10 Hard Rock Albums That Changed Music History
1. Van Halen - Van Halen
Once Van Halen arrived on the rock scene, rock had been known to get nasty for a little while. Around the same time that disco was starting to rear its head, you also had bands that were planting the seeds of metal and going on long progressive exercises that felt like the peak of what rock was capable of. But if Led Zeppelin gave us the idea of hard rock and Nirvana brought it back down to Earth, Van Halen made the whole thing sound like one big party.
Despite being under the hard rock category, Van Halen's debut is one of the best times that you will ever have with a hard rock record, with David Lee Roth holding court as your resident king of partying. In between the actual good time spirit of Roth though, the world was introduced to their new guitar hero on here with Eddie Van Halen, who's innovative tapping techniques made for some of the most memorable moments in guitar history like the showcase Eruption that kicks off the record.
Even though this was also seen as a kickstarter for the glam movement that was about to take over Sunset in the coming years, there would never be another band that sounded like what Van Halen was doing. What you heard from those copycats was trying to capture the same good time spirit that this album has. In terms of legacy though, this is the kind of lightning in a bottle that no hard rock band is ever going to see again.