A 1986 indie release, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide included four songs that later showed up on the grab-bag Lies. 

 An inevitable hit, Appetite expressed the captive energies of young America in a voice–the unbounded scream of W. Axl Rose–that was both irresistible and a little scary. Guns N’ Roses attacked with smarts, snot, and vitriol, cutting through a decade of hairspray with one nasty punch. 

 The double EP G N’ R Lies made for a strange sophomore release by matching up the group’s most tender moment, “Patience,” with the jokey murder ballad “I Used to Love Her” and “One in a Million,” in which Rose trashed gays and immigrants over Slash and Stradlin’s sloppy guitar s... 

 The two Use Your Illusion albums offered a stunned public nearly three hours of serious exploration and wild riffing. I is more propulsive, with Stradlin songs, a cover of “Live and Let Die,” and vintage G n’ R rockers tempering the grandiosity of the mini-opera “November Rain.”  

 On II, nastiness and levity (McKagan’s Johnny Thunders paean “So Fine”) counter the weirdness of “Breakdown” and “My World” and the extravagance of the riveting, nine-minute “Estranged.” But G N’ R could still focus–see the cutting “You Could Be Mine” and the plainly ins... 

 An enjoyable album of punk, glam, and soul covers, The Spaghetti Incident? suggested that G N’ R might be headed back to its spiritual base of shredding rock. But Rose had something different in mind. His growing interest in industrial music and electronica began the band’s long dissolve. 

 Live Era: '87-'93 attempted to keep interest alive as late as 1999, but the scattered recordings didn't do justice to any of their studio versions. 

 Greatest Hits is a fizzy delight–and a good place for the uninitiated to start.  

 The legend of Chinese Democracy, the most delayed album of all time, far eclipsed any of the music on it. The album came with the baggage of countless false starts and lineup adjustments, leaving the music an emotionless blob, with any redeeming moments hidden behind the monolithic churn.