Album Review: Appetite for Destruction: Super Deluxe Edition [Box Set] by Guns N' Roses

When Guns N' Roses exploded from the Sunset Strip with lyrics like, "West Coast struttin', one bad mutha, got a rattlesnake suitcase under my arm," they were a vision of piss n' vinegar at a time when Steve Winwood was topping the charts. Apart from Axl Rose's mile-high coiffure, Appetite for Destruction was the opposite of everything going on in the mainstream: it sounded raw, nasty and dangerous. They were a fully formed statement, capped off with an exclamation point.

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Respectability, it seems, is the inevitable end for all things “dangerous” in popular music. From jazz to heavy metal to punk, yesterday's moral panics usually become today's wholesome entertainment. So it is that Guns N' Roses—once breathlessly dubbed “the most dangerous band in the world” and effectively banned from daytime MTV and radio play—are now staples of classic rock radio, with songs from their multi-platinum debut, Appetite for Destruction, in heavy rotation alongside the likes of Journey and Boston.

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Guns N' Roses' debut, Appetite for Destruction, was a turning point for hard rock in the late '80s -- it was a dirty, dangerous, and mean record in a time when heavy metal meant nothing but a good time. On the surface, Guns N' Roses may appear to celebrate the same things as their peers -- namely, sex, liquor, drugs, and rock & roll -- but there is a nasty edge to their songs, since Axl Rose doesn't see much fun in the urban sprawl of L.A. and its parade of heavy metal thugs, cheap women, booze, and crime.

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