10 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time [Watch]
Getting it right on the first shot is extremely rare in music, but the bands on this Loud List immediately made a massive impact with their respective debut releases, sometimes shifting the landscape drastically in the process.
Though Ronnie James Dio had a rich history in metal before forming his eponymous band, the Holy Diver album cemented the vocalist's status as a metal god. Decades later, songs like “Stand Up and Shout,” “Rainbow in the Dark,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “Holy Diver” are among the most beloved heavy metal cuts of all time.
Rap and metal together as one genre? Hell no! At least not until Rage Against the Machine came along and melded those worlds together with undeniable power. Suddenly, a band existed that appealed to metalheads, punks, hip-hop fans and just about everyone else. There’s not one weak track on Rage Against the Machine, instead filled to the brim with political protest anthems.
Forget "best debut of all time," Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction is the best album of the 1980s, at least in our estimation. Hailed as a record which was glam enough for the Sunset Strip and aggressive enough for the cred metalheads, Appetite is about as perfect as a full-length can get. Just ask the fans that fill stadiums three decades later, just to see Axl, Slash and Duff on the same stage.
Check out our picks for the 10 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time in the Loud List above.
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