Lies They Tell

You mean The General? Dude, people have been waiting for that song way longer. 2006 wasn't the first time we heard about The General. I don't remember the exact date when we heard about The General for the first time, but it's one of the earliest songs that we knew about. It was a highly anticipated song long before Sebastian Bach had made any comments about it and long before the intro was played in the concerts. The General, Prostitute and This I Love were probably the most hyped songs before anything from Chinese Democracy had been leaked and way before 2006. I don't even know why some people wanted to hear The General so much before we knew anything about it. Maybe the name just sounded so cool. I was always in the Prostitute camp back then. That's the song that I was hyped about because somebody had said that the song sounds like fire and ice. A song with that kind of a contrast sounded awesome to me. In the end Prostitute sounded nothing like I expected, but it's still a great song.

The riff makes you wanna dance? To me it's one of the the least danceable riffs I've ever come across. I gave the song a listen because people praised it, but I thought it was a pretty boring song. Repetitive, lacking any intriguing elements. It didn't really capture my interest. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have a grudge against Queens of the Stone Age. Just like you, I enjoy a few of their tracks, but many others just don't do it for me. Sure, the QOTSA song might be better mixed, but for me, mixing is the least important part of a song, by far. It's all about the energy, the melodies, the riffs, the electrifying solos, the vocals, the lyrics, the spark of originality, and so much more that truly matter. "Hard Skool" and "Absurd" stand out, especially in terms of their sheer energy. In a world where most contemporary rock music seems to lack that punch, these two tracks were a breath of fresh air. Naturally, I lean towards these songs over "I Sat By The Ocean," but opinions are like assholes etc. I'm not here to engage in futile debates about tastes and preferences; I simply wanted to share my perspective on these songs. Those who aren't fans of the new tracks tend to be quite vocal about it, and it can give the impression of a unanimous sentiment. So I think it's good that people who appreciate these songs share their viewpoints as well.

I want to live long enough until they start releasing every single little thing from the vault posthumously. I know that's kinda like wishing for new music, but I just don't have any other bucket list wishes.

Lol, it's not going to be an instrumental. There's no reason to think it would be. But if anyone wants to bet I'm more than happy to do that.

Wanna bet?

I agree, except I don't think it sounds unbelievable and crazy

A fast song? No, not really. Based on the cellphone clip it seems to be pretty slow, dark and epic. There's some screaming in it and my guess is that the orchestration will be on the background layer throughout the song. But obviously we haven't heard the whole song. I guess that it's possible that there's some faster parts in it, but I doubt it.

What are you talking about? I fail to see how Fernando's comment raises any doubts about our knowledge of the song. There's no question that the cellphone leak is "The General". The only other possibility would be that they have two songs with the exact same orchestration and that's a stupid idea. Obviously the cellphone clip is "The General". It fits Sebastian Bach's description as well. And the orchestral intro that they used in 2006 was from "The General". They have confirmed this. This is how the GNR Twitter once replied when someone asked what intros they play at GNR concerts: "there are several.. "the General" is probably most played before CD". So, it's not just speculation based on what Axl said. They have actually confirmed that they used The General as an intro So based on everything that we've heard, we know that The General will be a pretty epic and dark song. You could even call it a "Monster" like Fernando did. There's no contradiction between Fernando's statement and our existing knowledge of the song; the cellphone snippet is unquestionably "The General."

On top of Absurd, Hard Skool, Perhaps and The General, I have no doubt that at least Seven, Soulmonster, Atlas Shrugged, Berlin and State of Grace will also be released at some point. But I'm glad if they also start writing brand new music.

Exactly and the reason why he sounds calmer is because he uses the baritone voice. That's why he's not struggling with his voice. He can sing it all so effortlessly when he uses the baritone voice. That's a big reason why I prefer the baritone voice as well. It's not enjoyable to hear someone struggling with his voice. The baritone voice is so much more effortless and strong. Like someone else said, it also gives Axl flexibility so that he can improvise more and sing things a bit differently when he's not stuggling with his voice. But there are some people who prefer it when Axl at least tries to hit the right notes even if he sounds weaker that way. Unfortunately Axl himself seems to be one of those people.

I guess it's possible that there are brighter parts in the song. But based on everything that we've heard so far, it's hard to imagine that the song would change tone so drastically all of a sudden. The dark orchestra seems to be a pretty essential part of the song that most likely can be heard thoughout the song on the background layer. Kinda like the piano on Perhaps. Anything is possible, but my bet is that The General is a pretty dark song.

Gotta say that GNR are doing things right with this release. When you look at people's reactions on Youtube most people seem to really like the song. I guess this is the kind of a song that most GNR fans can enjoy. It has piano, so November Rain fanboys can dig it, but it's not too soft, so even the edgier GNR fans can find something to enjoy about it. It has a little bit of something for everyone. It was probably a good idea to release the first proper GNR music video with a song like this, that most people can enjoy. The fact that the song has a proper music video makes a huge difference. Many people don't want to make reaction videos to songs that don't have a video. And in today's day and age these reaction videos are a very good way to get free advertisement for your songs. The reception for this song has been much more positive than I expected. I was afraid that people would think it's too safe and bland. But it seems like this is exactly what many people wanted from a new GNR song. So it's a good pick for a single. If The General had been the first single with a proper music video, it might be a bit too dark and angry for the mainstream audience. Even if The General will most likely end up being the song that I prefer out of these two songs.

Tommy always seemed like something of a bully. The environment probably had some toxic elements, but I don't want to speculate too much. I don't know enough about the subject.

It's still possible. I was a bit dissapointed with the Hard Skool leak, even though I had heard parts of the song before, that I had really loved. Luckily I ended up loving the finished version of Hard skool much more than the leak. So I could see myself being a bit dissapointed with The General even though I've loved everything that I've heard of it so far. As long as we haven't heard the rest of the song there's always a chance that it's super repetitive or something. Although I doubt it. The fact that it's considered an A-listed song makes me confident that it's probably going to be a good song. I'm just saying that as long as you haven't heard all of it, there's always a chance that you won't like all of it. Especially if your expectations are extremely high.

I want to hear all of the CD era songs, except maybe Eye On You. I'm fine if that one's never released. The General is the song that I want to hear the most and it's feels insane that it's actually happening pretty soon. Seven is probably my second most anticipated song because it was Marco Beltrami's favorite out of the 3 A-listed GNR songs. Berlin is my favorite out of the leaks. It sounds like a banger and I want to hear it really bad. Soulmonster is also a song that I'm looking forward to very much. It's one of the A-listed songs and it has the meanest section of anything that Axl has written according to Axl himself. I've never actually listened to the leak "Me and My Elvis" cause I don't want too many spoilers. Down By The Ocean would be cool simply cause it's an Izzy song. Atlas Shrugged is my favorite Village leak with vocals. The only reason why I want to hear these other songs more is because we've already heard an almost complete version of Atlas. But I really want to hear the finished version.

Personally I've always loved the finished version the most. The only exception has been Riad. That's the only leak that I prefer, but I don't hate the finished version.

Nobody has said that The General sounds like Sabbath so don't expect that. Axl once said that the bridge in Soulmonster is "our most Black Sabbath moment". But then he continued: "Which having said that I'm sure when it's heard others may disagree". Probably cause he knows that you can't really compare these songs to anything else cause then people will start expecting these songs to sound exacly like Sabbath or exactly like doom metal etc...

He said it was "ALMOST like doom metal". Which is honestly a pretty accurate way to describe the song. I'm convinced that many people who criticize Bach's description of Sorry don't even know what doom metal is.

There's a few reasons why some consider it the holy grail of unreleased GNR music. For starters it's one of the three A-listed CD-era songs that Marco Beltrami worked on. So we know that it's considered a "big gun". The other two songs that we know are A-listed according to Sp1at are Seven and Soulmonster. People who have heard it have praised it including Dizzy who said: "last year Brain had this song called "The General" that was really cool". Brain himself who said: "it's an awesome jam... i hope it's released soon!!!!!! [...] it will come out... the shits to good!!!!!" Sebastian Bach said: "one of my favorite songs is this song called "The General", which is so… it's by far the heaviest metal tune I think Ι've ever heard Axl do, this slow, grinding riff with these high, piercing vocals, screaming vocals." Accrording to The Rolling Stones Bach also said that the General would be a sequel to Estranged, but there's a good reason to believe that might be a missquote. Anyway, most recently Fernando said: "Perhaps is a great song; the General is a monster" GNR also used to use the orchestral part of The General as an intro to their concerts. You don't tease people with tiny bits of an unreleased song unless you're proud of the song. The song was played at some GNR after party and we've heard a cellphone clip of it. It sounds cool. So yeah, there's many reasons to be hyped for the song. Personally I'm hyped because it doesn't sound like anything that we've heard from GNR before. It's dark and epic with an orchestra. The fact that it's different alone makes me want to hear it. But you're right, if you hype something up too much, it's probably going to dissapoint. That kinda happened to me with Prostitute back in the day. Prostitute used to be an extremely hyped song, so for me it couldn't possibly live up to the hype. Still, I consider Prositute to be a very good song. And that's enough. I'm Happy if The General is "only" a very good song.

I'm just glad that these people who make fake tracklists have finally learned that the name of Oklahoma is more likely Berlin now and they even remember to include Seven in these lists these days. That's progress!

We know for sure that there is an orchestral underlayer in the song that sounds similar as the orchestral part that we've heard before. The orchestral underlayer can be heard in the GNR after party cellphone clip that leaked at some point. We have no idea how the song is going to start. The General might have an intro or it might not have an intro. We simply have no clue. We only know that there is an orchestral underlayer in the song.

I still haven't listened to half of the Village session leaks cause I don't want spoilers. So now that we know that The General will be released soon, there's no way I'm going to listen to any leaks.

Yeah, and also some people act like we know for a fact that there's a long-ass intro in the song when in reality the orchestral part that we've heard could be just something that's playing in the background of the song. If it doesn't have a long intro when it's released, it's pretty much guaranteed that some people will complain that they removed the intro, even though there's no evidence that the song ever had a long intro. 😄

Yeah, I don't want to defend the position that State of Grace became The General too much, because it's not actually something that I believe in. 😅 I'm just saying that there are clear similarities between these songs. Mainly the slow and dark vibes with screaming vocals. So I can understand why some speculate that SOG could have become The General. It's possible (but not likely) that Brain and Bucket wrote The General and then Axl liked the song so much that he scrapped SOG completely and decided to use some bits and ideas from SOG in The General instead. Kinda like he used some parts of Eye On You on Hard Skool instead. It's possible but not likely. Still it's fun to speculate.

True! Coma didn't even cross my mind for some reason, even though it's one of my favorite songs. That one is dark and epic for sure. Well, The General is still something new and interesting since it's the first epic and dark GNR song with orchestration.