Part of my journey in discovering my passion for metal also involved discovering a lot of hard rock bands. My friends at school listened to a lot of Guns N' Roses (which I originally couldn't stand!) and my Mum told me about her brother listening to Led Zeppelin in the 70's. My curiosity and Kerrang! magazine lead me to albums such as AC/DC's Back in Black and Velvet Revolver's Contraband, both of which are some of my favourites of the genre to this day. Thanks to MS, I've discovered a load more hard rock bands over the past few years including Uriah Heep, Rainbow and Joe Satriani.

So here are my favourites of the subgenre with my rating and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of hard rock, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Created by:

nonZero | 10.10.2024

	1.	Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV 9.63/10 · Hard Rock · 1971
	2.	Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards 9.50/10 · Hard Rock · 1972
	3.	Rainbow - Rising 9.50/10 · Hard Rock · 1976
	4.	Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti 9.50/10 (Disc 1) · Hard Rock · 1975
	5.	Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction 9.21/10 · Hard Rock · 1987
	6.	AC/DC - Back In Black 9.20/10 · Hard Rock · 1980
	7.	Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien 9.10/10 · Instrumental Hard Rock · 1987
	8.	Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin 9.06/10 · Hard Rock · 1969
	9.	Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II 9.00/10 (excluding tracks 13 & 14) · Hard Rock · 1991
	10.	The Doors - The Doors 9.00/10 · Hard Rock · 1967
	11.	Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II 8.89/10 · Hard Rock · 1969
	12.	The Who - Who's Next 8.89/10 · Hard Rock · 1971
	13.	Velvet Revolver - Contraband 8.85/10 · Hard Rock · 2004
	14.	AC/DC - Highway To Hell 8.85/10 · Hard Rock · 1979
	15.	Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I 8.84/10 · Hard Rock · 1991
	16.	Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow 8.83/10 · Hard Rock · 1975
	17.	Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself 8.79/10 · Hard Rock · 1971
	18.	Rainbow - Long Live Rock 'N' Roll 8.69/10 · Hard Rock · 1978
	19.	The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced 8.68/10 · Hard Rock · 1967
	20.	Clutch - Blast Tyrant 8.68/10 · Hard Rock · 2004
	21.	Van Halen - Van Halen 8.61/10 (excluding tracks 3 & 10) · Hard Rock · 1978
	22.	Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak 8.61/10 · Hard Rock · 1976
	23.	Scorpions - Love At First Sting 8.56/10 · Hard Rock · 1984
	24.	Danzig - Danzig II - Lucifuge 8.55/10 · Hard Rock · 1990