Best hard rock album of all time?

[ski_resort_observer]

Allman Brothers - Live at the Filmore East

Eric Clapton - Layla

 

[Terry]

Aerosmith toys in the attic for me. All good songs, and always brings back good memories.:beer:

 

[skibum1321]

layne wasn' invovlved with temple of the dog, iirc. that was chris corrnell and matt from SG and some of the mother love bone/PJ boys. tool is my favorite band but i don't find anything interesting about APC. mad season was a phenomenal project, too bad layne staley couldn't find anything to live for besides drugs.

Yeah, I meant Mad Season there, not Temple of the Dog.

I really do like APC too. It's for a different mood than Tool though.

 

[skibum1321]

Allman Brothers - Live at the Filmore East

Eric Clapton - Layla

I don't think we can define either of those as hard rock.

 

[kickstand]

man, I could spend all day replying to this thread, especially since we're blurring all the lines of grunge, hair bands, classic rock, metal, etc....

whoever said "Appetite For Destruction", I'm there. IMHO, best album of the 1980's. Also in that group would be:
"Back In Black"
"Pyromania"
"Hysteria"
"Kill 'Em All" (I'm partial to that over "Master")
"The Joshua Tree"
"5150"
"Operation:Mindcrime" (listen to the words sometime)
"Mechanical Resonance" (I'm a huge Tesla fan)

as for the 1990's, I would have to go with "Ten" as the best, as much for when it was released and the movement is helped start than it's musical content. I think "Vs." was probably better musically. And I much prefered Pearl Jam over Nirvana. Then there was a whole slew of others - AIC, Soundgarden, STP, Live, Smashing Pumpkins ("Gish" - very underrated), "new" Metallica, Green Day, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews....the list could go on and on....

other random comments about previous posts:
- the Skid Row album is good, but their 2nd album "Slave to the Grind" is better
- way too many classic rock albums to choose from
- minus "Coda", I think it's impossible to pick your favorite Led Zeppelin album
- too much cross-polination going on with Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, Mother Love Bone....I get 'em all confused....

 

[andyzee]

Aerosmith toys in the attic for me. All good songs, and always brings back good memories.:beer:

Any Aerosmith album belongs on top, IMHO

 

[Greg]

whoever said "Appetite For Destruction", I'm there. IMHO, best album of the 1980's.

That was me. I agree with you. From a pure hard rock standpoint, Appettite is hard to beat. Five piece rock band with in your face riffs, bluesy soloist, and a charismatic front man. Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O Mine, Paradise City, Nighttrain, Mr. Brownstone, Out to get me, etc. Great, great stuff. Mr. Brownstone is such a cool song. G N' R Lies was good too. After that I think G N' R really jumped the shark.

 

[skibum1321]

Anthrax is currently my favorite metal band, although I wouldn't put any of their albums as the best of all time.

 

[kickstand]

Anthrax is currently my favorite metal band, although I wouldn't put any of their albums as the best of all time.

quick - name that tune:

Charlie!
Beat the beat, the beat you beat
The only thing harder is the smell of my feet

"State of Euphoria" - awesome album....

 

[roark]

quick - name that tune:

Charlie!
Beat the beat, the beat you beat
The only thing harder is the smell of my feet

"State of Euphoria" - awesome album....

I'm the man !

 

[roark]

Anthrax is currently my favorite metal band, although I wouldn't put any of their albums as the best of all time.

I actually recently got back into them. We've come for you all is pretty good. One of my favorite bands in the late 80s - early 90's. Stopped listening to much metal until system of a down got me back into it.

 

[Mike P.]

I'd add Joshua Tree to m list also. Unsure if I'd pick 5150 or VH II if I had to pick one VH album. Paranoid was the 2nd album I bought (I'm old - Alice - the orginal - Schools Out was the first)

I borrowed a friends Metallica's albums many years ago & made a tape of my 'best of songs', prior to the black album coming out. I taped 'Fade To Black', 'Seek & Destroy', 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' & 'Sanitarium'. but I don't know which albums they came from. If they are on one album, I'd have to call that a top ten too!

 

[Greg]

I'd add Joshua Tree to m list also. Unsure if I'd pick 5150 or VH II if I had to pick one VH album. Paranoid was the 2nd album I bought (I'm old - Alice - the orginal - Schools Out was the first)

I borrowed a friends Metallica's albums many years ago & made a tape of my 'best of songs', prior to the black album coming out. I taped 'Fade To Black', 'Seek & Destroy', 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' & 'Sanitarium'. but I don't know which albums they came from. If they are on one album, I'd have to call that a top ten too!

I don't think Van Halen had a single album that was truly great start to finish. They all have good songs with a lot of filler in there. I always liked Fair Warning.

'Fade To Black': Ride the Lightening
'Seek & Destroy': Kill 'Em All
'For Whom the Bell Tolls': Ride the Lightening
Sanitarium': Master of Puppets

That's from memory - might be off on those. At the end of high school/beginning of college I was in a hard rock/metal band. Metallica was one of our mainstays.

 

[skibum1321]

Some of the other bands that were said were borderline hard rock, but come on, U2 is most definitely not hard rock or even close to it.

 

[cbcbd]

Yeah great band. I was one of the only guys I knew that had Sap before it was widely known. Wasn't big on the dog cover album though. They started to get a little weird by then. Dirt was good, but I think Facelift was the best - in your face modern rock and roll. Jar of Flies was a work of art, but way mellow.

You too? I thought I was the only person to buy SAP as soon as it came out... listening to the whole thing over and over again (can't forget Chris Cornell's appeareance on it) and waiting for Dirt to come out. AIC is an all time favorite of mine.

Black Sabbath. Not too keen on the debut album...but Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol IV (Supernaught *drool*) are cool. Sabbath Bloddy Sabbath was ...meh.
.

I like Black Sabbath, "Black Sabbath". A band I was in during college basically knew the whole thing and we'd often pick a song or two from that album to play during shows. Oddly enough, the only song from Vol IV that we knew and played out was Supernaught - I played the drums and sang for that one.. it was always a blast, especially during the drum jam part where everyone would be banging on something.

As for the albums:
-Appetite for Destruction (right on - really makes you realize how good GnR really were and how it's a shame that Axl is an idiot and they don't make great music anymore)
-Black Sabbath self titled
-Tool - Aenima (Lateralus is a masterpiece, but this one has it all and really got them into their more complex compositions)
-RATM self titled - so hard, so good
-Who's Next

 

[cbcbd]

That and I think Audislave would have been better off with Kim Thayil rather than Tom Morello. Not to stir the pot or anything...

But then the sound would've been all Soundgarden - not saying that Hiro and Matt Cameron (great drummer, love the style) didn't contribute, but Tom Morello's guitar with Chris Cornell's vocals was what made Audioslave what it is without being too much RATM or Soundgarden.

 

[riverc0il]

Then there was a whole slew of others - AIC, Soundgarden, STP, Live, Smashing Pumpkins ("Gish" - very underrated), "new" Metallica, Green Day, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews....the list could go on and on....

whoa whoa whoa, green day, counting crows, and dmb are not hard rock, let alone the 90s grudge sound :lol:

That was me. I agree with you. From a pure hard rock standpoint, Appettite is hard to beat. Five piece rock band with in your face riffs, bluesy soloist, and a charismatic front man. Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O Mine, Paradise City, Nighttrain, Mr. Brownstone, Out to get me, etc. Great, great stuff. Mr. Brownstone is such a cool song. G N' R Lies was good too. After that I think G N' R really jumped the shark.

i am down for a vote for appetite for the best "hard rock" album of "all time." though of "all time" really is only a period of about 20-30 years or so. funny how genres change, black sabbeth used to be called metal, now it is just hard rock :lol: GNR was my favorite band fr a long long time. i didn't get into them until the UYI trilogy of don't cry, november rain, and estranged. i don't think GNR jumped the shark until the spagetti incident (some might argue the stones cover of sympathy for the devil, but actually like the remake). UYI was an outstanding pair of albums, sooooo many hits off those albums too.

the best guns songs were not the singles though. take rocket queen off appetite for destruction, kicks!!! night train, just plain old mean. also like how they stripped down you're crazy from AFD to lies. UYI-I was just off the hook. i still remember hearing the opening riff to right next door to hell. coma is amongst the best 10+ epic songs. the entire last four songs off that album are amongst the best 25 minutes of GNR including one of my favorites, dead horse. UYI-II seemed to get the b-sides of UYI-I, never cared much for II.

any ways, look at how many hit singles GNR had. probably the highest amount per album in the history of hard rock. appetite got it started and was the most 'raw' sounding before axl went nuts o' perfectionist.

 

[riverc0il]

ahhhh, RATM self titled. not sure if this should be qualified as hard rock. i think this is perhaps the must listen to album of the 1990s. when ever i get complacent, i love to crank this one off and remind me of all that needs to be improved in this world. getting pissed off is a good thing sometimes. i saw audioslave at avalon in boston during their first tour. i completely hate audioslave, they succeeded in not sounding anything like either soundgarden or RATM... which is their loss because the only reason audioslave sold tons of albums is because of the line up, terrible rock albums, imo. tom is still a sick guitar player, best thing about audioslave was getting to see him shred. soundgarden was one of my favorite bands of the 90s but cornell is past his prime.

 

[cbcbd]

i completely hate audioslave, they succeeded in not sounding anything like either soundgarden or RATM...

That's mainly the reason why I could never really get into them. The riffs and music were so RATM, but the singing was Chris Cornell... and there's no mistaking Chris Cornell's voice or Morello's style - their styles are very unique from other vocalists/guitarists, which means that they can't blend in. It was a mix of two bands that I loved and it was obvious.
And it's amazing... in some songs you can tell very well which guitar parts were Tom and which parts of the music Chris put in there. Audioslave is ok, but it'll never vibe well with me.

 

[YardSaleDad]

You guys are missing one

Nazareth - Hair of the Dog