Chinese Democracy

[Ash]

I loved GnR.  Absolutely.  Still do.  I know many bands that have a guitarist that do the one solo and can't say that it has ever registered with me that GnR had that problem.  Had a listen to a track about a week ago and thought it was overproduced and dull and in no way shape or form worth a 16 or 20 year wait.  The only thing recognisable after a while was his voice and that isn't great.

[Diffidentia]

To be honest, the album has got its moments, but they are few and far between. More to the point, this isn't Guns N' Roses. It's Axl. 1/5 of GN'R. Slash's Snakepit was more true Guns N' Roses than this crap. Bomblefoot (and Buckethead) can play, no question there, but pure speed and lousy feeling vs. distinct sound and feeling - I'll take the latter every time. That means Slash. He may not be the fastest or the boldest player out there but he's right there at the top of my list of great guitar players. Even over Iommi, Petrucci, Page, and more.

Bumblefoot who?
That's a boring guitarist in my ears...

But that's just me. You're entitled to your own opinions, giving me the chance to flame some of those and vice verca

Edit: Terrible album.

[catherine]

I'm not really a G'n'R aficionado, but my 11-y-o son has informed me that Chinese Democracy is complete rubbish, because Slash isn't on it.
On the other hand, according to him, the new AC/DC album is excellent (which surprises me somewhat, because Slash isn't on that either).

From what I've heard of both of them, they're not a patch on EIMA.

[taliwakker]

Bumblefoot who?
That's a boring guitarist in my ears...

He's probably the most imiginative guitarist (along with Mattias Eklundh) i have heard in the past 10-15 years.

Examples..i could find

I Can't Play the Blues
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1GlBVIAOH8

R2
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0YJR-doOWf8

Lost
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yIm37KpG_TU

Raygun
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QpbkMhEchx0

[leelustig]

Just listened to the title track.

I don't know man... the solo is awesome and the vocals got a lot better but overall it's still lame ol' guns n roses... Crappy song writing as always.

Plus, the fact that this album took like 6 years to come out just shows that it really shouldn't have come out at all. Either you write an album or you don't. taking 6 years just means it is NOT meant to be.

Edit: Shacklers Revenge is pretty catchy tho :lol:

[Dave M]

50+ musicians, 5 Producers, £10M in costs, supposedly over 100 songs in various stages of completion ... all points to the major league lunatic band leader / singer as being the problem.

Still if you fancy trying it ... 7digital.com are selling it for £5 today  

[Diffidentia]

Bumblefoot who?
That's a boring guitarist in my ears...

He's probably the most imiginative guitarist (along with Mattias Eklundh) i have heard in the past 10-15 years.

Examples..i could find

I Can't Play the Blues
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1GlBVIAOH8

R2
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0YJR-doOWf8

Lost
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yIm37KpG_TU

Raygun
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QpbkMhEchx0

Sorry, just not my cup of tea. Yeah, he can play fast but it wasn't really much more than that going on there. IA is also a great guitarist (I love some of his Freak Kitchen stuff) but he also have a habit of going "all technique" and no emotion, no feeling. He's a helluva funny guy, though.

The reason I like Slashs style of playing over Thal/IA etc is his distinct tone and style (driving chord and note progressions) and his ablility to write memorable riffs and solos. Both Thal and IA (and Petrucci) can play faster than a speeding bullet, we know that by now, but can they do anything else?

Take Gilmour for instance. By far not the fastest or wildest player out there but what he can do while bending one single note will outplay most players out there, including Thal and IA.

[taliwakker]

The reason I like Slashs style of playing over Thal/IA etc is his distinct tone and style (driving chord and note progressions) and his ablility to write memorable riffs and solos. Both Thal and IA (and Petrucci) can play faster than a speeding bullet, we know that by now, but can they do anything else?

Thing is...IA and Thal both have distinctive tones...probably not as widely recognised as Slash's for obvious reasons. As for them just being technique...sure they both have that but i think both players have shown that they both have really imaginative sides to their playing and have both pushed the boundaries of guitar playing just a little bit further. They aren't just emotionless shredders...there is real personality shining through their playing.

Can they do anything else?

Between Freak Kitchen, his Freak Guitar albums and his Art Metal Project with Hellborg and Selvaganesh, I think IA has managed to cover so many styles....Metal, shred, Samba, Jazz, Soundtrack stuff, fusion, playing guitar with chopsticks and dildos, ballads, pop.

Bumblefoot....of his 8 solo albums only his first was all instrumental and another is 50/50. The others are all vocal based albums with awesome guitar playing. Now they run the gamut from crazy Bungle-type stuff, through blues, lounge and alt rock. His playing within these styles usually  :lol:  fits the song. His use of a thimble to tap into those notes above the 24th fret sounds way more natural than a whammy pedal...and his fretless playing is great also.

As for Slash...apart from his playing on Appetite and a couple of songs on the Illusion albums i don't think he's come up with enough to warrant his legendary status. The two Velvet Revolver albums suck (songwise and riffwise).

Now if you'd used the 'faster than a speeding bullet-but what else?' argument on players such as Michael Angelo Batio or Rusty Cooley then i might be more likely to agree with you.

As for memorable riffs and solos....sometimes that is less about quality and more about (over) exposure...not always of course...but i remember a hell of a lot more of the riffs/solos on Freak Kitchen's 'Dead Soul Men album' than i do off the first Velvet Revolver cd.

[leelustig]

Boy this album is ALL OVER TV. I can't go 5 seconds without seeing the commercial..

Didn't realize that it was even Buckethead playing on the album. Pretty cool they got him back for this. He's sick.

[Geddy Lee]

Well I quite like this album actually. I think people should stop expecting another APPETITE cos that will never happen. I think something that Ian Anderson said in an interview with him I read the other day is very true. He said that he didn't see a point in making a new album as Tull fans don't want a NEW album, they want an OLD one. They weren't interested in hearing anything new, just wanting to hear old stuff. Just take a look what happens at a Stones gig when they play a new track, everyone decides its time for a pee break.
I have been saying this for some time only to get slagged off for saying it a vast majority of the time too. I think people need to get their heads out of the past and at least try to "listen without prejudice" to anything new that a band might do instead of instantly comparing it to their fave album of whatever band might be in question. The same rings true here, at leat to me anyway. No it isn't APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, it never could be as that was a product of its time just as much as this new album is. It's different and it's good. Oh yeah, and I have never really rated Slash either.

[Diffidentia]

As for Slash...apart from his playing on Appetite and a couple of songs on the Illusion albums i don't think he's come up with enough to warrant his legendary status. The two Velvet Revolver albums suck (songwise and riffwise).

(...)

As for memorable riffs and solos....sometimes that is less about quality and more about (over) exposure...not always of course...but i remember a hell of a lot more of the riffs/solos on Freak Kitchen's 'Dead Soul Men album' than i do off the first Velvet Revolver cd.

I completely agree with your verdict on Velvet Revolver. Those 2 albums doesn't come close to Appetite/Illusion and Slash's Snakepit stuff (which are closer to Appetite). Too much STP influence going on there. The legendary status comes from a mix of his look, the huge impact Appetite & Illusion had, and a bit of plain old hype. I fall for all three... And the Snakepit stuff...

The "over exposure" theory ain't all that bad either. IA has quite a few memorable riffs (not so much the solos imo - but that might come down to lack of "exposure" since solos often take a bit longer to memorize) and a distinctive sound.

Thal just isn't my cup of tea (which is Earl Grey and buttloads of suger btw). I listened to some of his stuff a few years back too and I just can't get into it. I do hear/see that he can do pretty much everything possible with a guitar but he comes through to me as a player that more about technique and speed and not so much about finding his own tone and style and coming up with memorable stuff. Again, that's just my two cents.

As for other guitar-wankers out there, Michael Angelo is for sure one, along with pretty much every Speed Metal guitarist out there (Dragonforce, Sonata Artica, Rhapsody of Fire, etc.)

[Lerxst]

Well I bought a hard copy yesterday and listened to it in the car again today 3 x.

I think its really, really great for what it is.

Just for the record, there is some good songwriting and some really tasteful guitar playing on this album if you're prepared to park your previous opinion of the band and find it.

Standout track today is Between.

[Diffidentia]

I suppose, had it been named for what it is, an Axl solo album, the reviews would have been better. But still it's Axl's decision to hang on to the GnR name and as a GnR record it's just not good enough.

Those feelings aside, there's a few good tunes here; Better (as mentioned), Riad N' the Bedouins... And a few bad ones; If the world, Catcher in the Rye...

[Lerxst]

Well you'll be interested to know one member of a band called FROST* thinks it's f*cking ace and another likes it too but in a slightly different way  

I just think it's great and the guitar playing on some tracks is sublime.

Go on people give it a whirl!

[Ash]

Well I've given it a lot more listens, at one point thought it was ok (grown up) but no GnR should be raw.  I'm sure there was some rock in there at some point but it has been lost.

So the conclusion the Ashleaze have come to is that it sounds like Bond Theme rejects as sung by Axl Rose.  :lol: