This is an accepted version of this page Appetite for Destruction is the debut studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on July 21, 1987, by Geffen Records.

Guns N' Roses' first recordings were for a planned EP in March 1985, shortly after the band formed, with "Don't Cry", a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel", "Think About You" and "Anything Goes".

[5] Shortly afterward, the classic lineup of Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, Slash, Steven Adler, and Izzy Stradlin was finalized.

[13] The band eventually recorded nine songs with Proffer during these sessions, including "Heartbreak Hotel", "Don't Cry", "Welcome to the Jungle", and "Shadow of Your Love".

Slash struggled to find a guitar sound, before coming up with a Gibson Les Paul copy equipped with Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups and plugged into a Marshall amplifier.

[21] The photographs used for the back of the album and liner notes were taken by Robert John, Marc Canter, Jack Lue, Leonard McCardie, and Greg Freeman.

The band stated the original artwork was "a symbolic social statement, with the robot representing the industrial system that's raping and polluting our environment.

[23] When Appetite for Destruction was released by Geffen Records on July 21, 1987, it received little notice from American press and radio, apart from some airplay in California.

[24] The album debuted at number 182 on the Billboard 200 the week of August 29, but it only sold 200,000 copies in the first several months of its release, and Geffen planned on "walking away" from the record.

[26] With the radio and video airplay, as well as the band's touring, Appetite for Destruction managed to top the Billboard 200 on August 6, 1988, over a year after it was released.

[36] The album was not well received by contemporary American critics,[47] many of whom complained that its massive success with consumers was fostered by the taboo of "sex, drugs and rock & roll" during the 1980s, when much of the cultural atmosphere in the US became informed by the Reagan-Bush Administration, the AIDS crisis, and the popularity of MTV.

[48] Writing in 1987, Dave Ling of Metal Hammer dismissed the album as an inferior mix of elements from bands such as Aerosmith, Hanoi Rocks, and AC/DC.

"[44] Stephen Thomas Erlewine also viewed the album as a "turning point for hard rock" in his review for AllMusic, and felt Rose's singing and songwriting were enhanced by Slash and Stradlin's dual guitar playing, which helped make Appetite for Destruction "the best metal record of the late '80s".

[37] According to Jimmy Martin of The Quietus, the album, which he called "the greatest hard rock record of the 80s", has an "unrefined, punk quality" that marked a "shift away" from the hair metal bands commercialized by MTV.

"[27] Russell Hall, the features writer for Gibson's online publication, said the album "injected a much-needed dose of '70s-style rebellion into the frothy pop metal of the '80s", by "combining the swagger of late '60s Stones and vintage Aerosmith with the menace of punk and a trash-glam aesthetic".

[50] Writing for Pitchfork, Maura Johnston called the album "a watershed moment in '80s rock that chronicled every vice of Los Angeles led by the lye-voiced Axl Rose and a legendary, switchblade-sharp band.

[54] On the other hand, Sputnikmusic said the album has been somewhat overrated, and most of the songs suffer by comparison to the highlights "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Paradise City", "Mr. Brownstone", and "Rocket Queen".

[46] All tracks are written by Guns N' Roses, except where notedOn April 30, 2018, billboards appeared in several large cities and a website was launched with the tagline "Destruction Is Coming".

[72] In addition to the music, this release included a 96-page book with unreleased photos from Rose's personal archive, 12 lithographs visualizing each song on the album, and assorted replica memorabilia.

A hidden tape of the band's five-song 1985 Mystic Studios demo session is included as an easter egg in one of the drawers of the Locked N' Loaded edition.

All tracks are written by Guns N' Roses, except where notedA fifth disc is included: a Blu-ray disc with 96 kHz 24-bit 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes (mixed by Elliot Scheiner and Frank Filipetti) of all of Appetite for Destruction, alongside bonus tracks "Shadow of Your Love", "Patience", "Used to Love Her", "You're Crazy", and "Move to the City" (1988 Acoustic version).