The New Guns N Roses Album.

Let me start this off by saying I was one of those super GnR fans of the late 80's and early 90's. The various bands I sang and played in always had a few Guns songs in our cover line up. A great band, legendary actually. I remember the first time seeing Welcome to the Jungle on MTV and thinking to myself: "This is new. This is going to threaten so many ideas of contemporary rock and roll." And honestly we were in the era of the Pop hair boy rock bands. Everywhere you looked you had Bon Jovi or Poison or Cinderella... and Richard Marx (he qualifies because he had the biggest mullet in the world). Then this band comes out of the wretched streets of Los Angeles with their Pseudo Gypsy appearance, classic wha-wha heavy toned guitar and a lead singer that looked like an Imp from Hell ready to perch on your chest and tear your heart out. They weren't writing songs about Love or making pathetically cheeky innuendos to sex. They were talking about actual Sex, rape, alcohol, drugs, violence from a perspective that seemed like it had been an ideology of a small mid-western boy twisted by the underbelly of Los Angeles. And that, in fact, was Axl Rose. Slash was this seemingly barely human creature that lurked behind a wall of thick hair, pulling blues influenced riffs from the 70s era of Hell. Instantly they were labeled: "the most dangerous band in the world".

Their social antics aside, and let's face it we come to expect that from a rock band, this band changed the landscape of music. They were timeless. And in retrospect, what they did, they did in a very short amount of time. Bands like Queen, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith etc... took a while to scale up to the kinds of followings that Guns commanded. Add to that the temperament of the Bands front man, it was not uncommon for Axl to show up late for shows and to end them early after throwing an temper tantrum.

While Axl's voice wasn't the 'best' compared to his contemporaries such as Geoff Tate of Queensryche, Jon Bon Jovi and others, he had the presence and attitude that clearly defined the bands stance on the world. His screeching voice was like a banshee screaming contempt and rage. And yeah, he could sing and write.

Guns N Roses was more than relevant, they were ahead of their time but rooted deeply in traditional Punk, Rock n Roll and Blues. They redefined what the Rock industry considered relevant. I could go into the whole history of the band and it's unraveling but that's not what this is about.

3 members of the old GnR came together and created Velvet Revolver; Slash, Duff and Matt Soram. The first two albums were critically acclaimed success and won awards. They were 'good' rock albums, and Slash has been more than participatory and successful in the music industry since he left the GnR pack. In an interview Slash illustrated that he had worked more outside of the band than he had logged with Guns N Roses. With countless contributions to albums and live performances as well as his Slash's Snakepit Projects and 2 Velvet Revolver albums and his famous appearance in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and of course his Autobiography detailing the history of the GnR band. He followed quickly with the response: "what has Axl done in that time?"

Well folks, here is it. It's been 17 years in the making THIS is what Axl's been up to. You'd think with his history, and his ability that an album 17 years in the making would go 1 of 2 ways:

1) No one knew that the feck they were doing and it took them this long to pull something publishable together

or

2) This is Axl's Opus. This is the culmination of his experience and brilliance, this is his masterpiece.

Well Folks, I'm here to tell you, it's actually kind of neither. It's certainly NOT Axl's Masterpiece. The work doesn't even compare to Appetite, Lies or the Use Your Illusion albums. And I'm not sure it really feels like they didn't know what they were doing. Actually it feels sort of like the last Indiana Jones movie. It felt like a sentimental giving. It's as if you listen to it and say; 'oh... Guns N Roses, I liked them back in the day, that's cool.' It tickles your nostalgia but doesn't really make a statement.

Now, I know it's popular for those 80s bands to be putting out new material and everyone's been chomping at the bit to see if they still got it. And Metallica's Death Magnetic was pretty good. Not as good as the really old stuff, not as good as the Black Album, but certainly better than most of their recent stuff. So, what's wrong with this? I'll tell you. It's not Guns N Roses. And I know there's a lot of controversy about this issue, particularly among the original members of the band. How would it be if you were Axl trying to keep a ship Sailing that you lit on fire? When you're performing at a concert and you have a fan yelling: "where's Slash?!" and he responds: "He's in my @$$, That's where Slash is..." Or if you're Scott Wieland fronting for Velvet Revolver, which is essentially GnR minus Axl and you're playing Guns Songs and you realize you don't really fit in this crew because you're not a Guns guy. Now, I know tons of people would like to see a GnR reunion but hey, it may not happen, let's be forward thinking here, that's history, and that history has some bad things tied to it. Bad enough to tear apart one of the most legendary rock bands ever.

So what is this album? The title reads Guns N Roses.... It's nice to hear Axl, albeit he has lost the anger it seems. I guess it's hard to express being pissed off when you're really really rich and the world bends at your whim. I mean, what does he have to bitch about except that the world isn't paying attention to his tantrums anymore. I'm not hating on Axl, it's the nature of rock and roll and trying to remain relevant. Once you become the Establishment it's hard to strike an honest chord with discontent. This album has rock and roll, but it's seriously lacking the punk and blues of the original Guns N Roses. I know it's a new band, but honestly, if you have a perfect recipe, don't change it. Just ask the Coca-cola company about the New Coke Formula fiasco. So, I think this album is a barely above mediocre giving from Axl. It's like, Axl's uninspired solo album. That would be fair. It's not horrible, and I'm not hating on it. In fact it's listenable. I could probably listen to this in the background while I work. It has tracks that could be on the Adult contemporary charts. There's R&B and Soul Influenced tracks in there and a couple of songs that sound like they were carry overs from Use Your Illusion, in fact the track: Street of Dreams starts off with essentially the very same interlude as November Rain. And I'm sure that was on purpose, it's stupid to plagiarize... stupider to plagiarize yourself.

So here is the crux of the problem: Where was that more than relevant "most dangerous band alive" that we knew as Guns N Roses? they turned into a Pop Rock band. And sadly if it took Axl this long to give us this, then I'm sure we won't miss him for another 17 years. I was really hoping that I'd listen to this album and feel like my brain just got kicked and that my fundamental view on the rock landscape would once again be challenged. I guess you have to look elsewhere for that.

Buyable, sure, especially as a Guns fan. but don't expect this album to sweep through the media the way Guns used to. It just doesn't have that aggression or heart.

But once again, it is good to hear Axl again.