GUNS N' ROSES — Appetite For Destruction

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4.33 | 102 ratings | 6 reviews

Album · 1987

Filed under Hard Rock
By GUNS N' ROSES

Tracklist

1. Welcome To The Jungle (4:33)
2. It's So Easy (3:22)
3. Nightrain (4:28)
4. Out Ta Get Me (4:23)
5. Mr. Brownstone (3:48)
6. Paradise City (6:46)
7. My Michelle (3:39)
8. Think About You (3:51)
9. Sweet Child O' Mine (5:56)
10. You're Crazy (3:17)
11. Anything Goes (3:26)
12. Rocket Queen (6:13)

Total Time: 53:48

Line-up/Musicians

- W. Axl Rose / vocals
- Slash / guitars
- Izzy Stradlin' / guitars
- Duff McKagan / bass
- Steven Adler / drums

About this release

Release date: July 21, 1987
Label: Geffen

The original cover image displayed here was later removed by the record company and replaced with art based on Axl Rose's tattoo of the band members' skulls on a cross.

Thanks to windhawk, negoba, progshine, Pekka, stephen, Vim Fuego for the updates

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GUNS N' ROSES APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

martindavey87

First impressions are everything. They can determine whether people like you or hate you, and while opinions can always change over time, there’s nothing quite like a memorable first impression. So how did Guns N’ Roses make theirs? They thought it’d be a great idea to release one of the most legendary, iconic and recognizable albums of all time.

Not a bad start, eh?

Released in 1987 (the same year as yours truly), hair and glam metal was in full swing, with countless rock bands living up the 80’s, prancing around with more makeup and hairspray than an L.A. hooker. And while there were some with the odd hit or memorable album here or there, the scene really lacked that one band that would transcend the genre and make their mark in music history. Enter Guns N’ Roses.

Instantly recognizable for Axl Roses impossibly high and powerful vocals, with their sleazy, spite-filled lyrics, and iconic top hat-wearing guitarist Slash’s fast and frantic blues-inspired riffs, ‘Appetite for Destruction’ has a solid production that really brings the music to life and gives the album nonstop energy and attitude. While it has a distinctive 80’s vibe, it’s still manage to age incredibly well, and even today is a very easy record to listen to, regardless of what music you’re into.

With its legendary front cover (I’m referring to the cross and skulls one which it is most widely known for), ‘Appetite...’ contains some of rocks most greatest moments, including ‘Paradise City’, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘My Michelle’, ‘Mr. Brownstone’, ‘Out Ta Get Me’, ‘It’s So Easy’, ‘Rocket Queen’ and the monstrously huge megahit, ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’. It took me a while to get around to really giving this record a proper chance, but now that I did, I can confirm that it does live up to its reputation.

An all-time classic, ‘Appetite for Destruction’ is one of those absolutely essential albums that should be in every music collection.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #502718

Stephen

To describe how magical this album is in a short paragraph could be a very hard task as I could go on and on boasting every single song inside from A to Z, but I don't think that's necessary. Not only because everybody should ever experienced this album at least once or twice and being the best selling debut of all time clearly didn't need any extensive explanation to claim that "Appetite For Destruction" is undoubtedly the biggest hard rock creation in the history of mankind.

Raised on the tough street of Los Angeles, Guns N' Roses told many truthful stories behind the band's debauchery and reckless life on their songs. With Slash's soaring shred and Izzy's forceful rhythm, topped with Axl's strong and commanding vocal, tunes like "Welcome To The Jungle", "Nightrain", "It's So Easy", and "You're Crazy" put the band in an aggressive mode. For those who haven't heard them before, the music inside is a tight combination of heavy metal, melodic hard rock, and punk attitude. Bassist Duff McKagan is responsible of bringing in the punkish element and you can hear it in songs like "My Michelle" or "Anything Goes". Some radio-friendly hits such as "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O'Mine" are legendary and those riffs are brilliantly crafted. "Rocket Queen" is an evocative monstrous well-executed track; the sex moan is probably the most memorable moment of the songs which Axl claimed it was recorded live.

"Appetite" is definitely an unbeatable debut, every little thing that you want in hard rock realm are there. After listening to this album for thousand times in the last 20 years, I stil have the same feeling as it was the very first time. It never wears down a little, not even a bit. The highlights in particular are Axl's wailing voice and Slash' massive guitar, but I must admit, the coherent chemistry between members in the bands and the strong compositions of each songs are applauding. This is the landmark album of 1987 everyone must have and probably the album that's also responsible of converting 100 million people into rock/metal fans worldwide.

Bottomline : Insanely beautiful, Ultimately entertaining

more than 2 years ago
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Report #234751

Time Signature

It's so easy...

Genre: hard rock

You know, they typically say about something that you either love it or hate it. With Guns n' Roses it's not an either-or but a both-and thing, since they both appeal to me and annoy me at the same time. I think that "Appetite for Destruction" is one of the best hard rock albums of the late 1980s, but at the same time I utterly cannot stand Axl Rose's wailing vocals. Fortunately for me, the dirty and straightforward quality of the music is more salient to me than the vocals.

I also tend to dislike the lyrics, a lot of which are simplistic and kliché-ish - I especially dislike the many misogynistic elements of the album. This is a new element to my experience of this album. Back when it came out, I didn't think too much about the lyrics, but now that I'm much older and wiser, I must admit that I think that a lot of the lyrics on this album are plain.... stupid.

There are the inevitable hits like "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City" (with a riff famously nicked from Black Sabbaths "Zero the Hero"), and "Sweet Child of Mine" and, to some extent, "The Rocket Queen" and "Mr Brownstone", all of which I are good rock songs (well, maybe "Mr Brownstone" would have been better off without the sloppy percussion).

But it's actually the less revered filler tracks that I like the best, such as "It's so Easy" in which Axl's vocals are actually tolerable and the good ole guitar rockers "Night Train", "Out Ta Get Me", "Think About You", "You're Crazy" as well as the darker "My Michelle" and the cheeky "Anything Goes". I think that these tracks are really good and catchy tracks which deserve more attention.

"Appetite for Destruction" is one of the most important, and best, hard rock / metal albums of the late 1980, and were it not for Axl's annoying wailing, I'd given this album five stars. As I said, I love and hate this album at the same time (I love it more than I hate it though).

This will certainly appeal to fans of hard rock, glam metal and probably also fans of traditional heavy metal. But don't listen to the lyrics... they're just stupid and reek of the sexual frustrations of puberty-stricken insecure teenage boys.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #219842

Negoba

Slash, Trash, Flash, and Crash

Guns n' Roses Appetite for Destruction was one of the most important albums of the second half of the 80's. Not only did it revitalize hard rock, it changed the direction of music. While the term "grunge" got attached to a whole movement three years later, it was already being used to describe the stripped down, street smart, nasty style of GnR. The technicality of Metallica's Justice or the guitar flash of Steve Vai / Van Halen was veering away from the roots of rock n' roll, and GnR seemed to bring us right back to the basics.

Despite the attitude, image, MTV, and all the hype, what made this album so powerful was the songs. They're great. The very few filler songs are still good, and the great ones are truly great. "Welcome to the Jungle" is one of the great songs about the Hollywood Rock n' Roll lifestyle. "Mr. Brownstone" takes care of the drugs and "Night Train" the alcohol. "Paradise City" is an ode to the good life that is suprisingly long and guitar-solo laden. And of course "Sweet Child of Mine" is a guitar solo with a few verses added in that became one of the best known metal ballads.

It's no surprise that such a cauldron of volatile personalities and chemicals would start stinking after awhile, but for one brilliant album it produced a stew for the ages. In the words of the Ozz-man "that's what rock'n'roll's about!!!"

more than 2 years ago
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Report #215308

Pekka

Having started their recording career the previous year with a so-called live EP and then blown most of their recording advance money on drugs, producer Mike Clink was finally able to make these five problem children show up in the studio to record their first full length album. At that point probably nobody saw what was coming as the end result of those sessions is nowadays known as the most succesful debut album ever in the history of popular music.

And I dare say deservedly. The album is raw, decadent, powerful, even tender at times and just plain fun. It probably sounds just like the lives the bandmembers were leading at the time. It's about twisted relationships, life in the big city, love, longing for home and dancing with Mr. Brownstone. And the songs rock seriously hard, breathing and living, played by real people. That's Slash there in the other speaker playing his stuff and Izzy in the other, Duff and Steven holding the package together and Axl wailing on top of this all rock n' roll fun.

With classic rock songs like Welcome to the Jungle, Nightrain, Paradise City and Sweet Child o' Mine the album was bound to become something, but the big thing about this disc is that pretty much every single song is just as good as these timeless anthems. It's So Easy, My Michelle, Think About You, Rocket Queen, brilliant every single one of them, and there's more to come.

The most succesful debut album ever in the history of popular music, and deservedly so. If you don't own this album already, go out now and don't come back without it.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #213781

Members reviews

Bomb Brigade

This album represents the epitome of what Hollywood and the rock n' roll scene had become in its later days:sleazy,dirty,raunch n' roll.Axl and the boys deliver an autobigraphical look at life in the all-too-fast lane. With it's screeching,fingernails on a chalkboard intro and a title borrowed from the lyrics of Hanoi Rocks' UNDERWATER WORLD,WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE throws the listener headlong into a world populated by prostitutes,pushers,junkies,whores(of the amateur sense),and everything else that was the underbelly of the Hollywood scene at the time.IT'S SO EASY cements the grasp that the almight G'N'R already has on the listener at this point,pushing its message of excess like a a dealer pushes his junk.Song after song,this album delivers blow after blow until finally settling on what is,arguably,the band's definitive anthem for its generation:ROCKET QUEEN.There's a reason that GUNS left this one as the send off to their debut album.ROCKET QUEEN is almost like a nod to Queen's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY.A rock opera,if you will,that delivers its calculated punch in two parts and in epic form.A hard rock opera with Axl Rose as the protagonist,explaining to his listeners that he's seen it all by now,but,in the end,finds love and redemption in the arms of his lover. This is,without a doubt,an essential component to any rock and sleaze junkie's record collection,and,judging by the number of sales accumulated by this all-time best selling debut album,it already has its place in your catalogue.