10 Most Ambitious Rock Albums Ever Made

Appetite for Destruction is one of those rare albums that has not aged a day since its release. Across 12 tracks, Guns N Roses updated the entire hair metal formula by bringing everything back to the street, with songs as raw and unrefined as Axl Rose's bark. It's nearly impossible to top a record that good, but on first glance, Use Your Illusion actually looked like it was going to.

Instead of just hitting their audience with another helping of hard rock, the band wanted to take their sound to the next level with a double album of all new material. Released on two separate discs, the album is about as grandiose as hard rock gets, with down and dirty rock like "Right Next Door To Hell" being balanced with some of the biggest ballads of the band's career like "November Rain" and "Civil War." Given the eclectic music on display, there are even more experimental tracks like the acoustic "You Ain't the First" or the almost cinematic experience of "Coma."

The album may have sold like gangbusters back in the day, but the results nowadays are a bit more hit and miss than the band may have anticipated. Use Your Illusion is one of the most daring ventures in the hair metal world, but both of these discs are something you should probably pick and choose your favorites from rather than taking a deep dive into.