PHOTOS: Today’s Top Rock + Metal Acts

Time flies when you’re tearing up the charts! At least that seems to be the case for some of today’s top rock and metal acts. It wasn’t that long ago that they were fresh-faced youngsters just trying to catch their big break, but now they’re kings of the rock and metal universe. And in this gallery, you can get a look at each act in their early years as well as what they look like in recent years.

Sadly, several of the acts shown in this gallery have lost key members to death over the years. But here you can look back upon the early days of Metallica, Alice in Chains, Avenged Sevenfold, AC/DC and Red Hot Chili Peppers when their collective music futures and biggest successes were still mostly on the horizon.

You’re also not making the cut on this gallery without sustained success, so there’s a lot of credit that goes to the members featured in the “now” portion of this photo gallery as well.

So join us on this trip down memory lane as we revisit some of today’s Top Rock + Metal Acts, both then and now.