Lies They Tell

32 minutes ago, WhazUp said:

I chose "I Sat By The Ocean"  purely just as an example of a well-mixed rock song I jammed out to recently - of course opinions on the songwriting of the track itself may vary but I wanted to present it as an example of what my ears hear as a great way to present more straightforward rock songs in terms of instrument balance, EQ, and natural drum sounds

I like Hard Skool the song, as well as Duff and Slash's additions, but I really dislike the qualities of the mix and I think the overall experience would be so much greater if Hard Skool was given a better mix as that song was

To me mixing is a very important part of the sonic experience and can elevate or de-elevate accordingly.  "Dark Side of the Moon" is partly as highly regarded because along with the amazing compositions, the songs themselves are just pure ear candy and a joy to hear on good headphones/speakers.  And I wish Hard Skool got that same elevation it deserves

 

Right! I wasn't actually replying to you, but to the guy who called "I Sat By The Ocean" a much better song compared to Hard Skool and Absurd. I just wanted to add my two cents.

And I get that there are people who really care about the mixing. I'm not one of them. I care about melodies, vocals, riffs, solos, lyrics, energy and all that stuff. How the song is mixed is the least important part. Even when I'm listening to Dark Side of the Moon, it's the melodies, lyrics and stuff like that, that I only really care about. I don't care if Chinese Democracy is overproduced according to some. I don't care if Hard Skool is underproduced according to some. These songs sound good to me because I like the melodies, the vocals etc. Whether or not some drums should be slightly higher up on the mix or not means nothing to me.

It would be a different discussion if the mixing was actually terrible. If the guitars were completely inaudible or something. But I can hear everything that I want to hear in these songs. Nothing else really matters to me. But clearly something about these mixes bothers you a lot. That's all fine and I wasn't really replying to you.

8 hours ago, rumandraisin said:

I've been waiting since 2011 when I became a fan, some people have been waiting since 2006 for this song, absurd. 

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.

2 hours ago, Lethalis said:

I Sat By The Ocean by QOTSA is just a "better" song than Hard Skool. I'm listening to it to check it out for the first time atm on a friggin mobile phone speaker.

The riff just makes you wanna dance and I'm not even a QOTSA fan per se. I like some songs but that's it. But I really like the simplicity of it and I want to pick up my guitar and play along to it.

Absurd and Hard Skool just aren't that good.

Perhaps at least has its moments (I really like the piano during the guitar solo) and is just a better overall song than Absurd and Hard Skool.

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.

8 hours ago, LandOla said:

The more I think about, the more I believe it's gonna be just the instrumental track.

Wanna bet?

3 hours ago, jamillos said:

Now, take these, add one or two new songs and one or two 90s songs and you got yourself several possible albums stepwise. Sounds unbelievable and crazy, but it's still logical. 
 

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

18 minutes ago, Towelie said:

So what do we know about the actual song? I assume its an uptempo?

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.

6 hours ago, evader said:

I can hardly believe this, but after Fernando's "Monster" tease, I'm actually starting to wonder if we've all been making some incorrect assumptions for more than a decade (Axl quote about hearing it somewhere, etc). Guess we'll know soon enough.

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.

6 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

It's not just the baritone vocals, it's the calmer or more relaxed delivery of the vocals starting around 5:20 fits the song so much better than the falsetto voice. Wish he'd sing it like that all the time. The "I'm out here all alone" part sounds great. Night and day compared to the first video that pops up on youtube when I searched "gnr estranged 2023" (which was from Vigo)

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.

2 hours ago, Lethalis said:

We have no idea how the whole song sounds, do we? When you pick 30 seconds of Perhaps as a preview you can make it sound dark and heavy, but also like a piano ballad.

Most of us have heard the cell phone clip and a concert intro with some orchestra, but we don't know how the rest of song the sounds.

It might not be as dark as we expect it to be.

Brain called it "a cool jam"

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.

1 minute ago, rumandraisin said:

The difference is with another overhyped Atlas or Prostitute situation, we e all heard the orchestral parts of General and the cell phone clip. It's this minor key epic. You can't unhear that. I'm struggling to think how it'd be a let down?

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.

34 minutes ago, Cosmo said:

I'm getting skeptical about The General sounding like Sabbath 

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...

5 minutes ago, Stro said:

Bach also called Sorry "doom metal" so I don't think he should be used as an accurate representation of any unreleased track.

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.

5 hours ago, jimisbatman said:

Do we know for certain that the orchestral part is underlayer and not sole track opening music? 

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.

9 hours ago, Arnuld said:

And the big question- If this happens will you listen to it or wait for the official version? 

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.

6 hours ago, Blackstar said:

Having followed the abundance of posts and discussions about the General during the time I've been on the forums, I'm surprised by the fact that many people think that the lyrics in Evader's interpretation are the lyrics of the actual song. To a point where "There's a child now chained in the bed now" has become part of the whole legend, so if (or more likely when) they don't hear these words in the released song, they may think that Axl wrote new lyrics.

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. 😄

15 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Yeah, and also the lyrics were finished and had nothing to do with a general. Besides, Brain is said to have written The General, and he came in too late to have written State of Grace as it is on the Village leaks. It simply doesn't seem to be enough time there for Brain to have joined the band, helped make a song to completion which was called State of Grace based off on the completed lyrics, despite it originally being called The General because Brain and Bucket allegedly came up with it while eating General Tsao's chicken, or something, and then now for bizzare reasons it has evolved so much that State of Grace is no longer the best title, but back to The General, presumably with entirely new vocals. No, it doesn't make sense.

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.