They may have risen to fame as depraved L.A. rock-club icons, but by 1991, Guns N' Roses was hardly thinking small. Instead, Axl Rose was focused on creating some big stadium-rock showpieces like "Civil War" and "November Rain" that were inspired by his '70s heroes, Queen and Elton John.

After a long wait for new material from the band, these epics were packaged along with a few of Guns' early hard-rock numbers like "Back Off Bitch" to produce Use Your Illusion I & II. The LPs, released simultaneously, spawned MTV hits for days. Sadly, they were also the final studio material recorded by the band's magical classic lineup.

2. Metallica, ...And Justice For All

Metallica has a bit of a troubling history with double albums. Load and ReLoad received a cold response from longtime fans, and S&M and Lulu edged toward embarrassing. Only their first double LP is essential.

Best known as the album containing "One," the Metallica song that makes nearly all heavy metal sound like complete fucking garbage by comparison, ...And Justice For All is a long, angry album soaked in the band's pain over losing bassist Cliff Burton in a tour-bus accident. Bitter cuts like the title track and "Harvester of Sorrow" stacked inventive riff upon riff, purging Metallica of its thick reserves of thrash before the subgenre collapsed in on itself.