The Greatest Rock Debut of All Time
A rock band’s debut album is always important. That album defines that band and often sets up expectations for what’s to come. – Author: Scarlett Hunter, Photo from Audio Ink Radio
A rock band’s debut album is always super important. That album defines that band and often sets up expectations for what that band will sound like going forward. Sure, there are plenty of exceptions, where a band’s debut album ends up not sounding at all like what that band becomes over time. But, for the most part, that debut sets the groundwork for everything the band stands for and how that group will sound in the future.
Rock has a bevy of fanatic debut rock albums, and we highlighted them in a recent feature. But, one rock debut really stands above the rest. In honor of this seminal record that changed the musical landscape, Audio Ink Radio presents the greatest debut rock album of all time.
Rock’s Best Debut Album: It’s a Classic
There aren’t too many bands out there with the kind of history and pedigree as Guns N’ Roses. Between Slash, Axl Rose, Duff McKagan and the rest of the GN’R crew, this is one immensely special band.
GN’R, which formed in 1985, is also unique because of when they came up and broke out in the rock world. While the band took off in the 1980s, they really didn’t fit under the “hair metal” label. They didn’t dress like hair metal guys and had a more meat-and-potatoes sound and style. Propelled by Slash’s incredible guitar soloing and Rose’s pristine tenor, GN’R took off quickly, and they’re still selling out stadiums and arenas to this day.
The Rock Hall band’s 1987 debut album, “Appetite for Destruction,” is our pick for the greatest rock debut album of all time. While several other rock debuts came close, nothing could touch “Appetite for Destruction.”
This album plays like one single, since pretty much every song on here became a radio hit. It wasn’t huge out the gate, but over time, it became one of the biggest rock albums of all time. “Appetite for Destruction” debuted at just No. 182 on the Billboard Album chart, because it was their debut, and the band wasn’t really known yet But, that was all about to change.
Songs such as “Paradise City,” “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Mr. Brownstone” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” became massive radio hits and are still very popular today. Rolling Stone named it the No. 67 greatest album of all time, calling it the “perfect rock ‘n’ roll record.” They add, “No matter what you think of any of the members of this band, they are the real deal and this album is a solid hard rock classic.” Pitchfork states in a review that they love closing track “Rocket Queen,” which they call “a brilliant study in contrasts that still unnerves. It’s a mini-epic that hinted at the more sprawling aesthetic Axl and his bandmates would adopt on 1991’s ‘Use Your Illusion’ diptych.”
For the sheer epic nature of this record and what it did for not only GN’R but the hard rock genre, in general, “Appetite for Destruction” is our pick for the greatest rock debut album of all time.
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