Soliloquy

Appetite For Destruction, Guns N’ Roses’ first studio album, is a treat to the ears for those with rather impish ideas about hard rock. It is hard to descend from the highs that Welcome to the Jungle takes you upon, and one cannot quite complain about listening to Paradise City and Sweet Child O’ Mine repeatedly. 

The sounds on Appetite, in my opinion, have not been matched by the band as yet, although 1991’s Use Your Illusion comes quite close. Slash remains one of the finest guitarists in my book, and it is staggering to see the kind of promise that he showed on Appetite. 

It’s So Easy, Think About You and You’re Crazy hit the right notes, although it is fair to say that frontman and vocalist Axl Rose comes into his own only in Sweet Child O’ Mine. Welcome to the Jungle, of course, needs no mentioning. All in all, it is an album which is reinvigorating, although it can feel unnerving to those not used to hard rock. 

I cannot imagine what must have seemed to those who heard it for the first time in 1987- the sort of promise that GNR showed- and how flabbergasted they might feel today to note that they have released just one album since 1993. Six in total, GNR seem to do their best work on tour, with the studio being just one of the many parallel universes that Slash’s compadres inhabit. 

Rating: 5/5

If you like my work, please visit my website to get in touch with more of my writing. You can follow me on Twitter as well. Also, sign up for the newsletter to get regular updates coming your way. Would love to get in touch with you!