Comhrá

With the musical horizon of 2006 just around the corner, the year looks to be one of the most powerful in a long time, but as my friend Dana noted, “we may spend a couple of hundred dollars in music this year, and less than a hundred of it may be worth a shit.” Releases from Tool and the Red Hot Chili Peppers look promising, but aside from that most of the year’s releases to come appear rather questionable. Matt Sorum (Velvet Revolver drummer) was quoted as saying that Scott Weiland (singer) is wanting their new album more “danceable” and have since brought in the talents of Justin Timberlake’s production crew, so god only knows where such a path will lead the band.

Metallica has brought in producer Rick Rubin after a decade and a half of Bob Rock behind the boards, which is a promising move, as Rubin is notorious for reviving bands. Rubin’s healing abilities still all lean on Hetfield’s writing ability, which if you were subjected to the sonic rape of St. Anger you will know they are lackluster at best these days, so the water is still murky there. David Gilmour’s upcoming album should yield some incredible guitar performances, but without Roger Waters collaborating on lyrics and Rick Wright and Nick Mason sewing the music together none of their solo efforts will ever resemble the greatness that their combined forces once produced.

This then leads me to current matter at hand, Guns N’ Roses! With Axl in complete control (and the eons he has taken to make this record) you can rest easy knowing that what ever Chinese Democracy has to offer will be powerful, flawless and undeniably rock n’ roll. The only question that really exist with Axl’s masterpiece is whether or not it is outdated. Being a huge GNR fan I made sure to always keep myself in the loop of what Axl was doing and upon his 2003 world tour I was able to hear a handful of his new songs (i.e. Madagascar, Oh My God, Chinese Democracy, The Blues and Silk Worms).

And then, just this week I was able to be privy to There Was A Time (aka T.W.A.T.) via “leaks” from the studio. Now I played this song about 10 times before I was able to figure out how I felt about the song but amidst deciding if I liked it or not I decided that I think I know where Axl is going with this new album: he is taking the direction that pop “would” have taken if the rock n’ roll of the 80’s and early 90’s has survived. Every song that I have heard thus far has been rather lengthy, drenched in strings and orchestration, and quite epic with intense lyrics and blazing guitar solos (much like November Rain, Estranged, and Coma were). I should note, all except for Oh My God and Chinese Democracy which lean more towards the industrial rockings similar to Reznor’s hits. And that is it, I think Axl is about to (if he really does) release the single most EPIC rock/pop album ever! Every song that I have heard thus far has the essential, catchy, hook that would make them (with edits for time constraints) radio friendly and bridge that gap so that everyone has a little something on the record. The album will not please die hard GNR fans (other than the fact that it will have finally made it out to the public), but it won’t turn a deaf ear to those how don’t dig straight up rock either. Is this a good thing? I really don’t know, I mean I love the GNR sound, and the guys in Velvet Revolver tried to replicated it, but pretty much failed at it, put the days of sleazy, blues soaked, guitar riffs could be dying out, sad to say. But I am going to cross my fingers and hope for the best, because just to hear Axl belt out one of his classic “Whoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoao!” again will be enough for me.

Coming Soon (PS - I think you need either Quick Time or Windows Media Player to play this link)