10 Perfect Debut Albums In Rock Music History

By the late ‘80s, the initial glow of hair metal had started to really wear out its welcome. Despite the initial spark of bands like Motley Crue and Van Halen strutting up and down the Sunset Strip, the also-rans of the genre like Warrant and Winger had started to really stink up the place, and would only continue to fester until Kurt Cobain washed all of it away when the early ‘90s kicked in. Nirvana might get the credit for wiping hair metal off the map, but Guns N Roses made the first real blow on Appetite for Destruction.

While every one of these guys got their start in the same dingy clubs that bands like Ratt were playing at the time, there was no BS when it came to Guns’ music, having the same kind of old school rock and roll energy that you would find in bands like Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones. Outside of their image though, Appetite might be the most accurate snapshot of what life on the wild side might have been like, sinking you down into the pit of excess on songs like Welcome to the Jungle and It’s So Easy.

Going through every song almost plays like a diary of what the band got up to in those days, from the staggering highs of a song like Nightrain to being pulled right back into addiction on Mr. Brownstone. Before you even hear the songs though, the rapport of the band is what made you pay attention, from the unstoppable energy of Axl Rose moving like a snake across the stage to Slash becoming everyone’s new favorite guitar hero, finding the middle ground between Joe Perry and Eric Clapton and making everything fit in context on a song like Sweet Child O Mine. Other hair metal bands may have liked to act tough off the stage, but everything about Guns at this stage was the epitome of a street gang.