GN'R Co-Founder Tracii Guns Admits None of Today's Rock Bands Grab Him, Reveals Newfound Love...

[Sosso]

What's your view on the current rock and metal scene these days? Do you like any of the younger bands? Is there anyone that stands out?

"Yeah, there's this great younger band called Judas Priest. [Laughs]"

But except for them, anyone else?

"You know... Nothing grabs me. I don't want to lie and be gratuitous about it.

"Pantera, to me, was probably the last metal band that was still new to me when it came that really knocked me off my feet.

"But it doesn't mean I'm not listening to music I haven't heard before. Right now, I'm really starting to discover black metal. And beyond that, bands like Satyricon... a lot of the stuff like that. I'm learning about it, I'm listening to all that music.

"And it's really interesting to me. And the culture and a lot of it has to do with... I'm married to a Danish woman, so she's brought a lot of Scandinavian metal into the house. That's very interesting to me.

"The current rock scene is really good for L.A. Guns. I mean, I can look at it that way. There's not a lot of bands doing exactly what we do, and we're not doing anything that anybody else is really doing.

"And that doesn't mean there's not a lot of rock bands. There are rock bands and they're doing stuff. But I think that in rock, everybody's kind of doing their own thing. And that's healthy.

"Like, the new band that everybody's talking about, Greta Van Fleet. They've got that garage-rock thing going on. So they're capturing that vibe and that audience. Other than them, I don't really know."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/gnr_co-founder_tracii_guns_admits_none_of_todays_rock_bands_grab_him_reveals_newfound_love_of_black_metal.html

[soon]

5 minutes ago, Sosso said:

"The current rock scene is really good for L.A. Guns. I mean, I can look at it that way. There's not a lot of bands doing exactly what we do, and we're not doing anything that anybody else is really doing.

Well, other than the other LA Guns no-one is doing exactly what LA Guns does! 

Nah, j/k, Phil and Tracii are the real deal.

6 minutes ago, Sosso said:

"But it doesn't mean I'm not listening to music I haven't heard before. Right now, I'm really starting to discover black metal. And beyond that, bands like Satyricon... a lot of the stuff like that. I'm learning about it, I'm listening to all that music.

Ah, I was wondering why the brand new video is about SRA. Maybe Black Metal explains it.

[rocknroll41]

1 hour ago, soon said:

Well, other than the other LA Guns no-one is doing exactly what LA Guns does! 

Nah, j/k, Phil and Tracii are the real deal.

Ah, I was wondering why the brand new video is about SRA. Maybe Black Metal explains it.

I thought both versions of LA Guns have since converged back into one band, no?

EDIT: nevermind I just saw that Steve Riley started his own LA Guns Just four months ago and it’s apparently still ongoing. Fuck me.

Edited March 30, 2019 by rocknroll41

[soon]

7 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

I thought both versions of LA Guns have since converged back into one band, no?

I actually dont know all the ins-and-outs of the history with name ownership, but currently Drummer Steve Riley is launching his version of LA Guns and Tracii and Phil are doing the regrouped LA Guns.

Not sure if Riley has done any shows yet, but is booked for M3 festival.

Maybe @Sosso can shed more light on it?

Edited March 30, 2019 by soon

[Sosso]

5 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

I thought both versions of LA Guns have since converged back into one band, no?

Steve Riley founded his own L.A. GUNS band in 2018. I say: Fuck that. The band with Tracii and Phil is the only legitimate for me. 

[lame ass security]

2 hours ago, Sosso said:

Steve Riley founded his own L.A. GUNS band in 2018. I say: Fuck that. The band with Tracii and Phil is the only legitimate for me. 

I thought that it was interesting that he mentioned he was getting into black metal.  I can't say I'm a big fan of that genre but it's fascinating and somewhat disturbing reading about some of those bands.  There was a band called Mayhem, they might actually still be around, that let's just say definitely lived up to their name.😄

Edited March 30, 2019 by lame ass security

[Sosso]

8 minutes ago, lame ass security said:

I thought that it was interesting that he mentioned he was getting into black metal.  I can't say I'm a big fan of that genre but it's fascinating and somewhat disturbing reading about some of those bands.  There was a band called Mayhem, they might actually still be around, that let's just say definitely lived up to their name.😄

I prefer death metal in general, but my favourite black metal band is probably Gorgoroth. Haven't listened to them in a long time, though. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Sosso

[lame ass security]

4 minutes ago, Sosso said:

I prefer death metal in general, gut my favourite black metal band is probably Gorgoroth. Haven't listened to them in a long time, though. 

What's the biggest difference between death metal and black metal?

[Sosso]

31 minutes ago, lame ass security said:

What's the biggest difference between death metal and black metal?

First of all, death metal singers are mainly growling instead of screaming (Glen Benton from Deicide for example). Furthermore, death metal was mainly influenced by Thrash Metal. Black metal is more melodic. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Sosso

[lame ass security]

6 minutes ago, Sosso said:

First of all, death metal singers are mainly growling instead of screaming (Glen Benton from Deicide for example). Furthermore, death metal was mainly influenced by Trash Metal. Black metal is more melodic. 

Gotcha, cool.

[Sosso]

6 minutes ago, lame ass security said:

Gotcha, cool.

 

 

[TeeJay410]

55 minutes ago, lame ass security said:

What's the biggest difference between death metal and black metal?

Death metal is your blood and gore and death. Cookie Monster vocals. Can be a bit more technical musically than black metal. Despite its content there can be a sense of levity, or dare I say it, fun. Often record in lower tunings, which funny enough if you play their songs transposed up to standard tuning it sounds like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and sabbath. 

 

Black metal is satan satan depression suicide satan. Extremely fast, blast beats, generally low-fi, though modern black metal acts have softened on that to some degree. Musically, all emphasis is on dissonance and feelings of dreads. Easiest way to reproduced the black metal sound on guitar is to play minor bar chords. Not sometimes. All the time. Every chord, minor. It feels off and wrong, which is the idea. And of course tremolo picking. Musically there is little comparison in modernity, but striking resemblances to darker medieval music. This is best illustrated by Burzum’s album composed and recorded on a keyboard while Varg Vikernes was imprisoned for the murder of Mayhem’s guitarist Euronymous. This, too, is by design, as Black metal is deeply rooted in a form of Nordic paganism, intentionally appropriating the images of old. Unfortunately, this makes black metal ripe for the more nationalistic/nazi types. Varg himself, no longer imprisoned, spends significant time YouTubing nazi propaganda. There even is an entire subgenere called NSBM, national socialist black metal, which frankly can be indistinguishable from other forms of BM if you can’t see the liner notes or album art.

 

Despite that, black metal is incredible and fascinating music, the most extreme of an extreme genre. Getting into it actually made me enjoy other bands I thought were too heavy for my taste from other genres of metal. Highly recommend it.

[lame ass security]

26 minutes ago, TeeJay410 said:

Death metal is your blood and gore and death. Cookie Monster vocals. Can be a bit more technical musically than black metal. Despite its content there can be a sense of levity, or dare I say it, fun. Often record in lower tunings, which funny enough if you play their songs transposed up to standard tuning it sounds like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and sabbath. 

 

Black metal is satan satan depression suicide satan. Extremely fast, blast beats, generally low-fi, though modern black metal acts have softened on that to some degree. Musically, all emphasis is on dissonance and feelings of dreads. Easiest way to reproduced the black metal sound on guitar is to play minor bar chords. Not sometimes. All the time. Every chord, minor. It feels off and wrong, which is the idea. And of course tremolo picking. Musically there is little comparison in modernity, but striking resemblances to darker medieval music. This is best illustrated by Burzum’s album composed and recorded on a keyboard while Varg Vikernes was imprisoned for the murder of Mayhem’s guitarist Euronymous. This, too, is by design, as Black metal is deeply rooted in a form of Nordic paganism, intentionally appropriating the images of old. Unfortunately, this makes black metal ripe for the more nationalistic/nazi types. Varg himself, no longer imprisoned, spends significant time YouTubing nazi propaganda. There even is an entire subgenere called NSBM, national socialist black metal, which frankly can be indistinguishable from other forms of BM if you can’t see the liner notes or album art.

 

Despite that, black metal is incredible and fascinating music, the most extreme of an extreme genre. Getting into it actually made me enjoy other bands I thought were too heavy for my taste from other genres of metal. Highly recommend it.

Thanks for that analysis, fascinating stuff.  I'm a musician so I know what you mean about the minor chords being so prominent.  It's also interesting that it's derivative of medieval music which explains why most of the bands are from Scandinavian countries.

[papashaun]

2 versions of LA Guns??  Isn't this the same thing Queensryche went through?