Jon Hotten

Everybody's got to start somewhere, and some of our very best bands started slowly. Here's 10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually great

Nirvana’s Nevermind album introduced 90s grunge to the mainstream and sounded the death knell for the 80s

Equal parts hooks and hairspray, glam metal's brief moment in the Hollywood limelight was both brash and brilliant. These are the best albums

Whitesnake’s album 1987 sold millions and turned David Coverdale into a rock legend. It also made David’s future wife Tawny Kitaen a star

In 1974 Queen released the album that would define their sound, capture their grand ambition and vindicate their unshakeable self-belief. This is the story of Queen II and the real birth of the legend

It's one of the biggest-grossing computer games of all time. Slash talks about how he became famous all over again through Guitar Hero III

Rock is often about more than just the music: it's about The Big Idea, and ambition manifesting itself as The Concept Album

Power pop is the cheeky little cousin of pop-rock. It’s one of rock’s most accessible genres, and it’s not so easy to define, but these are its best albums

In 1971, Led Zeppelin released their untitled fourth album and changed the face of rock forever. This is the story of the album known variously as Led Zeppelin IV, Runes, Four Symbols or simply Untitled

It launched Meat Loaf onto an unsuspecting world. It stayed in the UK charts for eight years and became the biggest selling debut album of all time. It also nearly finished off the singer for good. This is the story of Bat Out Of Hell

From the ashes of 60s blues rock, Led Zeppelin took off and wrote the template for all hard rock that followed. But it was all just an extension of the blues tradition itself

Even the best can get it wrong sometimes: here's the worst albums by 10 of rock's greatest bands

Fistfights, ulcers and run-ins with the law were all part of the Eagles’ everyday life: A look behind the rise, fall and unexpected rise again of the ultimate Californian band

In 2003 Classic Rock spoke to Nikki Sixx about Motley Crue's upcoming movie The Dirt. It wouldn't see the light of day for another sixteen years

Magnum have never joined rock’s big league, but these Brummies have nevertheless produced some of pomp rock’s best albums

It’s not just the greatest AOR album ever made, Journey’s Escape also flies high outside the genre as one of the greatest albums in rock

From big hitters like Journey, Boston and Foreigner to the lesser known lights of AOR, these are the 50 albums that truly sparkle

Big hair and bad spandex almost killed any credibility metal had in the 1980s. But metal not only survived, it also came back bigger than ever. Here’s how…

In 2009, the sobered-up Guns N' Roses veteran spoke to Classic Rock from a position of domestic bliss and reduced drama, while promoting a new Loaded album

Legendary rock journalist Mick Wall was famously called out by Axl Rose on Guns N' Roses' furious Get In The Ring. Is his new book about the band the chance to settle old scores?

Former Skid Row singer, Broadway star and reality TV stalwart Sebastian Bach on the best and worst drugs, Axl Rose, and working until the day you die...

Drugs, rifts, hirings, firings, and the sound of a band falling apart. Slash, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and more tell the story of GN’R’s Use Your Illusion

Great White toured with Guns N' Roses, hit the charts, and dissolved in a blur of betrayal and substance abuse. And, just when it couldn’t get worse, they played Rhode Island

A shy kid from Zanzibar helped propel Queen to superstardom. Classic Rock chronicles the extraordinary story of the Queen singer

In the late 80s, unknown musician Matthew Trippe claimed to have replaced Nikki Sixx in Motley Crue. Now the true story of Trippe’s strange life can finally be told