The New Yorkers are known as part of the Big Four of thrash, but a ‘degree of levity’ has set them apart from their peers – here we round up their best albums

Van Halen albums have it all: One of the most innovative guitarists of all time, a consummate showman and some great tunes. Here we pick the best of their back catalogue

Foreigner produced some of rock's definitive melodic rock albums, blending hard rock and atmospheric ballads to the tune of 80 million sales

Since the early 1970s, Eagles and associated solo projects have produced some of rock’s most timeless and enduring music

With Highway To Hell AC/DC raced ahead of the rest by making a record that finally helped them break America... but such success came with a huge cost

The Bon Jovi albums essential to any record collection

The best albums by glam's very own Motley Crue, the four men behind The Dirt

Hanoi Rocks were the greatest rock’n’roll band ever to come from Finland, and these are their best albums

Recorded in a rush and inspired by horror films, Sabbath’s debut was panned by critics. Idiots. Here, guitarist Tony Iommi looks back on the album's legacy

Heavy metal doesn’t come more gloriously over-the-top than the self-proclaimed kings and defenders of ‘True Metal’ – here we round-up the albums essential to any record collection

Their ‘you couldn’t make it up’ story is a mini-soap opera, with a soundtrack that includes some of rock's very best moments – here we unpack the Mac's most essential albums

Saxon were one of NWOBHM's spearheads, producing at least two genre-defining albums

Def Leppard have endured more heartbreak yet shifted albums than almost anyone. Here we rank those releases from worrying worst to brilliant best

How Guns N’ Roses made Welcome To The Jungle – the song that lit the fuse on the explosion that followed

The Brian Johnson era may have kicked off with the unsurpassable Back In Black, but there's plenty of other fodder in his canon

Lynyrd Skynyrd blended southern soul and hard rock to define southern rock better than anyone, and came up with a few classics along the way...

Throughout his career with Rainbow and beyond, Ritchie Blackmore helped define what it was to be a guitarist

Ronnie James Dio's albums with Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio helped define what a hard rock singer can be

The 10 Best Metallica songs from the 1980s, the decade from which they exploded

From the late 60s through to the late 80s, some of the greatest and most influential albums ever made were doubles

Classic Rock presents the complete list of The Eagles' nine albums, ranked from worst to best