Appetite For Destruction, by Guns N’ Roses

Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses is one of the best rock albums out there. Guns N’ Roses has one of the best guitarists of all time in Slash, and it shows on this album, where you can hear his great guitar playing through plenty of great songs. Guns N’ Roses was not a very prolific band; they only released five albums, out of which Appetite for Destruction is by far the best. It has several major hits, including “Paradise City” and “Welcome to the Jungle,” and it’s a wonderful album if you just want to rock out for a while.

Now, for the unfamiliar, some quick background on Guns N’ Roses. At the time of the album, the band was made up of vocalist Axl Rose, aforementioned guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. [Ed. Note—at the time of the album, talking about the band could get you in trouble in school. How things change.] Appetite For Destruction was their first album, and remains by far their most popular, featuring four of Guns N’ Roses’ greatest hits and selling 30 million copies. After this album (and the follow-up G N’ R Lies), they came out with Use Your Illusion I and II, which had the famous ballad “November Rain,” but after that, nothing else resonated with their fans and the lineup, aside from Rose and Slash, changed several times over the next two decades. However, Guns N’ Roses was at their peak in this album and it shows. I would now like to talk about the hits on this album that really rock.

“Paradise City”

“Paradise City” is by far my favorite song on this album, both because it’s great to sing along to and it has some excellent guitar work from, of course, the one and only Slash. “Paradise City” is one of the best rock songs and it makes you just want to bang your head to the great music. Rose also has some great moments on a track that showcases how great his voice is for rock and roll.

“Sweet Child O’ Mine”

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” is one of the softer songs on this album. It comes right out of the gate with one of the most memorable riffs in rock history, before adding a great beat that lets you really groove along to the song. Despite being a softer song than most of theirs, it became one of Guns N’ Roses best-known songs. Axl Rose dedicated “Sweet Child O’ Mine” to his girlfriend, Erin Everly, and you can hear the emotion in his voice as he sings about his feelings for her.

“Welcome to the Jungle”

“Welcome to the Jungle” is another harder rock song, again with great guitar—which is really most of the songs on this album. “Welcome to the Jungle” always makes me rock out when I hear it. This song is by far my favorite song on this album. It has been used in movies such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. It is a great song to use in a movie during action scenes because of the great rock and roll elements.

“Mr. Brownstone”

“Mr. Brownstone” is a good song about a rather dark topic: the band’s abuse of heroin, which was a pretty common thing with many popular musicians at the time, especially rock bands. I like this song because it speaks about an actual struggle the band had to deal with in terms of their addiction. Besides that, the song is just great to listen to and jam out to.

Appetite for Destruction is one of my favorite albums because it has so many great rock and roll songs. It is an excellent album for all fans of hard rock, especially if they like to jam out to some great music. Not only does Axl Rose have some pretty good vocals, but due to Slash’s great riffs and Izzy Stradlin’s skillful rhythm work, the guitar is out of this world. There’s a reason this album sold 30 million copies worldwide—almost as much as Use Your Illusion I and II sold together—and it’s because it has so many great songs on just one record, all of which are just waiting for you to rock out to them. I heavily recommend it; if you haven’t already, give it a listen and you will never look back.