featured hard rock albums
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- Joe Satriani
- Satchurated: Live in Montreal
- A rockin' live 2010 show released as a double CD and 3-D Blu-ray.
- Tenacious D
- Rize of the Fenix
- Tenacious D rise from the ashes of The Pick of Destiny with Rize of the Fenix, a heavy, silly return to form.
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- Slash
- Apocalyptic Love
- Slash's second solo album, Apocalyptic Love is a comfortably familiar stroll through the back alleys of L.A. sleaze rock.
- Lostprophets
- Weapons
- Bristles with electro-metal goodness, fusing Muse's libertine enthusiasm with Green Day's flair for rousing suburban angst.
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- The Cult
- Choice of Weapon
- Choice of Weapon is the Cult's most strident, aggressive, and consistent hard rock album since 1989's Sonic Temple.
- Brad
- United We Stand
- Coming into their second decade as a band, the eternal Pearl Jam side project can't quite get over the 1990s' golden age of grunge.
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- Various Artists
- Now That's What I Call…
- Jams from rock chart-toppers like Meat Loaf and Journey bring the heat on this classic rock installment in the Now series.
- Cherri Bomb
- This Is the End of Control
- Cherri Bomb's full-length debut proves that the members of this all-girl band can rock just as hard as guys twice their age.
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- Janis Joplin
- The Pearl Sessions
- The Pearl Sessions takes Janis Joplin fans deep into the heart of the creation of her final album.
- 12 Stones
- Beneath the Scars
- 12 Stones' fourth studio album, Beneath the Scars, finds the Louisiana-based rockers primed and ready for mainstream rock radio.
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- Accept
- Stalingrad
- Builds on the surprise success of 2010's Blood of the Nations with another solid set of muscular, military grade metal.
- Alter Bridge
- Live at Wembley: European…
- Live at Wembley sees Orlando post-grunge quartet Alter Bridge fulfill their career-long ambition to perform at the famous London venue.
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- Big Brother & the Hold …
- Live at the Carousel Ballroom…
- Astonishing sound and an electrifying performance make this Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company their best live document to date.
- My Darkest Days
- Sick and Twisted Affair
- My Darkest Days return with the tighter and more consistent sophomore effort, Sick and Twisted Affair.
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- Robin Trower
- Farther On Up the Road:…
- The three-disc Farther on Up the Road is the second and final installment encapsulating Robin Trower's Chrysalis period.
- Halestorm
- The Strange Case Of...
- Carried by the powerful vocals of Lzzy Hale, Halestorm bring genuine passion and emotion to their driving hard rock sound on The Strange Case Of....
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- Black Country Communio …
- Live Over Europe
- The hard rock supergroup's first concert release, Live Over Europe, follows the band over three nights in the German cities of Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin.
- Bachman-Turner Overdri …
- Not Fragile/Four Wheel…
- This Bachman-Turner Overdrive two-fer contains three songs that became hard rock radio hits in the mid-'70s.
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about hard rock
Hard rock is a term that's frequently applied to any sort of loud, aggressive guitar rock, but for these purposes, the definition is more specific. To be sure, hard rock is loud, aggressive guitar rock, but it isn't as heavy as heavy metal, and it's only very rarely influenced by punk (though it helped inspire punk). Hard rock generally prizes big, stadium-ready guitar riffs, anthemic choruses, and stomping, swaggering backbeats; its goals are usually (though not universally) commercial, and it's nearly always saturated with machismo. With some bands, it can be difficult to tell where the dividing line between hard rock and heavy metal falls, but the basic distinction is that ever since Black Sabbath, metal tends to be darker and more menacing, while hard rock (for the most part) has remained exuberant, chest-thumping party music. Additionally, while metal riffs often function as stand-alone melodies, hard rock riffs tend to outline chord progressions in their hooks, making for looser, more elastic jams should the band decide to stretch out instrumentally. Like heavy metal, hard rock sprang from the mid-'60s intersection of blues-rock and psychedelia pioneered by artists like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and the Jeff Beck Group. Blues-rock and psychedelia were both exploring the limits of electric amplification, and blues-rock was pushing the repeated guitar riff center stage, while taking some of the swing out of the blues beat and replacing it with a thumping power. Hard rock really came into its own at the dawn of the '70s, with the tough, boozy rock of the Rolling Stones (post-Brian Jones) and Faces, the blues-drenched power and textured arrangements of Led Zeppelin, the post-psychedelic rave-ups of Deep Purple, and the loud, ringing power chords of the Who (circa Who's Next) setting the template for much of what followed. Later in the decade, the lean, stripped-down riffs of AC/DC and Aerosmith, the catchy tunes and stage theatrics of Alice Cooper and Kiss, and the instrumental flash of Van Halen set new trends, though the essential musical blueprint for hard rock remained similar. Arena rock also became a dominant force, stripping out nearly all blues influence and concentrating solely on big, bombastic hooks. During the '80s, hard rock was dominated by glossy pop-metal, although Guns N' Roses, the Black Crowes, and several others did present a grittier, more traditionalist alternative. Old-fashioned hard rock became a scarce commodity in the post-alternative rock era; after grunge, many guitar bands not only adopted a self-consciously serious attitude, but also resisted the urge to write fist-pumping, arena-ready choruses. Still, the '90s did produce a few exceptions, such as Oasis, Urge Overkill, and the serious but anthemic Pearl Jam.