#4 Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction

They say every city has an underbelly. An underground, that sits next to the glitz and clean streets, providing an alternate reality to modern living.
It's the same with music. For every prissy, hairbrushed pop song sent from the depths of Sony BMG, equating the concept of life and death as we know it to how much we dance in a nightclub, there is a gritter, dirtier, and perhaps more realistic musical take on things lying just under the surface.

In 1987, Guns 'N Roses were that underbelly. Emerging from a LA Rock scene diluted with Motley Crue and Poison wannabes, the famous strip was awash with make up wearing, back combing, glam rock bands.

But then, like now there was an underground. During the time that the Thrash Metal scene had moved up toward San Francisco in search of less feminine shores, Guns 'N Roses stayed, swallowing all the glitz and glam before spitting it back out in their own unique way.

And out of that particular orifice came "Appetite For Destruction", an album packed to the brim with poison, tales of sex, debauchery and over reliance on heroin. And my god, we loved it.

Opening the true to life description of city living in "Welcome to the Jungle", a song written based on an experience singer Axl Rose and rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin shared in their youth, meeting a old black man on their first foray outside home, who shrieked "Welcome to the Jungle boy - You gonna' die!".

It set the tone. The sultry, sleazy guitar tone, Axl's bluesy cries from the microphone, tied together with a rock solid rhythm-bass-drums trio were the order of the day, and it was fantastic.

Sailing through "It's so easy" and "Nighttrain", the former a fairly self explanatory description of the rockstar life style, the latter an ode to a cheap wine the band drank whilst scraping for pennies pre-record deal, Guns 'N Roses had honed a sound previously unheard, combining the raw, brash animalistic tendencies of Rock 'N Roll with well mixed precision, and even a ballad in club classic "Sweet Child 'O Mine".

The difference between G'N'R and most other bands were that the tales they told of deprivation, of poverty, addiction and lust, they were all real. This was not a record label selling a cliche', this was a Rock 'N Roll band being autobiographical.

They were four misfits who stumbled upon each other in the Los Angeles wilderness and this is the noise they made. No more, no less. And with it, they pierced the trend they went against in the first place. G'N'R becoming the bridge between the Poison's, Motley Crue's, the Bon Jovi's of the world and the heavier, dingier, more metal; acts sitting just under the surface too.

They looked great, they sounded great, they acted like rockstars before they became them and by the time they did, it didn't feel like a transition.

It is a testament to them as a band, and to "Appetite For Destruction" as an album to cement a lasting appeal and impact where so many others had failed. Motley Crue were the band of the day, but put "Girls, Girls, Girls" on after "Sweet Child 'O Mine" and the numbers singing along will drop.

They have now been entered into the prestigious "Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame", alongside Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC and so many more legendary acts as they too have become part of the rich mosaic that is the foundation of the Rock 'N Roll industry.

And they are. They are now legends, and that début album - arguably the greatest début of all time, has gone down in history too.

In every city there's an underbelly. Every industry has an underground. But not very often does a band that was so resolutely underground and anti-industry become a stadium filling, chart topping and history making. And for that, I salute Guns N' Roses, and "Appetite For Destruction".

#5 UFO - Strangers In The Night

Recorded during Rock's first and strongest grip on the music industry, UFO's live album "Strangers In The Night" was taken from their live tour of America in 1978. It is by and large, one of the more anonymous records that punctuated that era, never receiving the same admiration as other seminal works from more storied bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, or even live albums from the period, like Thin Lizzy's "Live and Dangerous" or AC/DC's "If You Want Blood".

Which is a massive shame, because it's fucking brilliant. As a live chronicle of a bands back catalogue, this is up there with the holy trinity of Classic Rock live albums(The aforementioned twosome and Deep Purple's "Made in Japan"). The prog stylings of "Love to Love You", AC/DC-esque(if only in the titling, UFO similar to the Aussie band in the tendency to use the word "Rock"in as many songs as possible) "Rock Bottom" and "Only You Can Rock Me", and my favourite, the excellent "Doctor Doctor".

For those of you who know little to nothing of UFO apart from their homage to extra-terrestrial life, never fear, I will inform you.

Formed as far back as 1969, UFO were very much part of the early British adoption of the Rock N' Roll scene and later development into the budding Heavy Metal scene.

After recruiting Scorpion's guitarist and general madcap Michael Schenker in 1973, the bands musical  breakthough came whilst recording 1977's "Lights Out" album. The band scored success with the album prompted them to record themselves in their musical peak whilst trundling around the US, which leaves us with "Strangers In The Night".

My Dad loves this album. As a big UFO fan, and therefore self appointed "defender" of UFO given the minimal fanfare that surrounds them these days, my old man felt the need to blast them out of his stereo system with an internal sense of kinship. Because, for him - and latterly myself, it was quite obvious that UFO were never going to penetrate the cultural Zeitgeist of the musical world, reaching the stadium filling, Marshall amp shattering heights of Zeppelin, AC/DC or latterly Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi or Gun N' Roses.

But that was the point. The album, the music and the band felt personal. Rather than turning into the distant, larger than life characters presented by some members of the music industry, it almost felt like one of your friends bands. Don't get me wrong, UFO are for all intents and purposes a "big band", and very comfortably support themselves to this day. It's not like they're a small garage band that my Dad discovered as a teenager and kept the tapes.

But that's not the point. The thing was aside from being a cracking band, with all the big belting choruses, guitar solo's and fills you would expect(honestly, if AC/DC or Aerosmith brought out "Doctor Doctor", it'd be massive), they were small, and therefore very close. They keep going because they rely on their fans, and their fans rely on them. It's a little heartwarming, almost to be part of a cult that relies on all its members continued loyalty to keep afloat.

And to me, that was important. The music being great helped too. The music that came out of "Lights Out" was as bold as anything came out that year(including the outbreak of Punk) - the use of keyboards, extended solos and instrumental pieces topped off by lead singer Phill Mogg's near operatic tone reminded me of the Iron Maiden led "NWBHM(New Wave of British Heavy Metal)" that came a year later, and was expertly captured in "Strangers In the Night".

The energy, the musicality and bound together by a band that is clearly at the zenith of the musical career, where talent and ambition briefly marry with the newly found professionalism and maturity that only comes with experience.

UFO - not a lot of people know who they are. And isn't that nice?

#6 Arctic Monkeys - Everything People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.

After paranoia surrounding the ushering of the 21st Century, mainly focusing on the millenium bug and the unusual length of dominance displayed by boybands and Pokemon, the inception of the 21st Century as an era within it's own right took a while. It took a full five years before the 21st Century gained identity, rather than remain a '90's hangover.

Social networking, the instantaneous, consumer dominated age we wallow in today is present thanks to a series of changes, largely through the development of the Internet as the dominant tool in communication, and near enough everything else.

Along this theme, there is one album - to me, at least, that stand out as one of the most indicative of this new age we now take for granted.

Formed in Sheffield in 2002, but releasing their debut some 4 years, The Arctic Monkeys were brash, openly colloquial, and musically talented. Sadly a rarity, when one thinks of the "Americanisation" of the modern music industry.

However, oddly - it is not their sound I wish to focus on. After spending some years (I assume unsuccessfully) giving out their music for free at gigs on burnt CD's, the band had acquired a small amount of fans, a couple of which had set up a page on the upcoming social media site Myspace.

Utilising the sites viral and wide reaching global audience, the band's fan page reached a remarkable amount of popularity, thrusting them into a level of limelight and media hype that was previously unmarked territory for unsigned bands.

Because of the site's ability to put the band on a pedestal before a global audience, the band's first single - usually a test of the waters for labels - was released to an already established audience, guaranteeing sales.

The album did extraordinarily, selling 363,735 copies in the first week, outstripping the previous record held by Hearsay's Popstars album (reinforcing my point about the 90's hangover)

The album itself is gritty, musically accomplished and fresh to the ears. From the lyrical prose that doffs it's cap to Shakespeare in "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" to the wedding band cynicism that slides through "Fake Tales Of San Francisco" and the beautifully choreographed "Dancing Shoes", and finally the sing along classic of the album "When The Sun Goes Down" addressing modern conceptions of villainous character, deliciously baptised "that scummy man" in Alex Turner's northern drawl.

But when I look at the album, and listen to its beguiling modernity and frank nature to notions of binge drinking and cover bands, I think of the Internet, of Myspace and the later development of the "landfill indie" scene, and most importantly - the 21st Century.

#7 - Slipknot - Slipknot

13 years on from the Slayer album that formed the basis of my last post 15 days ago, comes an album that like "Reign In Blood" before it, redefined the meaning of "extreme" metal, and well, everything else.

Originating from Des Moines, Iowa - Slipknot were formed of nine - yes, nine members, including three drummers, a DJ and a man who did "samples". They wore masks, suits that would have been standard issue in a mental asylum and spent the majority of live shows flitting between barely contained aggression and open lunacy.

Their first album, a self titled opus, began with a 30 second recording of various people claiming "the whole thing, I think it's sick", reportedly taken from interviews with members of the public about the Charles Manson murders in the late '60's.

And then, the sound hit you. A refined combination of the speed and thrash metal Slayer and Metallica had become famous for in the 80's, combined with the then modern advent of "scratches" on a DJ deck. And over the top of the musical brutality was a vocalist who could scream, sing and rap, as well as vocally replicate feelings of panic and delusion like no other.

The first full track; "(sic)" features all these elements, mixed in a raw, unrelenting fashion by Roadrunner's Ross Robinson. The line "You can't kill me 'cos I'm already inside you", repeated mantra style at the culmination of the song typifies the approach Slipknot took as a band, and sums up beautifully the effect the nine shock rockers had on the music industry, and teenagers the world over.

Because quite simply, as the album wore on, the Slipknot virus began to spread throughout the system. Suddenly, you were nodding along, tapping your feet and murmuring the lyrics to "Wait and Bleed", or "Eyeless".

It was brutal, relentless and difficult to justify any love for. But damn, it was good. You didn't know why you enjoyed it so much, but you did. In the same way Romans packed the Colosseum to see Lions tear Christians to shreds, you enjoyed the odes to psychosis, the tales of evil that poured from your speaker.

Take "Eyeless", for example. A speed garage/death metal combination that punctuates the introduction, leading into Corey Taylor's lyrics borrowed from a deranged homeless man they met in LA. "Insane, am I the only muthafucker with a brain?/I'm hearing voices but all they do is complain/" leading into the now famous "You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes". Genius, right?

To the listener(or maybe just me), it worked. It was new, exciting, and the most defiantly fresh thing to hit metal since Slayer's "Angel Of Death".

And defiance was definitely the word for them. For a teenager, like I was - like the millions that felt the same; Slipknot meant empowerment. Like Punk before it, and pop music's inception before that, it was the ability to say "fuck you" to modern culture, and form your own. I remember being part of this motley crue of modern metal fans in my adolescent, and while there were many disagreements about specifics in musical taste and preference; there was one constant. Slipknot.

They became the standard bearer for modern metal, the band that did it how they wanted to and became successful. I remember reading a story about Slipknot, about when a record label scout came to see them at a show, famously saying "If these make it, I'll kill myself ". Slipknot heard about this, and when they released their self titled album, sent the man a bunch of dead roses with a note "we've made it now, go kill yourself".

And while that as perhaps a bit below the belt, and hopefully a little tongue in cheek, the principle was clear; noone expected them to do it, yet here they are. On their own terms, with their own fans and playing their own, deliciously unique brand of music. And frankly, we needed them.

Slipknot have since opened the gate to bands who now know they can do it on their own terms, and shouldn't be dictated to by market concious label owners. Arguably, Slipknot changed the music industry for the better, rather than blighted it.

Yes, they may be shocking, they maybe obtuse, and even a little frightening, but their music is great and their defiance from the beginning has set a tone could have changed the landscape of the consumer centred music business we now take part in. And I, for one am glad about that.

Here's to Slipknot; the band who did what noone wanted them to do, and built a career on it.

#8 Slayer - Reign In Blood

1986. The year of big hair, big tunes, Bon Jovi and spandex. Europe's "The Final Countdown" is the biggest hit record of the year, hitting number one in more countries than I, or the people that bought it would care to mention.

During this period, a variation of the Heavy Metal genre first christened by Steppenwolf in classic "Born To Be Wild"and defined by Black Sabbath's self titled debut in 1970 began to make some waves outside of the tape trading industry where it first found fans.

Thrash Metal. Combining the intricate, solo heavy stylings of "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" utilized by Iron Maiden, Diamond Head and Saxon with the brash, speed reliant aggression of punk bands like The Misfits and Dead Kennedys and all encompassing attraction of drug taking, solo wailing, drumkit breaking threesome Motorhead. Beginning with Metallica's far from subtle entrance into the music industry "Kill 'Em All", Thrash was metal for those too punk to like Deep Purple, and those to metal to like The Ramones(which in itself is a mortal sin, The Ramones are great), thus attracting a wide range of followers, sharing in their taste through taped versions of albums and live recordings from gritty clubs around San Francisco.

Since the Metallica's aforementioned debut in 1983, Thrash snowballed - bands like Megadeth and Exodus popping up in the same year, each trying to outdo each other in terms of intricacy and tempo. And with Metallica leaving the pure thrash scene(The Ride The Lightning album in 1984 already showing open attempts to distance away from original thrash, "Fade to Black a ballad beginning with an acoustic guitar, for example) as quickly a they'd coined it, it was up to the others to quite literally pick up the pace.

This race was quickly ended by today's topic of discussion, Slayer.

A band whose 1985 album, "Hell Awaits" was so quick singer Tom Araya had to sing faster than many of today's Grime artists simply to keep up, continued the theme with their third album "Reign In Blood".

Teaming with now world famous producer Rick Rubin, Slayer headed in the studio with the intention of recording the defining "the" Thrash album. And it was just that. Clocking in at 29 minutes, featuring near-250bpm 100 second long "Necrophobic", Slayer did more than any other band in history to bridge the gap between hardcore punk and metal.

For me, it was wonderful. Opening with the jaw dropping "Angel Of Death", a near 5 minute ode to brutal Nazi scientist Josef Mengele, the lyrical horrors screamed by Tom Araya over a tighter-than tight combination of crushingly precise guitar and drummer Dave Lombardo's mind boggling accuracy - typified by the kick drum only roll near the end of the song, single handedly rewriting the concept of speed-metal musicianship.

It was shocking. It was quick. It was heavy. For a kid getting into Metallica, Guns N Roses and Iron Maiden, "Reign In Blood" was the steel boot kicking the door open into a new world of music. Like Linkin Park a year or so before, Slayer served to kick it up a notch or several; consigning me to endless evenings spent wailing my drum kit in a futile attempt to recreate Lombardo's work.

It also cemented my now resolute mentality when it comes to metal. If ever an album said defiance, it was Reign In Blood. I felt like I had to defend it, considering it's abrasive and unrelenting sound. It solidified my angst. It felt empowering(not in lyrical content, I'm not a sociopath) musically, and reminded me constantly that if they can do it, so can I. I didn't have to listen to the Top 40, I didn't have to pretend to care. I had Slayer, and from the moment I stared at the hell depicted on the front cover and the fear tinged excitement gave me goosebumps and the feeling that I shouldn't be listening, they had me.

Even to this day, in my ripe old age of 19, I still listen to "Angel of Death" and smile manically, I still sing along to the riff in "Raining Blood" like an over exuberant schoolboy, and every so often I sit behind a drum kit and attempt to recreate the adrenalin pumping work of Dave Lombardo. And that's the way it'll always be.