alfa75

39 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

Absurd is the best only track that Slash seemed to get with, the other ones that seemed obvious for him have been a bit shit. Just unfortunate Absurd is ruined with that vocal 

40 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

Absurd is the best only track that Slash seemed to get with, the other ones that seemed obvious for him have been a bit shit. Just unfortunate Absurd is ruined with that vocal 

All of Slash’s work has been great, IMO and I say that as someone who thought his best days were far behind him.

1 hour ago, 2020_Intensions said:

Nothing about The General is the least bit organic my dude ....

All a matter of opinion my dude.

On 2/29/2024 at 2:53 PM, Tom2112 said:

At this point what would be the point of releasing a compilation album including all the songs they've released. 

In terms of effort vs reward it won't pay off, because the material has largely not connected with people. Hardskool and Perhaps were closest to getting a positive reaction upon release. And the idea of rehashing songs from the original CD album, I mean it's not a good idea. They would be slated "guns n roses are so out of ideas they reach back to 2008s flop for inspiration" that could be taken from any potential review. I don't consider Chinese a flop btw😄 

IF gnr are releasing an album at this point, it has to be material we haven't heard, it would ideally break away from the 97-08 sessions and be current gnr centred (no credits for bucket, robin, Paul, Tommy, Chris etc. just the current members) with maybe 2 songs from the previous era which would be seriously reworked and rearranged, stripped down entirely and completely re-recorded.

“Largely connected” is kind of subjective. Perhaps has around 6 million views on YT, and some of the newer stuff has more Spotify streams than TWAT, PTU, Locomotive, CITR, Breakdown, Perfect crime, The Garden, etc. I mean HS is #38, which is not at all bad considering that between AFD and CD, they’ve released 78 songs. 

2 hours ago, Rovim said:

idk, I think for example the officially released version of Catcher is not nearly as good as the demo version with Brian May. I don't agree with some artistic choices Axl has made regarding Chinese cause what Axl thinks is better doesn't always match with what I prefer as a listener. 

 

Fair enough, but my point is, I cannot imagine he would choose to release a finished product that HE felt was inferior to some earlier version. As I believe he said in the chats, people get attached to a particular version of something, but that doesn’t mean it fits his vision of what the final song should sound like. 

11 hours ago, Sweersa said:

I wish we had the 2008 Soul Monster for comparison, but I too find Monsters better than Hard Skool, Absurd, and Perhaps. I would imagine the CD-era version of Monsters to be even better.

Why would you imagine it to be better? Sounds like personal bias. Why would anyone intentionally choose to release a ‘worse’ version of any song?

4 hours ago, colonizedmind said:

I don't understand the argument for wanting old material with those that haven't been in a band for 10+ years on a album put out by the band we know now...

Not that it shouldn't be heard in different scenarios or as "vault" releases....but it really needs to not be used in the album format as a Duff, Slash and Axl led project....they aren't gonna give there all to songs made by others and not from the ground up created as a current group. Singles and Ep's like we've kinda had, ok....that's ok...but...

New album,  basically has to be 100% fresh, to be any kind of a success. End of discussion....

I hope they’ve a new album with current lineup written and recorded, but I cannot see Axl abandoning this CD era songs and not get them out first, before anything “new”.

2 hours ago, 2020_Intensions said:

Which is why it came and went so fast I heard it only one time on the radio after midnight ... Meanwhile LOST BY LINKIN PARK STILL GETS PLAYED ON 3 STATIONS MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY

So radio play is equivalent to quality then? I hope you are not a big fan of CD, because I don't remember any of those singles doing much better, same with OMG.

In the Metallica world, a large portion of the fanbase would tell you that their best stuff came before they ever got played on the radio aka the Black album "sellout"

The only thing the LP example proves is that it's a more 2024 radio friendly song, and while I am certainly a LP fan, I don't know that is the barometer of quality considering what gets a lot of play on the radio sometimes.

Just now, Sweersa said:

Yeah, it's certainly an interesting thought. I believe the last time the band had any creative output of new material was the Bucket/Robin era. We have yet to be shown that not to be the case.

The one thing we don't know, since Slash and Duff have some writing credits on TG (and maybe eventually Monsters) how much they contributed to the final product (playing aside) in terms of arranging, additions or changes to the earlier versions, etc.

53 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

If NITL actually writes and records new material, the Bucket and/or Finck argument wouldn't be valid, because those members were not involved in those songs.

It's only a valid point for a CD-era re-worked tune, of course. 

Good point and I would like to agree with you, but I still think those comments would surface. A little like how some thought the BH Nightrain solo was much better than Slash's original, or Robin's rework of SCOM for Big Daddy was superior to the Slash original. 

But your point is valid.

Anyone else here get the feeling that even IF they write and record a brand new album, with the NITL lineup, that perhaps a majority here will complain anyway about how:

-It's nowhere near as good as AFD or UYI

-It sounds old school compared to CD

-It would have sounded SOOOO much better with BH and/or Finck.

I am not sure there really is any pleasing the majority of the fanbase here, short of AFD II, which would also probably be criticised for it's lack of innovation.

Just a couple of thoughts:

1-Although it seems to be a "truth" that TG is trash, it's not at all a universal feeling. I would agree that those who like it are in the minority, but that does not mean anything. There has been negativity hurled about pretty much all, if not all, songs in the GNR catalogue. Even some of their biggest hits. Just opinions. 

I would much rather listen to TG than TIL, which is for me, far and away the most cringeworthy song in their catalog, but hey that's just me, and I know many disagree.

2-The video which I'm not a fan of, is still an artistic choice. Those who deride AI as being lazy, don't really understand how AI works. I know many people will now step forward and say "I can do better" but "better" as always is subjective. Maybe the visuals are an interpretation of what Axl experienced or "saw" in his mind. I can tell you, as a creative professional who has tried to use AI effectively, with some success, it is not so easy to get exactly what you had in mind.  Not as easy as it looks, basically. Also, there are some brilliant creatives using AI, with outstanding results (a lot better than TG video in my opinion). 

As far as being against AI for reasons of principle, which I can certainly understand, AI is here to stay and only going to get better and more pervasive in creative processes of all kinds. Fighting it is a time wasting endeavour.

3- I think the cover artwork for TG is very cool, and other designers/artists I know agree. Not to say that anyone's opinion is more valuable than anyone else's, but I certainly wouldn't say that it's universally derided and deemed low quality as some here would suggest.

23 hours ago, Sweersa said:

Both are valid arguments. Hard Skool and The General seemed to suffer most from poor production. The unwelcome guitar parts just add to the chaos. 

Interesting, I’ll test mine out when it comes. Is there still clipping on TG? A waveform comparison would be definitive. 

I’m by no means an expert, but it just sounds a bit clearer and each instrument is a bit more distinct from the others. Now that I’m used to  it this way, it’s my default version so I still notice some imperfections, but listening back to back, for me the quality jump was clear. 
 

It’s sadly not at the level of any of their releases up until CD. (OMG excepted) Maybe side 1 of LIES as well, but that’s excusable given the stage of their career.  Now it’s harder to justify.

I do remember Metallica getting lots of criticism for Death Magnetic, so I guess that’s the closest parallel. In fact, I think Black Album was the first of their albums that sounded “good” whereas AFD was spot on and still holds up now, IMO.

12 hours ago, Sweersa said:

I believe so. 

The mix on the CD sounds noticeably better for TG to my ears. I ripped it to Apple Music so I could have the “better” version on my phone.

11 hours ago, Sweersa said:

I don't know. I guess it's exciting to have a real piece of CD2, even though it's mixed like shit with mediocre lead guitar compared to the Bucket/Robin versions. 

The comparison to crap quality, basically elaborated guitar work all the while people are complaining about the engineering of the actual track is rather amusing.

Go back and read the first few pages of this thread. It seems in the beginning, reception to both songs were overwhelmingly good. Now TG seems more disliked than liked. What happened?

One thing that seems pretty clear is that no one in the band seems intent on any real promotion regarding any of the newer material. Amazing that we got a video for "perhaps".

Pragmatically speaking, there's next to no money in music sales anyway these days, so hardly a problem.

Any way to get a vinyl quality release digitally?

The worst, and probable case scenario is that, despite any quality issues with the digital version, it won’t be fixed.

Any chance all the distortion, clipping, etc are all part of some device to create this dark, chaotic, ambience? I would not put it past Axl ti do this.

Not to sound too delusional, but could “Monsters” show up as a hidden track to “reward” the people who bought the vinyl? 
 

I mean, just because TG single was released today, does it mean the “Perhaps” vinyl can’t contain something more?

On 11/29/2023 at 1:22 PM, Sweersa said:

I have thought that, until 2021 Hard Skool came out. 

Again, purely subjective. I much prefer the 2021 version.

6 hours ago, Sweersa said:

To be fair, The General has yet to be officially released, it was only played live a few times. Also, if I were a betting man, I'm sure the older, CD-era mixes of the song were far better. I get what you are saying though, the song is a pretty basic few verses and a chorus song, and the leak we got has no notable guitars, even the orchestra is buried. I suppose the last ten seconds of guitar is intense, but it's NITL we're talking about here, the Bucket and/or Robin magic has been robbed from the song.  

Also, we all assumed The General (from what we heard at the Vienna party) was Soul Monster/Monsters, which I believe to be a far better song, and probably was amazing at that time. (NITL tends to knock down the CD-era songs a notch or two)

Sure. Axl is ok with "knocking" the songs down. Maybe you don't like them in their final form, but I find it impossible to believe he would be ok with "lesser" versions being the released ones.

MSG 1991. Three hour wait IIRC. Absolutely worth it. No doubt whatsoever.