10 Perfect Hard Rock Albums Everyone Tried To Copy

As the golden age of rock and roll got underway, fans were starting to take the sounds of their favorite bands in a bit of a different direction. While acts like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones already had their place in rock history, there was so much more to be done on the heavy side of the spectrum, and bands were chomping at the bit to put some grit into their sound. And if there was no blueprint about how to get heavy, they would have to do it themselves.

Across each decade of rock music, these albums have pushed against the grain of what was expected in hard rock, either adding in different elements that no one had ever thought of before or taking the building blocks of something new and laying the groundwork for other bands to take in. Although each of these records had their time in the sun to some extent, we wouldn’t get to see the real impact of them for a few more years afterwards.

Taking the sounds of what was happening here, bands began to come forth with similar sounds that reinvented the rock scene as we know it, as everyone got on the hype train and started creating their own warped version of hard rock. You always strive to imitate your heroes, but as far as these artists were concerned, their dreams were a lot heavier than what the softer side of rock had to offer.

Everyone who's been around the block in rock and roll understands the concept of the rock and roll superhero. For all of the great riffs that they churn out day after day and the wild situations they find themselves in, people like Keith Richards and Jimmy Page practically felt like gods among men, always living the rock star lifestyle and not breathing the same air as most other laymen. Those were the age of superheroes though, and Alice Cooper's first smash gave us a look at what a rock and roll supervillain was going to look like.

From the first notes of Love it To Death, Alice Cooper set out to be one of the most grotesque bands you would ever see, talking about more macabre subjects like someone trapped in an insane asylum on Ballad of Dwight Fry or the dangers that come with involving yourself in witchcraft on Black Juju. Even if mothers around the world were appalled, the music was too good to pass up, like the classic single I'm Eighteen or the bluesy sounds of the opener Caught in a Dream.

From Alice onward though, hard rock would start having a much greater flirtation with the controversial side of the tracks, with everyone from Marilyn Manson to Rammstein being cut from the same cloth that Alice was back in the day. You can call him a freak and think that he's one of the most evil men in the music industry, but for someone like Alice, that's one of the best compliments imaginable.