Appetite for Destruction

Appetite for Destruction is the 1987 debut album by Los Angeles-based hard rock band Guns N’ Roses. The album combines elements of heavy metal, punk rock, hard rock, and blues-rock.

Appetite for Destruction reached number one on the US Albums Chart, and has since certified 15x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has accumulated worldwide sales in excess of 28 million. Appetite for Destruction is ranked the fourth best-selling debut album in the United States. The album is considered by many to be one of the greatest hard rock albums of the 20th century.

Origins

While the songwriting credits are indiscriminately credited to all five band members, many of the songs began as solo tracks that individual band members wrote in the pre-Guns N’ Roses era, only to be completed by the band. These songs include It’s So Easy and Nightrain (McKagan), Mr. Brownstone, Anything Goes, and Think About You (Stradlin). Paradise City and Rocket Queen were unfinished Rose/McKagan and Rose/Stradlin demos respectively that the band wrote in their early career.

Other songs on the album reflect the band’s reaction to the debauchery of the L.A. rock and roll underground, such as Welcome to the Jungle (Rose wrote the lyrics while in Seattle about an incident in New York City) and Out Ta Get Me, as well as their assorted female companions, reflected in the songs Sweet Child o’ Mine, Think About You, My Michelle, You’re Crazy, and Rocket Queen.


Cover art