Band:	Guns N' Roses
Album:	Appetite For Destruction
Style:	Hard rock
Release date:	July 21, 1987
Guest review by:	Doc G.

01. Welcome To The Jungle
02. It's So Easy
03. Nightrain
04. Out Ta Get Me
05. Mr. Brownstone
06. Paradise City
07. My Michelle
08. Think About You
09. Sweet Child O' Mine
10. You're Crazy
11. Anything Goes
12. Rocket Queen

Here it is, one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time (or possibly of all genres?), whether you're a fan of music from the 80's LA scene or not, this is a respectable album any way you look at it.

To understand the music, you have to have to understand the musicians behind it. I'll sum it up: 5 guys come to LA who have virtually nothing (the frontman a real nutcase who comes from a dark childhood), meet up, live together in a teeny room, and live out your typical gritty, sleazy lifestyle. Let's just say it really comes through in the music.

The album opens up with the furious "Welcome To The Jungle" almost a heavy metal song in itself shows us the range Axl has (had?) to offer. The variation of styles within this album is amazing in itself; they go from a heavy metal type song to a punk song; "It's So Easy" to blues rock to even an almost country type influence without losing there own unique sound. The guitars reach their peak in the album with "Sweet Child O' Mine" with an unforgettable intro riff, in fact, not only are the guitars great but every aspect of the band is great (ok, even Steven Adler, who wasn't the greatest drummer by any measure was able to pull it off). Duff shows what a great bassist he is in "Rocket Queen" opening up with a very funky dancable bass lick, once again showing how many genres these guys are able to borrow sounds from but staying in the hard-rock genre and still making it sound genuine.

But alas, nothing is ever perfect and this unfortunately applies to this album as well. As hard as it was for me to find any problems, the only one I found was with "Think About You" a track written by Izzy Stradlin. It's a great track and is probably held in high regards by many but for me seemed to be really forgettable when you're being blown away by pretty much every other song on the album.

Being an album I grew up with, it's filled with so many great memories for me (hell, I first learned the 'F' word for the first time from "It's So Easy") yet it has never gotten old, even after going through 4 different copies in 3 different formats, not once have I gotten tired of it. This is a solid piece of pure sleazy rock 'n roll genius, leaving no question as to why it's one of the greatest selling debut rock album of all time, too bad not even they could ever top themselves.

I usually end my reviews with "I highly reccomend this to those who like [insert genre or style here]" but frankly, who hasn't heard this album?