Classic Rock Magazine

Every scene needs a song to carry its message to the world, and Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow provided two. But what of the rest?

Ditching Deep Purple’s full-throttle grandeur, Ian Paice and Jon Lord's new endeavour was conceived as a hybrid of the blues groups, jazz outfits and big bands they had grown up with

Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien was the album that made his name and took shredding to the masses

With one foot in their blues past and the other in the psychedelic present, The Yardbirds' Roger The Engineer was the band's only UK album

There's more to BTO than Smashy and Nicey's favourite song, and Not Fragile proves it

In which Former Deep Purple bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes and guitarist Pat Thrall kick up a short-lived AOR storm

Straight outta South London, Rock Goddess's career faltered more often than it flowered, but the pioneering trio's self-titled debut is a fondly-remembered slice of NWOBHM

Manowar's debut album Battle Hymns laid out the band's future path in an early, loinclothed manifesto: Death to false metal!

Credited to Joe Walsh, Barnstorm's second album The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get was their last before Walsh jumped ship fly solo

A debut album to savour from Ronnie James Dio, and part of the singer's Triple Crown Of Metal

Malice In Wonderland was perhaps Nazareth's most commercial album, but it was also a commercial disaster

Turning 35 this month, Appetite For Destruction is generally accepted as one of the greatest debut albums ever. Does it still hold up to such high praise?

Ditching the studio polish of Mutt Lange, AC/DC went back to basics on Flick Of The Switch and recorded what's often seen as their weakest album. But was it?

Recorded in The US, France and Germany, Scorpions' second live album World Wide Live showcased the band at their pyramid-building, fearsomely well-drilled peak

Steely Dan's Can't Buy A Thrill was the debut album from two of music's great smart-asses, or as one reviewer puts it, "Yacht rock captained by two cranky eggheads"