10 Legendary Hard Rock Bands That Have Terrible Debut Albums

Most classic albums usually come together through no grand design on the artists' part. As much as the more smug rockstars out there like to claim that they meticulously plan every part of their career, chances are people happen to fall into the right songs at the right time with the right people. While Judas Priest eventually hit on that formula, Rocka Rolla meant the right singer with the absolute wrong songs.

Recruiting Rob Halford shortly before going into recording, most of the songs on the Priest's debut were written by original singer Al Atkins, who's style was much more suited to meat and potatoes rock than the dramatic thunder that Priest were known for. As such, most of this record just runs like your average night at a dumpy dive bar, with Halford pulling out his mammoth wail every now and again to liven up the mood.

It would seem that even the band themselves had washed their hands of this album shortly after recording it, with Sad Wings of Destiny being the biggest shift in quality between albums that you could possibly imagine. Given that this first attempt would have probably gotten them nowhere, it's nice that the high ministers of all things metal managed to grow up fairly quickly.