GNR top kerrang's 100 greatest album list

[Mr Rage]

A personal message from duff mckagan starts the mag:

Welcome To The Jungle.

"So kerrang has just voted AFD the number 1 rock album of all the time? Wow! That's pretty cool. After 20 years, it feels sort of surreal. No way did we know that we were making a classic, let alone something that would stand up to the very best. We were young and living in the moment. There's two years of our lives in that record. We were together that whole time when we were writing and recording it. We were a gang in our own little bubble in LA. We got fucked up together, and we had each others backs. Back then, if you fucked with one of us, you had all of us to deal with. We wrote those songs for ourselves, for each other. We weren't thinking about what other bands were doing - we had our own thing going on. We didn't even have a deal then, but we were playing them in clubs, and the reaction we got was instant gratification. Right from the start, I knew we had great songs. i think that's why the record has lasted all these years. I haven't listened to 'Appetite in years. The last time I heard the whole thing was when I started dating the girl who's now my wife. That was around 11 years ago. She had a cassette of the album in her car - she bought it long before she met me. She liked to rock out in the car, just her own bad self! When she played it to me, the first song we heard was "My Michelle" and I was like "Take it off!" but halfway though the song I got to thinking, "Y'know, this is pretty fucking cool!" I watch a lot of football and baseball games, and at just about every sprots event in America, they play 'welcome to the jungle' most of the songs bring back pretty good memories.
Things are very different now. We all have homes, cars, kids. We didn't have any of those things when we were making that record. We're not the same people we were. Back than GNR was our whole life. That feeling is not something I could recapture; it was a fleeting time. But when I think of AFD now, it reminds me of a really good time in my life. For all five us that was a really amazing little period that we all shared together, and no matter what has happened between us over the years, that's something we'll always have between us.

Duff McKagan
Los Angeles,
November 2006.

here is the full list:

100. trivium - ascendancy
99. bad religion - suffer
98. satyricon
97. muse - origin of symmetry
96. tool - lateralus
95. clash - clash
94. judas priest - defenders of the faith
93. anthrax - spreading the disease
92. foo fighters - foo fighters
91. killing joke - killing joke
90. converge - jane doe
89. jane's addiction - nothings shocking
88. marilyn manson - antichrist superstar
87. faith no more - the real thing
86. the dillinger escape plan - calculating infinity
85. blink 182 - enema of the state
84. sepultura - roots
83. the stooges - fun house
82. slipknot - slipknot
81. queens of the stone age - songs for the deaf
80. metallica - ride the lightning
79. deep purple - machine head
78. offspring - smash
77. alice cooper - billion doller babies
76. emperor - in the nightside eclipse
75. the black crowes - southern harmony and musical companion
74. darkness - permission to land
73. mastodan - leviathan
72. chili peppers - blood, sugar, sex, magic
71. rainbow - rising
70. def leppard - pyromania
69. thin lizzy - live and dangerous
68. helmet - meantime
67. megadeth - peace sells but who's buying
66. rancid - and out come the wolves
65. aerosmith - rocks
64. smashing pumpkins - mellon collie and the infinite sadness
63. big black - atomizer
62. deftones - white pony
61. at the drive-in - relationship of command
60. dio - holy diver
59. van halen - 1984
58. rush - moving pictures
57. fugazi - repeater
56. soundgarden - superunknown
55. kiss - alive
54. machine head - burn my eyes
53. black sabbath - vol 4
52. pearl jam - ten
51. nirvana - in utero
50. ozzy osbourne - blizzard of ozz
49. weezer - weezer
48. GUNS N ROSES - USE YOUR ILLUSION 2
The ultimate rock folly? far from it.
It's often said that the UYI albums marked the point where GNR ditched their gutter-punk roots and embraced stadium rock bombast. in fact, many of the big balleds pre-dated debut album AFD 'don't cry' for example, was the first song they ever wrote together. Of the two albums, 2 is the more cohesive, let down only by the scrappy 'get in the ring' (during which axl rose blasts kerrang and other music papers). Recalling the grandeur of Led Zeppelin and Queen, 2 signposted a bold and ambitious future that, tragically would never materialise. Rose vowed to tour the UYI albums until they'd together sold over 30 million. Less than halfway to that target, the band had torn itself apart.
Essential Tracks: 'Civil War', 'Estranged', 'You Could Be Mine'
47. slayer - south of heaven
46. minor threat - minor threat
45. queen - sheer heart attack
44. foo fighters - the colour and the shape
43. napalm death - scum
42. led zeppelin - led zeppelin lV
41. janes addiction - ritual de lo habitual
40. nine inch nails - downward spiral
39. alice in chains - dirt
38. my chemical romance - 3 cheers for sweet revenge
37. rage against the machine - rage against the machine
36. tool - aenima
35. aerosmith - pump
34. green day - dookie
33. black flag - damaged
32. motley crue - shout at the devil
31. refused - the shape of punk to come
30. muse - absolution
29. iron maiden - iron maiden
28. ac/dc - highway to hell
27. korn korn
26. system of a down - toxicity
25. def leppard - hysteria
24. faith no more - angel dust
23. black sabbath - heaven and hell
22. led zeppelin - led zeppelin ll
21. smashing pumpkins - siamese dream
20. the wildhearts - earth vs the wildhearts
19. clash - london calling
18. judas priest - british steel
17. van halen - van halen
16. led zeppelin - led zeppelin
15. metallica - metallica
14. ramones - ramones
13. green day - american idiot
12. motorhead - no sleep till hammersmith
11. pantera - vulgar display of power
10. nirvana - nevermind
9. slayer - reign of blood
8. bon jovi - slippery when wet
7. sex pistols - never mind the bollocks
6. iron maiden - number of the beast
5. black sabbath - black sabbath
4. led zeppelin - physical graffiti
3. ac/dc - back in black
2. metallica - master of puppets
1. GUNS N ROSES - APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION
The daddy of all hard rock records from the deadliest gang in town.
If there is such a thing as a perfect hard rock then this is it. Lurching out of LA like a gang of inner-city pirates, GNR debut album distilled every great rock n roll idea into one self contained package. There was the death-tripping hedonistic blues of the Rolling Stones , the shambolic swagger of the New York Dolls, the punk snarl of the Sex Pistols and plenty of melodic hooks to pull the wider mainstream into their seedy world.
The epitome of an album that's all killer and no filler AFD offered a lifestyle and an attitude, with the songs to back it up. Despite the influences, with axl's paint- stripping holler and reptilian shimmy and Slash's impeccable playing , GNR sounded and looked like no other band. At the heart of 'it's so easy' or smack rock tale 'mr brownstone' lay a dark-hearted street-smart sensibility, while 'paradise city' swung with substantial menace and 'sweet child o'mine' offered the ultimate power ballad. Think about it: have you ever met a rock fan who doesn't like a least some aspect of this album? Thought not! If the devil really has the best tunes than AFD surely takes pride of place in his collection.

Also Slash's comments on the album in 1987:
I think the reason AFD has gone to number 1 is because we're filling some sort of void. it's a bunch of dirty rock n roll songs. So I figure we're just like the resident down and dirty rock n roll band in town at the moment. everybody wants to have that record, because it's not really that safe. we've hit a certain fuckin particular place and time, and the sparks just flew. But i'm not gonna walk around with my nose in the air thinking i'm hot shit, because if you think about it, rock bands on the whole-with the exception of the Beatles and Elvis-are pretty insignificant. You're only there while your there, and when you're gone there's somebody else. In the meantime, i'm just a guitar player in a band that's doing really well right now, and i'm gonna have the best time I can have while I'm here doing it.

Forgive any spelling mistakes!
Mr Rage.

[FortusGNR21]

Absolutely Awesome! 

[cheeser]

agreed....that pretty much somes up every reason i ever got into gnr.

[FunkyMonkey]

Thanks for the post.  I was suprised to hear from Duff "I haven't listened to 'Appetite in years"... go figure?

[Robman?]

Is Queen even on that list?  And Bon jovi? how is Trivuim a better album than all the Queen stuff?

thanks for the duff message though, great read

[Stonerose]

Great read, makes me wish the band was back together

[Bartlet]

Queen and bon jovi are both in the list.

[Skunk]

That's actually a really good list too... normally those lists are awful, but this one was interesting and at least you could see where it was coming from. Plus obviously they got number 1 right.

[Smoke]

its nice to see that guns still get the respect they deserve. 

[Dirty Little Thing]

It's cool to see Guns top that list... but I have to admit it's a shitty release, but Kerrang is always following the trends... go figure. I don't know how anyone could say Korn is better than highway to hell. 

[WARose]

some weeks ago kerrang seemed to hate gnr.... 

now they can even get over the fact that axl disses them in get in the ring (almost)

[GNRfan2008]

LMFAO, of course Kerrang thinks "Get In The Ring" is 'scrappy' and a 'downer' for UYI2. They're dead wrong though, of course. The only downer on UYI2 is "My World." That song is so bad that I actually have it deleted from iTunes and my iPod so that "Don't Cry (Alt. Lyrics)" is the last track I hear from that album. Overall, UYI2 is probably the better album of the two UYI's but both are great.

[Amish]

I think the inclusion of Blink 182 on that list completely removes any credibility from it. 

[Mr Rage]

i do prefer the best album list with a bit more variety of bands on it, but i knew most you guys would be happy with the list.
took me ages to type out, but thought u guys should know about it.

[Refused]

Wow, I own 23 of those albums!

I posted about this a little while ago, but thanks for writing up the GnR stuff. No need for me to waste my money on the mag now!

[NicoRourke]

That's good to read

BJ are in the list with Slippery When Wet, at #8

[BD888]

That list is very trendy

[Mr Rage]

funny enough i've not heard of some of the bands on the list

[zman]

Glad to see they got the top 9 albums right.

Thanks for the post.

[Gargh!]

Yay.  GNR top meaningless poll full of sh1te bands.