ground running with some of the most visceral performances of their career.

For as great as these tracks are, the band usually have the power to prove that that first surge of energy was just the beginning of the epic story that is to follow.

These songs might not end up being the very best on the entire record, but they do their job at setting the scene so your story starts off on the right foot. Let's get right down to business and see which records hit us in the gut from the very beginning.

As Aerosmith reached the start of 1976, they were about to truly explode. After coming out with one of the best records of the era with Toys in the Attic, it was up in the air whether the band would be able to top it. From the first second Rocks starts playing though, you knew these guys would be sticking around for a while.

Starting off with a marching drumbeat and guitars fading in, "Back in the Saddle" starts things off feeling like a stampede of horses marching towards you. Continuing to build and build, the listener is finally let off the hook with Steven Tyler's wail, as we begin our journey through the lawless wasteland of Aerosmith's world. With Tyler right by your side, the song feels like you could get you into a bit of danger and fun all at the same time.

The song also features some of the best guitar work that Joe Perry would ever put on tape, from the bass opening to the agonized cries of his six-string in the solo. Toys in the Attic may have set everything up right, but once you took a listen to "Back in the Saddle," you realized that these Bad Boys in Boston had grown up into dangerous sonic troubadours.