KISW - Celebrating 40 Years of Rock

3 Doors Down

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Album: The Better Life Year: 2002 Label: Republic website

The first studio album by 3 Doors Down, The Better Life, was released on February 8, 2000. It has gone six times platinum since its release. Yeilding their first single, "Kryptonite", which charted in the top three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the band was propelled to national fame. The album peaked at the #1 position on the Heatseekers Albums chart and with 6 million copies sold worldwide, it is the band's best-selling album to date.

AC/DC

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Album: Black Ice Year: 2008 Label: Columbia website

Black Ice is the sixteenth studio album by the Australian rock band AC/DC. The record was launched exclusively in physical formats, as the group does not sell its music digitally. Walmart got exclusive rights for North American distribution and released the album with an extensive marketing campaign which included in-store displays focusing on AC/DC memorabilia. Three singles were issued, "Rock N' Roll Train", "Big Jack" and "Anything Goes". Black Ice went to #1 in 29 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was the second best selling record of 2008.

Alice In Chains

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Album: Black Gives Way to Blue Year: 2009 Label: Virgin/EMI website

Released in September of 2009, Black Gives Way to Blue is the band's first release with new vocalist/guitarist William DuVall, who took over for the late Layne Staley and the first Alice In Chains album released in nearly fourteen years. This is also the band's first album to be released on Virgin Records, their first venture away from the Columbia label, who had released all of their previous records. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA on May 26, 2010, with shipments exceeding 500,000 copies.

Audioslave

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Album: Audioslave Year: 2002 Label: Interscope/Epic website

The album's music features Chris Cornell providing his familiar classic rock-esque wails and croons as featured on the hit singles "Cochise", "Show Me How to Live", "What You Are", "Like a Stone" and "I Am the Highway". The record was certified triple platinum in the US and "Like a Stone" was nominated for the Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy award in 2004.

Avenged Sevenfold

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Album: Nightmare Year: 2010 Label: Warner Bros. website

Nightmare is the first Avenged Sevenfold record containing material recorded without founding member James "The Rev" Sullivan performing drums after his death in December of 2009, although he had played a large role as a songwriter beforehand, and he had previously recorded vocal tracks for the songs "Fiction" and "Save Me". Nightmare debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 selling 163,000 copies and surpassing its predecessor in first week sales. It is the first album by Avenged Sevenfold to top the Billboard 200 chart.

Creed

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Album: Weathered Year: 2001 Label: Wind-Up website

Weathered has been certified six times platinum by the RIAA. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 887,000 copies in its first week of release. It remained in the top spot for eight weeks straight, a record for which Creed is tied with The Beatles albums, The Anthology Series. This album also contains both Creed's shortest song ("Freedom Fighter") and longest song ("Who's Got My Back?"). It has sold 6 million copies worldwide and was also the last Creed album released before the band broke up in 2004, though they later reunited in 2009.

Disturbed

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Album: The Sickness Year: 2000 Label: Giant/Reprise website

The album peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200 chart and it has spent a total of 103 weeks on that chart, as of June 2010. The Sickness has been certified four times platinum by the RIAA, with around 4,138,206 copies sold in the United States alone as of 2010, making it the band's most successful album. Unlike Disturbed's later albums, which vary as far as the styles they feature, The Sickness consists primarily of heavier songs. It is the only studio album by Disturbed not to contain a title track of the exact same name although its second single, "Down with the Sickness", does include the album's title in its name, so it can basically be considered the title track.

Disturbed

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Album: Ten Thousand Fists Year: 2005 Label: Reprise/Intoxication website

Ten Thousand Fists is the third studio album by Disturbed. It was released on September 20, 2005 and became the band's second consecutive #1 debut on the Billboard 200 in the United States. The album is also the first of which Disturbed's mascot, "The Guy", appears on the cover. He would later appear full-bodied in the music video for "Land of Confusion".

Disturbed

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Album: Asylum Year: 2010 Label: Reprise website

Asylum is an album for which the band intended to take a new direction in their musical career, while remaining consistent with the sound of their previous albums. Asylum was released on August 31, 2010 in the United States through Reprise Records, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with sales of approximately 179,000. This is the fourth consecutive #1 album Disturbed has released in the US. There are only two other bands that have ever accomplished this; Metallica and the Dave Matthews Band. Asylum was certified gold by the RIAA in 2011.

Foo Fighters

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Album: One By One Year: 2002 Label: RCA website

One By One won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2004. The album gave the Foo Fighters their first UK #1 album and also gave them a #3 peak in the US. As of June 2005, One By One has sold 1.2 million units in the United States, however, lead singer Dave Grohl has stated that it is his least favorite album. "I was kinda pissed at myself for the last record... four of the songs were good, and the other seven I never played again in my life."