I think I preferred Anthrax’s Among The Living (or anything they did in the 80s) over GnR. I used to hate GnR, but gradually grew to tolerate them. Just because it was a popular album, does not make it “best”. Its really a stupid idea to put that label on one out of hundreds of thousands of CDs that were released over a ten-year span.
I think they put that label on it because it was the first of the nonhair band and non-”I’m so bad because I sing about Satan” bands to break through the mainstream. Anthrax was a good band, but they did not have the success or sales that GnR had. I loved GnR (until Axl got all artsy fartsy) and think that AFD was a really good album musically too.
But if you asked me on another day, I might tell you that “Frontiers” was the best album. Which is nearly 10 years younger and in a totally different genre.
Heck, I’m just being nostalgic for GnR today I think.