Guns N' Roses
Appetite for Destruction

"Appetite For Destruction" is the first studio album by Guns N' Roses, dating back to the distant 1987 and produced by Geffen. It owes its name to a 1978 work by Robert Williams, which, as can be admired inside the CD, depicts a fire dragon with armor defending a helpless blonde Mr. Mini-Mite robot saleswoman from the dangers of a mechanical rapist.

 At the time of the first Guns album, that is before Axl started firing almost all the band members, it could boast a vocalist like W. Axl Rose, whose incredible rasp...uhm, vocals, worked well with the guitars of Izzy Stradlin' and especially the formidable Slash, with the bass of Duff "Rose" McKagan and the drums of Steven Adler, who was later kicked out of the group due to his problems related, guess what, to substance abuse.

Sure, "Appetite For Destruction" has its flaws, such as the lack of imagination in the lyrics, which are essentially focused only on sexual themes and do not bring substantial changes to the well-worn topic within the realm of '80s sleaze rock/glam metal, or the fact that some tracks tend to sound a bit alike. However, apart from the undeniable skill of the musicians, superior to most of their contemporaries and alas even today hard to match, this album has the rare ability, even in the darkest moments, to make you want to jump, scream, and sing at the top of your lungs following Axl's improbable high notes or Slash's superb solos. I think the term most apt to define this intriguing phenomenon is "hype".

Appetite For Destruction opens with the famous "Welcome To The Jungle," which I could euphemistically describe as exuberant, and continues with other more or less catchy tracks such as "It's So Easy," "Out Ta Get Me," "Think About You," "Anything Goes," or "You're Crazy" (The latter was originally recorded in an acoustic version, included in Guns N' Roses Lies, the subsequent album, which includes, in addition to the songs recorded in 1988, also those from '86). Besides the aforementioned tracks, the album also contains true gems, like the indescribable "Paradise City". Other really great songs are "My Michelle," "Nightrain," "Mr. Brownstone," which presents an interesting variation compared to the rest of the album, as it deals with the artists' relationship with drugs (famous is the phrase "We're all becoming like Mr. Brownstone," with which the brave Axl used to scold the various band members), or "Sweet Child O'Mine," which Slash described as "a sappy ballad" (and in my opinion he was right), but which with its well-known riff greatly contributed to the fame of the great guitarist - who now plays with Velvet Revolver, which also includes other former Guns N' Roses members, Duff and Matt Sorum. But perhaps my absolute favorite track is "Rocket Queen," the twelfth and last track on the album, whose first part flaunts the Sex-Drugs-RN'R-Woman-I'm-A-Cool-Guy-Nobody-Is-Worthy-To-Lace-My-Crocodile-Boots paradigm to the point of nausea, then flows into a surprisingly sweet lyric and musicality, concluding in a carnival of virtuosity.

Such an exciting CD must be absolutely and religiously listened to, but, at least for me, it leaves a bit of bitterness, as it belongs to a recent past that in its grandeur seems light-years away from today's musical landscape. The music of Guns N' Roses brought a movement to its utmost splendor that was not only musical but also social and cultural, which, beyond a mere "good/bad" judgment, meant a lot twenty years ago but is now decidedly outdated. However, since our era has not offered alternatives worthy of the name, or has done so by relegating the most deserving artists, with some exceptions, to a rather underground environment, I really do not know if it's better to remain attached to myths that are not ours or to search for others that represent all of us kids of 2008, with the strong risk of not finding them.