15 Greatest Hard Rock Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die

Throughout its long existence in the music world, rock and roll has gone through quite a bit of changes in its development. While originally starting off as just a kid-friendly rebellious form of music, it wasn't long before rock began to balloon to include multiple different subgenres. No matter where you fell on the rock spectrum, hard rock is known as the genre rockers go to once they grow up.

Instead of just writing a catchy tune, hard rock is more focused on riff writing, creating a mood, and taking the audience on a journey. Forget the three minute pop song...these albums are where you start to become a real artist. These might not be the most pop-friendly offerings that these bands have to offer, but what they don't possess in hooks they more than make up for in pure muscle.

There have been many great albums to come over rock's many decades on this Earth, but these albums feel like artists truly left a piece of their soul in between every note. Even if you consider yourself just a mild fan of the harder stripes of rock, you owe it to yourself to give these albums a spin.

Coming into the 2000's, Tool had already established themselves as one of the most mind-melting bands of their generation. On their 2001 epic Lateralus, the band created the perfect marriage between metal and psychedelia that pushed the entire genre into new and uncharted territories: Where to go from there?: beyond metal altogether.

Don't get me wrong: there are still some harsh moments across 10,000 Days like the opening sting of "Vicarious" and the irresistible stomp of "The Pot," but the scope of this record is far greater than its individual pieces. The entire album is centered around songs that are conjoined together as a whole, which the band use as an opportunity to touch on more heartfelt topics.

The Wings For Marie section of the record is Maynard James Keenan expressing his deep sense of loss after the death of his mother Judith. On the other side of things, there is the suite of songs which detail a man's experience with psychedelics and recounting his extra-terrestrial experiences outside of Area 51. There had already been impressive benchmarks set by Tool, but 10,000 Days is the record that can be enjoyed both in pieces and as a whole. If the singles leave you intrigued, you are in for a hell of a ride once you take a deep dive into the full record.