appetite for destruction is one of the best hard-rock albums ever made. *tangentially, wowee zowee is better than crooked rain.
Blue Monday by New Order is generally accepted as the Stairway of the 80's - Do the math and you'll find the same conclusion.
If I forced to rank them: 1) STP 2) Soundgarden 3) Guns N Roses ... ... ... ... ... 4) Velvet Revolver ... ... ... .. 5) Audioslave
Actually the order they're listed in would be my rankings. It's tough to pick between STP and Soundgarden, for me though.