10 Hard Rock Albums That Changed Music History

If you were a hard rock fan in the early '00s, there wasn't much to be proud of in the world of mainstream rock and roll. Though you had some holdovers from the '90s still holding their own like the Foo Fighters and Stone Temple Pilots, the new school of rockers were either going underground on the indie scene or turning to bubblegum pop like with the pop punk movement. Both of those scenes had their place, but Joshua Homme was ready to roll down the windows and kick out the jams one more time.

Though Queens of the Stone Age had already been making a name for themselves for a few years prior to Songs for the Deaf, this was the closest that they had ever played with perfection, taking their stoner rock sound and using it as the soundtrack to a drive through the desert. Operating almost like surfing through radio stations, every one of these songs took a page out of the old school playbook of rock, from the boogie rock of ZZ Top on one song to the Radiohead-esque vocal lines that Homme would sprinkle into the mix.

Adding the punch of Dave Grohl behind the drum kit, Songs for the Deaf would become the blueprint for what many modern artists would want to create later down the line, as acts like Arctic Monkeys would eventually work with Homme to bring their own desert rock dreams to life. For all of the great licks on here, the title is more than just an edgy play on words. This isn't the kind of music that you're supposed to just hear...it's about speaking to the more reptilian side of your brain.