No album for me better represents all the glorious excess of the hard rock in the 1980’s combined with a heavy dose of top-tier musicianship than Guns N’ Roses 1987 magnum opus Appetite For Destruction. Slash and Axl Rose have become somewhat of a minor punch line in recent years due to a variety of reasons, but don’t let the recent winds of public opinion fool you– in the late 80’s they were absolutely on fire and managed to put out a debut album that would change the face of rock and roll forever. It contains all the multitudes of hedonism Los Angeles and the metal scene in general was known for– sex, drugs, rock and roll– but delivered those punch lines with razor sharp songwriting craft and stellar playing from every single member who touched an instrument during the recording of the album.
From Axl Rose’s vocals, resembling an impeccable range that allowed him to hit gritty and husky low tones all the way to a high wail that sounded like two cats in a alleyway brawl, to Slash’s iconic absolute shredfest of lead tones played on a Les Paul slammed through a Marshall amp that defined what rock sounded like for decades afterwards, to the impeccable rhythm guitar playing of Izzy Stradlin, to the thumping bass and dirty tones of Duff “Rose” McKagan (whose backing vocals also deserve mentioning), to the manic and seemingly possessed thunderous beats of drummer Steven Adler, this was peak rock and roll in its finest distilled form. It’s an iconic album that found a way to blend together hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, and blues standards into a perfect solution that still shreds to this day.
I was lucky enough to catch them live last October a few months ago with my brother at Power Trip Live alongside Iron Maiden, Metallica, AC/DC, Tool, and Judas Priest and can confirm Guns N’ Roses still absolutely shreds. Slash’s guitar playing was the highlight of the weekend across all the acts, a true tour de force, and inspired me in part to pick up his signature Les Paul (in November Burst of course) two few days ago as a gift to myself for Christmas.
2024 is gonna be a helluva year and there’s no better way to kick things off than with Appetite For Destruction playing full blast.
Standout Songs: “Welcome To The Jungle”, “Mr. Brownstone”, “Paradise City”, “My Michelle”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, “Anything Goes”
