Happy 25th Anniversary Appetite For Destruction!

It's nearly impossible to overstate the effect that Guns N' Roses' debut album had on hard rock music. Released on this day in 1987, it was unassuming at first. The video for Welcome To The Jungle would air every once in a while, usually on the Power Hour (MuchMusic's Canuck equivalent to Headbanger's Ball). It was certainly different from everything else we were being subjected to, but it didn't have much of an impact on the population at large.

In fact, it wasn't until a year later and the release of second single Sweet Child O' Mine that the album started to pick up steam with record buyers. Before then, you heard about the album from friends of friends, who would talk about it like it was some kind of scrappy, snotty holy grail that your puny mind couldn't comprehend. Before long, it would become an inescapable classic, an album that so perfectly encapsulated the sleazy underbelly of Los Angeles that it effectively sounded the death bell for all the spandex-clad poseurs whose watered-down party rock was, at the time, all the rage.

History might point to grunge as the culprit that slayed hair metal, but it's more than arguable that grunge picked the bones that Guns N' Roses left behind. Catchy title aside, it's entirely possible that Appetite For Destruction was a mission statement, a stern warning to the L.A. cock rock scene that an aural SWAT team was circling the party house, and the door was about to be kicked the fuck down.

To this day, I swear Rocket Queen is the Guns' finest moment. How about you?

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