10 Legendary Rock Bands That Made Metal Albums

From the moment that they formed, Muse always had a bit of a fascination with hard rock. For all of the Radiohead tags that they got both then and now, most of the music coming from Thom Yorke was a lot more mellow than what Matt Bellamy was capable of, turning in unstoppable riffs on tracks like Stockholm Syndrome off of Absolution of Knights of Cydonia from Black Holes and Revelations. If there was any album that really wore its metal influences on its sleeve though, it would be Drones.

Serving almost like an apology record to their rock fans for making electronic music on The 2nd Law, this entire album works as a punk album by way of hard rock, which touches on metal on almost every other track. Though you can still hear the remnants of the electronic sounds on lead single Dead Inside, Matt unpacked his guitar and went for broke on every one of these tunes, from making the greatest Rage Against the Machine riff you've never heard on Psycho to doing Van Halen proud with the wild tapping riff that kicks off the song Reapers.

Thanks to the touch of Def Leppard's producer Mutt Lange, the record also sounds immaculate, from bringing a polish to the guitar riffs to making Dominic Howard's drums sound like cannons going off in the background. Compared to the electronic side of the band, this is the kind of record that aims to please the guitar geeks in Muse's audience.