Badlands

Features former Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Jake E. Lee and Black Sabbath's vocalist Ray Gillen. Badlands' self-titled debut featured a refreshingly stripped-down blues metal sound, which cut against the grain of the polished pop metal then in vogue. Exploding with Lee's impressive chops and Gillen's powerful Robert Plant-like screams, opener "High Wire" sets the energetic tone, and leads the way to other outstanding melodic rockers like "Dreams in the Dark" and "Winter's Call" -- both of which received generous MTV rotation. In retrospect, the album's enduring relevance places it not alongside glam metal groups like Motley Crue or Ratt, but in the better company of other retro-minded hard rock bands such as the Black Crowes