Ratt Essentials

Ratt were one of the Sunset Strip's first hair-metal acts and also one of the scene's hardest, with a love for killer grooves. On early-'80s ripper “Round and Round,” singer Stephen Pearcy's steely roar owes more to crunchy British metal than shaggy American hard rock, while the dual guitars of “You're In Love” create a lacerating wall of sound, and the hard-strutting “Way Cool Jr.” flashes some lusty blues chops. After a series of hiatuses in the '00s, they returned to the studio in 2010, and, thanks to jams like “Lost Weekend,” proved that their hunger for groove-oriented metal laced with party hooks remains insatiable.