Caught_in_a_Coma

It's very good. It has a non-commercial, experimental, groove to it that reminds me of sections of Coma and Locomotive. I'd say it's top-tier Guns. Well done, Mr. Rose. I wish ChiDem 2 could have turned out how you intended it to. Edit: TWAT is indeed amazing.

Monsters is very catchy, and a very good track. The General will be divisive due to the subject material and lyrics used to address it. I think it's a good song but I probably won't revisit it often.

Monster feels like a perfect ending song for an album or EP. The way it rides out.

I know what you mean. I feel and hear pain when he sings that line (especially with the hurt/angry cat-like backing vocal). It makes listening to the General half of the song feel sad rather than enjoyable. But I think it gives the song bite and does whatever Axl wanted it to do. The Monster half of the song moves away from that and I feel that half of the song a more enjoyable experience. I think they're great tracks (or a singular great track) and remind me a bit of Coma (and a bit of Oh My God).

Edit: n/m

It's clear a lot of great Chi-Dem era material was left unreleased. Did we just need to be more patient? Did Axl need to compromise a little and release a taste to give people confidence in and patience for CDII? Do Axl, Slash and Duff really have enough left in the tank to make an album that doesn't use Chi-Dem 2 leftovers?

Monsters > Silkworms (I think this is far better than the final version)> The General > Perhaps > Hardskool > Absurd Songs range from good to excellent, IMO.

I always really liked Going Down and wished it got an official release.

Axl is the GOAT. This cements it. ChiDem/NuGuns era was like the Star Wars prequels/Clone Wars. Took time to see the good because it wasn't the glory days 2.0 but now people see the genius of it and miss it.

I really like this perspective. I wish Izzy was still with the band in this sense; more on the writing and recording side, less on the touring side.

I was under the Impression that Jackie Chan IS Hard Skool and was being worked on around 97. So if that is true, we've at least been able to hear that song. We know a decent amount about unreleased songs from the ChiDem era and we know Izzy and Slash say there was stuff being worked on in the mid 90s but we don't seem to know as much about them.

And is Brain the best drummer GN'R ever had?

Going Down. I really like that one. I like it when Axl takes a break from lead vocals and just does support like on 14 Years. I don't want it that way all the time, but it sounds great here and there.

OP I could see you being right, but I'm also wondering if maybe he felt he had too many piano-ballad songs centered on lamenting something lost already on ChiDem in Street of Dreams, Catcher (now that I think about it, I can't remember if Catcher is very piano driven but it is more of a ballad with a theme of loss) and This I Love and felt Perhaps would thematically and musically sound or feel redundant so it was being saved for ChiDem II

If anything, I'm expecting this to be more like a Coma part 2. I'm not saying it is that or will be that, but Coma has a heavy, sound of conflict and despair or insanity to it. I'd imagine The General has a similar feel to it if it needed to be compared to the sound of another GN'R track.

Wasn't there a rumor that Axl and/or GN'R and/or Team Brazil felt underwhelmed by the level of attention Hard Skool generated? If that's true, hopefully they're feeling better about this one. I personally prefer Hard Skool (though I really miss that guitar intro heard in the demo version, it's a crime that was removed) but I think it and Perhaps would both be viewed as solid GN'R tracks had they released in the UYI era or another point in the 90s and had years of legacy behind them. Is anyone really going to argue most of the filler tracks on UYI are better than Hard Skool or Perhaps?

I liked Finck's solo more >_< but at least the song has been officially released. I'd love a Chinese Leftovers box set that released the NuGuns demos of these songs alongside their finalized versions. I think that would be a great compromise but it probably won't happen. The song has a late 90s/early 00s feel to me that I love. It's like it captured the sound of a moment in time and even though it released much later, it still has that feel.

So if most of the noteworthy unreleased ChiDem era songs are going to continue to release individually like this, would that mean a new album would feature all these songs but collect them together in an album packaging or would a new album have new music? Like, maybe stuff written in the NITL era?

That intro is heavy. It sounds like something dreadful is about to appear.

Hard Skool. If Absurd wasn't so different from Silk Worms, I'd have gone with that one.

Is it true this song is supposed to be viewed as a "fourth" chapter in the Don't Cry/November Rain/Estranged trilogy? I swear I heard that somewhere but I also feel like I heard that said about TWAT.

They made a video!? Way to go GN'R! Can we appreciate how Axl has gradually and consistently lost weight since the semi-reunion started? I respect that. It takes dedication and self control. Axl has reached a point where you can say "he looks pretty great".

I like Absurd. I LOVE Silkworms

TWAT is a killer track. Respect.