THELINESMAN

PERHAPS HARD SKOOL THE GENERAL ABSTURD

The more I think about it the more I think it’s something an amateur teenage garage band could come up with ☹️ GNR can certainly do much better.

I saw somebody on YouTube comment that if this song didn’t have the name ‘Guns N’ Roses’ attached to it nobody would think it was good or worthy of high praise. Owch.

My review: An average Chinese Democracy style song with unnecessarily weak clean vocals in the chorus and a good solo at the end. Too light on guitars in the earlier parts of the song, missing the blues hard rock sound and raspy Axl vocals which is why so many (the majority?) love Guns N’ Roses. With louder guitars in verses and a raspy chorus it could have had a ‘Civil War’ type lift. Wasted opportunity. Overall, I’m disappointed with this one. All these new releases feel disjointed. Really want the guys to write and record a cohesive new set of songs with that old Guns swagger. I like Chinese Democracy. But The General isn’t a favourite of that era for me. Prefer IRS!

I thought it was funny

I agree with this 100%. The raspy aggression and punchy guitars on this could easily have fit with the UYI era.

I hope so. I miss the style.

If we ever do get a proper reunion album with fresh material, I hope it's full of more happy upbeat rockers with humour in again like PTU and GITR and angry upbeat stuff like RNDTH. Lots of these Chinese leftovers seem to be mid tempo.

I like the croc/gator background. Gives evil Estranged vibes (instead of dolphins underwater, crocs)....and if it was supposed to be an evil version/extension of Estranged...

I think the General sounds much better live than in the studio leak we have heard. Axl really goes for the rasp in the chorus and it improves it so much. Suits the heavier sound. I hope the final version we get has raspy chorus like that. Well done last night Guns! How weird though that they didn’t play Monsters 🤔

I queued for five hours outside Liverpool, near front of the line, met Del James who came to say hello, got to the front barrier, Axl came on 3 hours late, but it was absolutely worth it. Got to see him up close all his expressions, he smiled and waved at me. We expected the lateness. Called venue beforehand and asked about curfew and they said “We make an exception for Axl Rose” 😂😂

No mention of the leaks at the show?

Yep

Radio silence. There has been a show since but no mention of the leaks. We’ll see what happens at Hollywood show tonight!

The chorus could be epic with chainsaw rasp. And some the verses could be improved with that too I think.

It could be improved

There isn’t one 🙈

Oh I forgot, someone asked where Pele is shortly after they leaked which was pretty funny

Official release pushed to early December by the band who announced they weren’t happy with quality of the records but are now. Debates over whether the leaks are demos or the finished things with Slash & Duff, just bad sound quality. Debates over the extent of Slash’s playing on the song with some arguing he isn’t on the leaks at all. Debates over whether both ‘Monsters’ and ‘The General’ will be released as one song or not. Debates about whether ‘Monsters’ is Monstrocity or Soul Monster or another renamed song. Debates about whether Axl has some scratch vocals on these. People who hate the songs implying people who like the songs are insane - arguments between the two camps. People saying that people who hear Slash on the leaks are nuts and vice versa. Speculation but nothing confirmed about who leaked the tracks or why. Some think the band did it secretly. Others think they’re nuts. Some wishing the band would go back to a more bluesy Slash style, including me. Guns N’ Fucking Roses Forum 🌹

I think they're demos, can't be certain, but think. Here's why: Sound/Mix Quality: Too poor/varied. But that could be why they delayed release... Vocals: I think Axl runs out of lyrics in The General and there are a few scratch vocals in place "oohs" where there could be lyrics. The vocals are a bit weak in places too I think and many seem to date around the early 2000s. Seems strange to me that he would not have rerecorded parts of this with his 2010 epic rasp voice like he did the This I Love remix. BUT, as other people have said, he likes weird vocal takes... Guitars: Not all of this sounds like Slash to me. Hard Skool and Perhaps are distinctively him. Due to the nature of the song I think it's quite difficult to tell. Some are convinced the wah must be Slash, but that and other tones can be imitated. Music in general (pardon the pun): The song seems very thin in places, almost like other layers are missing and due to go in.

It's GENERAL time ?

“My only regret, is that I never took the time to rasp this bit, or mix the orchestra properly”

If Axl played the General to me privately and I was producing or whatever I’d say to him “So when are you going to write lyrics for that last bit when you just say oh”. Wonder how many people got fired doing that 😂 He did something similar for Street of Dreams though, noises at first in “The Blues” but lyrics added for CD.

Yeah it starts to sound like Quick Song scratch vocals towards the end after “time to forget” when he starts going “oh ah ah oh oh ah ah ahhh ah ah ah ahh ahh ahhh ah ohhh”

Slash needs to write a new riff, Axl needs to write new lyrics and sing to the riff, repeat X 10, killer album