Just heard it on their myspace.

 

FANTASTIC album! Not as good as Appetite, but it's easily good enough to give the Use Your Illusions albums a run for their money.

 

Hope it gets the No. 1 album, definitely deserves it. A true modern-rock record.

Downloading now.

 

It's gotten pretty good reviews.

The TV advert for this is $h!t and constantly on, they have resorted to playing Sweet child of mine at the start to advertise new material. :/

Picked it up today. Fabulous album - it's not Appetite For Destruction, but it's probably right behind it in terms of the best GNR records. It's miles better than anything VR released anyway! :P

Axl has a good voice but some songs he sounds like a dying girrafe.

I bought this yesterday,

It's incredible!!

 

Obviously none of the songs are as epic as their old hits... Paradise City, Sweet Child Of Mine... etc,

But its a good album :)

Axl has a good voice but some songs he sounds like a dying girrafe.

In my opinion, I've always thought Axl was/is a awesome vocalist (as with Ozzy Osbourne imo being better than Dio).

Okay, downloaded this, and on first listen to the album in its entirety, well, I can honestly say, "would've made a good 4-track EP....".... Sorry, but this is mostly utter garbage with only a sporadic return to form on a few tracks.... Axl just gurning for the most part on the tracks and musically, it's not really at all adventurous, certainly nowhere near as adventurous as Metallica have been on "Death Magnetic", and it doesn't come even close to matching the likes of Opeth, Machine Head, Mastodon, Tool, Coheed & Cambria or Cynic... Or even the excellent (and a hell of a lot shorter) "Along Came A Spider" by Alice Cooper.. I do stress, I dont object to long albums which go over an hour per se, but when Metallica, Tool, Machine Head or Opeth do it, they actually have something to say and the albums are consistent and focussed, "Chinese Democracy" is a rambling, unstructured, incoherent mess for the most part. I cant believe it took 15 years for this cr@p to be produced. I would've loved for Axl to come up with a Lazarus-style resurrection the way that the likes of Metallica, AC/DC (a good, solid album) and Alice Cooper have this year, but this album just does not cut it for me at all...

 

As far as Rock/Metal goes in 2008, Guns N Roses are completely irrelevant, the genre has moved on, and, unlike Messrs Hetfield, Hammet, Ulrich, Trujillo and Cooper, Axl just has no clue where it's at now....

I have the album, the AC/DC Black Ice is better.............

Edited November 30, 200816 yr by Dante

A true modern-rock record.

 

I dont believe that it's "modern" at all tbh... It sounds like it could have easily been written at anytime roundabout the 91-93 period tbh... The Rock/Metal genre has moved on since the days of Skid Row/Extreme (in fact it very clearly shifted when Nirvana released "Nevermind", Rage Against The Machine released their debut, and Smashing Pumpkins released "Gish"), but it seems no one has mentioned this to Axl....

I dont believe that it's "modern" at all tbh... It sounds like it could have easily been written at anytime roundabout the 91-93 period tbh... The Rock/Metal genre has moved on since the days of Skid Row/Extreme (in fact it very clearly shifted when Nirvana released "Nevermind", Rage Against The Machine released their debut, and Smashing Pumpkins released "Gish"), but it seems no one has mentioned this to Axl....

 

well it was probably writen roundabout the 91-93 period :lol: - but yeah you may have a point to some extent with that and also it could be disagreed upon as it could be seen as being a very modern rock album and more of the times (well using the former journo cliché du-jour Zeitgeist is like far too passé now isnt it - tho Mr. Corgan may disagree :lol: ) because of the revivalist nature of rock - tho even tho I guess G'n'R/Skid Row/Extreme was metal once it would be seen as being in the classic rock genre now (and Smashing Pumpkins maybe as well) but tbh how things are at the moment and with the increased in readership to classic rock mag probs a little more cedible than a magazine running an interview with the datsuns this month (tho Smashing Pumpkins might be on the same level as the datsuns after their last album?!?!?)

See, my problem is that (well, obviously) it's very Axl Axl Axl. Where as in Appetite For Destruction (heck, even the godawful Illusions albums), you could listen to a track and say, Wow; That's really cool what Slash has done, etc. But there's none of that on here, it's more about Axl "showing of his AMAZING vocal range". Ahh, no thanks. :lol:

 

His voice is so strange on this album, it goes so high and I could easily of mistaken him for Mika (:heehee:) (although, in some points it sounds like he's some sort of bad Robert Plant-impressionist), and his song writing has gone a bit sissy as of late (but he's still a great songwriter nether the less, I really like this line: But that’s not stardust on my feet, It leaves a taste that’s bittersweet, That’s called the blues. It's a bit cliche, and sounds like something that should bes ung by some female warbler, but its cool).

 

 

So yeah. Axl should tone down the singing, leave the gymnastic-vocals to that of Robert Plant, Steven Tyler, etc., and pick up the pace on ALOT of the songs. (I swear there must be about 70% of filler or ballads on this album).

See, my problem is that (well, obviously) it's very Axl Axl Axl. Where as in Appetite For Destruction (heck, even the godawful Illusions albums), you could listen to a track and say, Wow; That's really cool what Slash has done, etc. But there's none of that on here, it's more about Axl "showing of his AMAZING vocal range". Ahh, no thanks. :lol:

 

His voice is so strange on this album, it goes so high and I could easily of mistaken him for Mika (:heehee:) (although, in some points it sounds like he's some sort of bad Robert Plant-impressionist), and his song writing has gone a bit sissy as of late (but he's still a great songwriter nether the less, I really like this line: But that’s not stardust on my feet, It leaves a taste that’s bittersweet, That’s called the blues. It's a bit cliche, and sounds like something that should bes ung by some female warbler, but its cool).

So yeah. Axl should tone down the singing, leave the gymnastic-vocals to that of Robert Plant, Steven Tyler, etc., and pick up the pace on ALOT of the songs. (I swear there must be about 70% of filler or ballads on this album).

 

And herein lies the heart of what is wrong with Guns N Roses in 2008 - No Slash.... (also, no Izzy, no Duff and no Steve, but the "No Slash" element is a lot more obvious than all the other elements put together....) So, it's a case of, for me at any rate, of No Slash, No Point... It's just an Axl Rose Solo record, it AINT Guns N Roses.... But of course, an Axl Rose solo album aint gonna get anyone nearly as excited as branding it Guns N Roses.... And that's all it is at the end of the day, branding....

 

I mean, would Metallica be Metallica without the twin guitar assaults of Hetfield and Hammett, would Slayer be Slayer without Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman to back up Tom Araya, would AC/DC be the same without Angus and Malcolm to back up Brian....? Errrrrr, I dont think so....

Exactly. ^ Think about it, EVERY (well decent) Rock N Roll/Rock/Metal band works because of some sort of partnership (mostly between Singer + Lead Guitarist). If that partnership breaks, then the band breaks. Simple as that. (Well, 90% of the time).

it's not really at all adventurous, certainly nowhere near as adventurous as Metallica have been on "Death Magnetic"

 

Whoah, hold on a second there. I think DM is a superb album, a great return to form, and indeed a better album than Chinese Democracy - but adventurous? Come off it. They went back to their thrash roots, which is hardly adventurous. St. Anger was adventurous, but ultimately poor. Metallica are at their best when being simple, not adventurous.

 

Chinese Democracy could easily have been Appetite For Destruction Mk. II if Axl wanted it to be, and sold absolutely huge amounts. However, he WAS adventurous - the record takes influence from so many genres, from flamenco to heavy-metal to industrial and to power-ballads. That is the very definition of an adventurous record, especially considering he released it under the Guns N' Roses name.

 

No Slash.... (also, no Izzy, no Duff and no Steve, but the "No Slash" element is a lot more obvious than all the other elements put together....) So, it's a case of, for me at any rate, of No Slash, No Point

 

This has to be said - Slash was never, ever the brains behind GNR. The original GNR was Axl and Izzy, and so in terms of guitar work, Izzy was the most important member of GNR. He wrote the majority of Appetite For Destruction after all, alongside Duff. I'm a huge fan of Slash, but the simple fact is that without Izzy, he doesn't reach his full potential. His work on The Spaghetti Incident? (without Izzy) was average, Slash's Snakepit were simply laughable bad, and aside from a couple of awesome tracks (Slither, Let It Roll, You Got No Right and a few others), his work in Velvet Revolver was nowhere near the standard of his work in GNR.

 

I wish Axl didn't use the GNR name, and yes, I wish the original band was still together. But certain things need to be said: 1) Axl Rose is still an incredibly talented individual, regardless of what opinions there are on the album 2) Slash is no more Guns N' Roses by himself than Axl is and 3) Izzy Stradlin is, hands-down, the most important member of Guns N' Roses in any incarnation.

But their is no denying Slash's guitar work and the influence he DID have over GnR's.

Whoah, hold on a second there. I think DM is a superb album, a great return to form, and indeed a better album than Chinese Democracy - but adventurous? Come off it. They went back to their thrash roots, which is hardly adventurous. St. Anger was adventurous, but ultimately poor. Metallica are at their best when being simple, not adventurous.

 

If Death Magnetic was simply a "thrash" record, I wouldn't rate it so highly... It's not, it's very technical, almost going as far as Tool, Machine Head or Mastodon on some of the tracks... "Chinese Democracy" might chuck a load of disparate elements against a wall to make itself sound adventurous, but it's not, it's half-arsed, half-baked, totally without focus or cohesion, and a fukkin' MESS; the facts are it's really only the straight-up, unpretentious rockers on this album that are actually any damn good, the rest just veers between "well it probably sounded good at the time" to "WHAT THE FUKK ARE YOU THINKING?????".... You want to hear what a really adventurous Metal album with loads of different elements should sound like...? I would suggest you try out Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland", or indeed the newest Opeth album, "Watershed".... Death Metal, Ballads, Progressive Rock, Blues, Folk and Symphonic elements, all totally with cohesion and focus.. A fukkin' beautiful work of art and utterly streets ahead of Guns N Roses, and hell, Mikael Akerfeldt is a far better vocalist than Axl any day of the week IMO, even when he's full-on Death Metal vocals, at least he dont sound like a fukkin' pregnant giraffe :lol: .... Also, the later albums of Dutch band The Gathering, "How To Measure A Planet", "If Then Else", Souvenirs and "Home".... You want adventurous, and modern....?

 

In fact, I would highly recommend you check out modern bands like Cynic, Mastodon, Tool, Machine Head, The Gathering, Neurosis or Cult of Luna, and then come back and tell me that Guns N Roses are such hot sh!t.... :rolleyes:

But their is no denying Slash's guitar work and the influence he DID have over GnR's.

 

Absolutely... I mean, saying that Slash wasn't vitally important to Axl is like saying Randy Rhodes wasn't important to Ozzy Osbourne, or Peter Frampton wasn't important to David Bowie..... Yes, Izzy DID write a lot of the material, and to be fair, I probably did somewhat underplay his importance, but he kind of sat back and was more of a rhythm guitarist than anything, he wasn't "the great showman" that Slash was, so Slash in that sense was a more important member, and probably, technically, the better guitar player....

 

Snakepit was pretty sh!t, I'll concede that, but Velvet Revolver has things going for them... The mistake they made, I reckon, was having Scott Weiland as their vocalist.... Never liked Stone Temple Pilots.... I mean, if Slash wanted to pick someone from the "Grunge" era to be involved with, he should've maybe tried talking to Chris Cornell.....

 

Just read that yesterday, Axl signed himself up onto an un-official Guns N Roses fan forum and started a fight with a fan (who was being insulting to Axl and his friends) and then hung around to answer other fan questions.

 

Even when he's making shit music, he's still a complete wanker. :lol:

Just read that yesterday, Axl signed himself up onto an un-official Guns N Roses fan forum and started a fight with a fan (who was being insulting to Axl and his friends) and then hung around to answer other fan questions.

 

Even when he's making shit music, he's still a complete wanker. :lol:

 

Oh MAN, I would just LOVE IT if he came onto this thread on BJ and started on me or you.... I'd give 'im both barrels mate, believe me...... :lol: I've got a LOT of ammo that I could hit him with... The criticism of this album on this thread is just the tip of the iceberg..... ^_^

 

Any chance of posting a link to this website, I think I would like to read what transpired......