Axl should just apologize to the Chinese now and get it over with. With that over let’s head straight for the heart of the matter: The first Guns n Rose’s album in 13 years is to put it plainly, a pile of decayed roses lying in a mound of dog shit. At times the album is wildly off the map, completley horrible and way unhinged none of which is a complement. Rose has taken all that was good from the original Guns, the very ingredients that made them the biggest rock band in the world, loud slashing guitars, a punk rock beat and his primordial wailing and turned it into a circus. By taking 13 years of studio time and compressing it into a disc of ridiculously overdubbed guitars, orchestral fanfares, strange hip-hop electronics, metallic tabernacle choirs and his sometime-virile rusted-siren singing he has produced a record not worthy of the band’s name
This is not the Guns n Roses I knew back in the 90’s. This version is one crazed musician’s attempt to prove that he could be Guns all by himself. Clearly he has failed. If all those session musicians used on the album from, Buckethead to the Replacements’ Tommy Stinson, had stayed the hell away from Rose maybe their careers would be in better places than they are now. As for Axl, hopefully it will be another 13 years before he tortures our ears again.
Like or hate this review or just got something to say about music let me know at n-music-critic@live.com