StrangerInThisTown

1 hour ago, RnRHOFGNR said:

June 6th 1992 - Paris France.

One of the best visually and audio recorded performances of the band.  Great song choices and some really good guest appereances this was the band at the the peak of their game.  Although the Ritz show from 1988 is also a good one.

Except you have to deal with that whole circus 1992 lineup going on with the horns and backup girl singers, they had already made it big and were stars, and Axl was already not in his 20s anymore, so it is a band in their later stages. I think 1987-1989 is what would be their absolute peak in terms of performance, line-up, and pure ferocity in the vibe of the show. There is something endearing about watching a band shortly before they exploded, and knew it was slowly building, which is 1987-1989. They need to release that Cathouse 1989 proshot in full, goddamn.

Probably one from 1986-1988 that wasn't recorded (but who knows on how much gold Marc Canter is sitting there that we've never seen)

5 minutes ago, Flayer said:

The number one upvoted comment on the Youtube video is, quote, "Who in the hell mixed this?"

All I see is "Love that these guys and other bands from this era are still making music, keep on rockin " with 141 upvotes lol

I think you guys are being way too anal about the clipping. Not even the HARDCORE DISLIKER reactions on Youtube ever mention anything about clipping or the sound quality of the song. I also don't have an ear for it either, I just hear the song, and that's it. Changing something about the mix would literally do nothing for me in regards to my opinion of the song.

1 hour ago, Tom2112 said:

Clever, lower expectations so much that when they come out with anything half way decent people are bowled over. Dis you Nando?

No, because it would be pure comedy to read all the responses to that song, I don't care about any of that other shit you mentioned lol

32 minutes ago, Zeppelin said:

I don't know. Coma, to me, is both fun and dark. It's a behemoth of a song that feels like a roller coaster set to music. It takes you everywhere and it's almost dizzying how much is going on with that song. It also has good production, insanely good leads, great vocals, etc.

The General is really none of that. It's dark in subject matter, but it doesn't take you anywhere musically, the production is cheeks, the leads are buried to the point where you need a detective to find them, and it's repetitive. I think The General is just dull. It has some interesting ideas, that's for sure. But none of them are executed particularly well.

I see where you're coming from with this, but I don't think it's that black-and-white.

I'm not sure I can really ever derive "fun" from listening to a song about someone being in pain. But I agree what makes Coma work is the sheer scope of the musical ambition that they pull off, and you appreciate that when listening to it. The General doesn't have any of that. They somehow really missed the mark in the arrangement, working in the orchestra in more, giving it a longer intro like the concert one.

It's just basic, and that's why it doesn't work like Coma does. Which is insane considering how long Axl sat on this song, and I guess Slash and Duff didn't care enough to seriously rework the song (or Axl didn't want that).

A pretty positive reaction to The General (by a girl listener, no less)

Honestly what I can say for me now, this song is so far out musically and thematically, it's really no surprise it doesn't appeal to a large part of GNRs fanbase. The section of the fanbase that appreciates a deep cut dark song like Coma must already be like only half of them, and this song is even a step darker than that. It would definitely not get the flack like it is currently getting exposed as a standalone song, if it was where it should belong and have been released and placed, track 7-8 of 10 on an album, surrounded by more accessible tracks.

I think it makes sense to say you'd listen to it for the same reason you'd go see a horror film. It's not exactly a "fun" time, yet we do it to feel certain emotions, because we just want to. This is Axl's pain as a child set to music, it is supposed to sound somewhat ugly, and that's where a lot of people check out.

16 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

Let's hope 'eye on you' is buried so far down that it never sees the light of day. I can only imagine the reception that monstrosity would have, given that it's unquestionably worse than Absurd and The general😄 it's like gnr want us to listen to My world and say "I guess this wasn't so bad afterall"😄

I was being facetious, but in a way I DO want Eye On You to come out just because it would be hilarious to release that song now, especially after The General. Then they can always right the ship big time with Monsters and SOG lol.

All this music that gets released sounds exactly like Axl wants it to, there is no other way. Let's hope for a better production for Eye On You

8 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

Not seen it discussed directly that much and don't wish to be the one to bring back the debate about Monster and General being one the same...but there are enough red herrings that tell us, that Axl definately sees them as cousins at least...it would be very unusual to have two songs share the same orchestral bed (Marcos strings) unless they were connect, then there's the vibe, the content, theme and lyrics...surely the only reason it could of leaked on Oct 27th was because it was coming on that Vinyl....and the fixing that had the delay occuring was the amputation of Monsters....it's certainly all makes logical sense to me....

Oct 27th - Otherwise, why then ? If not...We have to buy the argument that someone has had Reunion-GNR leaks and that's so unlikely....

Or those audio engineers in the studio in Europe where Axl and Slash listened to "new mixes" this year had some kind of recording device going on the soundboard and it somehow leaked that way. But yeah another theory of course it could also come from the scrapped vinyl.

7 minutes ago, bangit said:

I'm going for 6 out of 10. It's a decent song, nothing special though and clearly a little experimental which is cool. It's as good as many CD songs but not a stand out. If it was on an album, it would be one of those songs you listen to occasionally like Shacklers or Scraped. 

The casual GNR fan will probably horrified that it isn't a UYI style classic. Oh well. Plenty of forgettable songs on those albums!!! #shotgunblues

Shotgun Blues is one of my go to songs for my gym workout lol

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

It was only Sebastian Bach (who is not a close associate, just a friend of Axl). And Brain just said it was a cool song (which is normal, since it was his song). Axl merely mentioned the title.

That's it. Everything else is only on the fans. No band member or "associate" misguided us to believe that the cell phone recording was The General, we "figured" it all out by ourselves. And no one told the fans that the orchestral arrangement used as an intro at concerts means that it's also the intro to the actual song (and not just integrated in it), that's just something fans speculated and made up.

To be honest we haven't heard the same version of The General that Sebastian Bach heard, so we should cut him some slack lol, we don't know how different it was. Marco Beltrami said Seven is the best song he worked on..can't wait for this same shitshow to start if people are disappointed with that one lol

4 hours ago, MaskingApathy said:

New song featuring Todd on bass (he's in the video too).

 

Quite good. Myles is also a co-writer of this, that heavy riff in the pre-chorus is distinctly Alter Bridge-y

5 hours ago, DSTK said:

Hidden...fuck me, how desperate are u lot..it isn't happening with this release

There are some things that point to it, but I don't expect it, but just look, how in the actual fuck do you fuck up registering 2 songs as 1 on the SESAC songwriting site then. "The General And Monsters". How would it even enter someones brain to register The General that way, otherwise? Makes 0 sense.

Also when the first upload of Monsters to soundcloud was blocked it said "this upload contains audio of the song "The General" by Guns N Roses" - which would make sense if it was uploaded by GNR to the database the way it would be as audio, as one 9 minute audio, officially as The General, and Monsters tacked on "hidden" at the end and not a seperate track. So it would show up as "The General" and get blocked..like it did.

All this only makes sense if it was intended to be a hidden track. But there's no use speculating now we will find out soon anyway. What we may never find out is if it was pulled in October, due to the sound quality issues on the vinyl. But we have the leak anyway so who cares when it comes out officially, in the end.

Cornshucker is an awesome song by the way, I don't get why it wasn't included in the box either, since it's an "unheard" song. Maybe they didn't want to deal with The Mentors bugging them again or suing them for copyright infringement and wanting a piece of the pie, but I love that song, just fun.

5 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

I still wonder why don’t cry was left off the AFD box.

They didn't even put the SCOM demo on it. You know, like, their biggest song, lol.

Don't see Axl cutting ties with TB, it's his whole family at this point in life. All I can see happening is Fernando being "demoted" to a background person really

31 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

Yea, it sounds fake.

But even for GNR standards this would be such a bizarre troll job. This guy has been uploading what seem like legit internal CD's from Universal for over a year, mostly Rammstein, just so he could try to fool people with another version of Eye On You? That's one dedicated troll...

He could be just a normal guy who sells stuff then stumbled upon this community and then decided to go ahead with this shit lol. This is definitely fake, and out of all the unreleased songs he chose Eye On You? That says it all

21 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

Well, are the manufacturers and experts just making it up then? Is that genuinely what you believe? 

Not having a go here - just curious here as it's widely acknowledged that it's a problem, even by those that make this stuff and I can't work out why people ignore this. 

If pointing at the existence of November Rain trumps the manufacturers and experts for you, that's fine, but surely you can see that for most people that isn't enough really? They''re going to go with the people that do this for a living. 

Personally I think my November Rain sounds pretty shit compared to the Illusion LPs and CD single versions of it. Others may disagree of course. 

They're not making it up, there must be somewhat of a loss in quality putting on 9 minutes of music versus, let's say, 4 minutes of music, but isn't that...obvious? My entire point in the original post, if you go back, is if you "disagree" with the proof, then congratulations, you are an audiophile. There is no discernable "compromised sound" to normal people. No one is enraged over the sound of that November Rain vinyl, and it's 9 minutes long.

20 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

Well that was my point....

Well you asked if I believe that, and yes I do believe that to be the case lol, but I'm saying we can't know for sure, only that it's too much of a coincidence to not be the case

33 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

What makes you so sure that there is a 'hidden track'? It's highly possible it will just be The General on the b-side. And people will moan and complain about that now, even though it was never advertised or sold as such. 

I'm no audiophile, I just trust all he experts and indeed the manufacturers of the record, when they say the quality won't be great. I know we live in a climate where listening to people who actually know about these things and work with them for a living plays second fiddle to kneejerk reaction.....but personally, I trust that the people who are making the thing know a lot more about this than me. And if they say it will compromise the sound....then there we go. I bow to their greater knowledge. 

All irrelevant anyway now really, as it's coming out on CD so won't be an issue. 

 

..what do you want me to possibly respond to this? When you have already been confronted with literal, actual, real evidence and proof of a fine sounding, 9 minute long, 7" vinyl existing? I feel like you're just fucking with me at this point

Also no I'm not sure it's a hidden track, but things seem to just point to it being the case because it was registered as one song on SESAC which is highly unusual. We also know it's not one and the same song because it was played live without Monsters.

17 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

More to the question...

Do you think (if they do) they've Included "Monsters" based on the fact they may know that's what folk were expecting "The General" to be, so it helps quell that disappointment...could be a few reasons to include it BUT probably mostly as they link well in theme and vibe...

I don't think they took it off. They put out a 9 minute vinyl that good sounding in 1992, they can do it again, and not settle for less. Bands are having problems with shitty sounding vinyl these last years in general just due to bad vinyl facilities, not because of length or whatever.

It's only my opinion, but I believe Axl must have been aware all these years that we were confusing The General with Soul Monster the entire time, it seems too coincidental that that is the song chosen to follow after The General. It's one of the coolest things the GNR camp did for the fans in years if that really is, or was, the entire idea behind it. I'm not going to 100% give them credit and say that's what it was, but it seems too planned out for me to unfold that way.

5 hours ago, allwaystired said:

I think the point is though that even the pressing plants recommend against doing it, and say it will compromise the sound, so it's a bit of a daft idea to do it regardless. Especially when it is really easy to get it made on formats that don't have the same limitations. It seems almost wilfully unnecessary.

It's not a daft idea when the entire idea is for your fans to have a hidden track kick in after your song, and that on a 7". That's the entire genius behind doing that, no one expects it. A "compromise of sound" is -indescernible- on the 7" NR vinyl, you are a complete audiophile maniac whether you want to believe it or not if you think that vinyl doesn't sound good enough for you. Your opinion is not shared by the majority of people who listen to the NR 7" vinyl and their brain would never realize any "shit" sound whatsoever. Any of that "compromised sound" is offset by the coolness of having an extra hidden track on your vinyl.

Ontop of that, us hardcore fans who confused The General for the song that ended up being Monsters, that makes it even cooler when not only you realize an extra song comes on, but that THAT is the song you thought was The General the entire time, and finally there it is. (Possibly it was also put there because Axl realizes how "out there" The General is musically and so for anyone who is disappointed by it there follows a track that is somewhat more "classic" sounding.) For us forum diehards that surprise has pretty much been spoiled now due to the leak, but we are a small fraction of the fanbase.

Look, there is no doubt we'll be able to download or stream the song sometime in the future and then for the rest of our lifes anyway, and your brain can relax knowing now there it's "the best possible quality." For now, it will be a cool surprise for any fan who isn't a diehard reader of this forum and they will enjoy it.

43 minutes ago, gavgnr said:

I’ve heard the clip. It’s BS. The joke number of versions on the cover gives it away even before you listen 

True, it's hard to believe Eye On You was worked on that intensively lol