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Artist: Guns N' Roses
Genre: Hard Rock
Year: 1991
Rating: 7.5 / 10

Guns N' Roses used to be the biggest thing in rock & roll. That may be hard to fathom with the 1990s behind us, but near the end of the eighties and into the early nineties, Guns N' Roses was hard rock. Appetite for Destruction is considered one of the most impressive debut albums ever, and for five years after its release, Guns N' Roses was the brightest star in the music industry. For those of you playing at home, this was before the return of boy bands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. Yes, there was a "before."

Being the titans of rock, each album was greeted with the type of fan frenzy that is now reserved for the likes of Britney Spears. In the fall of 1991, Guns N' Roses decided to try something which, at the time, was quite unusual. The band, seeking to roar back from a subpar effort (Lies, the band's second album), released two albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, at the same time. Fans went crazy, and, in order to deal with the increased demand, record stores opened their doors at midnight the Monday before the album went on sale. This might seem commonplace in today's internet-friendly market, but this was revolutionary in the early nineties. Needless to say, fans would not be disappointed.

Use Your Illusion II is easily the better of the two albums, and it is no coincidence that this effort spawned the majority of the albums' hits. "Civil War," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and "You Could Be Mine" exploded onto national radio, especially "You Could Be Mine," which rode T2: Judgment Day to huge success. Lesser-known tracks like "Estranged" and "14 Years" enjoyed brief moments of fame, as did cult favorite "Get in the Ring," the band's vengeance against music critics everywhere. Axl Rose still has one of the most distinctive voices in rock, something that is quite apparent on the band's cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin'." Guns N' Roses' rendition is more powerful and more rock & roll than Dylan could have ever imagined, and fans cheered with delight.

All good things come to an end, and the career of Guns N' Roses did just that. Though Axl is still trying to keep Guns N' Roses alive, the band never again reached the heights it attained in those few great years. Unfortunately, with their demise, alternative music began to override traditional rock & roll, sending it into a tailspin from which it has yet to recover. Bands like the now-mainstream Metallica are all that is left of a once-proud decade, and it is a loss we should all be mourning. Use Your Illusion II is Guns N' Roses at its best, and, as we have now seen, it will have to suffice. That is all we have left of this once-dominant band…