Blackstar

I'm confident that it's not. As far as the band is concerned, these songs haven't been released yet.

Well, we now know that Monsters and Soul Monsters are the same.

Yes, the quote is in the OP.

I listened a few times and I think may be And although I understand your lack of/you lost your self respect

Yes, there was (as always), but I don't think anyone now doubts that it's Slash.

It really sounds that you haven't following the band at all for at least the last 8 years. You don't even know who is in the band now.

There were no Fortus solos, but Fortus was on the tracks. And of course there were no Finck and Buckethead solos - except of about 2 seconds of Finck on Perhaps. But why is this "proof" that Slash and Fortus wouldn't share a solo on another track?

In that case, though, it would be still an older version and not one with Slash and Duff. Because I don't know if that person would have access to recent recordings with Slash and Duff - I don't think that these would circulate in the "black market"

And how would he be sure that it was the same song he had? Or that "Monsters" wasn't just part of a new title of The General (since the registration in the database suggests that it's one song)?

Yes.

There are explanations for all that. Read the comments in the Beltrami thread.

I think I clearly hear "damage" there.

It is kind of legendary, because some iconic live albums were recorded there.

If they are demos from the early 00's (they are not), how would the hoarders know that the song is now called Monsters ? It certainly had another title at that time. Or how would they know that it was the same track that they had?

I think @Voodoochild's theory about how these leaked is the most plausible: not ripped from vinyl, but probably recorded from the soundboard of the studio Axl and Slash went to listen to the mixes back in June.

I think they've all been taken down.

Yes, something like that. I think the guy said that the track he heard didn't have vocals though, just was told by Axl that it was about cigars. But I think it's likely that all the songs in that screenshot with the 2008 CD2 track list have vocals and at the time were at least at an advanced stage of completion (Cuban Skies, Nothing, Tonto, Monstrocity or whatever that was).

No, this rumour came from a troll that likes to make up lists with fake information. Same with what Fortus supposedly said about about Seven being Circus Maximus and D Tune.

I think it's possible that the orchestral "intro" piece was a mashup of Beltrami's work on both tracks. But let's see if he responds about that. I'm very curious.

Not exactly the same, because we had the credits already, and then there was the leak and we had the title of the second track. But if the credits weren't published yet and Monsters was an uncredited hidden track, the surprise factor would be much bigger.

True, but I guess they knew that once the first person received their 7-inch it would be ripped and shared. But until that point it would be a surprise. Imagine if you spinned your record without knowing anything, The (real) General started playing and you're like "Wtf is this, where's the phone clip" and then another track started playing that is the one from the phone clip. And then the tracks get shared and there's speculation what the other song is etc. They probably were thinking it like that and laughing at the potential reactions.

There's no doubt that they were originally - and at least until the time of Axl's chats - two different tracks. The question is if at some point after 2008 they were paired together in some way (not necessarily merged). It's likely that Axl wanted them back to back on an album, but since they're now not being released as part of an album, maybe he wanted to release them as a pair, and maybe the hidden track theory has some merit. * @Mindray11 do you remember if all you heard at that party was what turned out to be Monsters or it was both the (real) General and Monsters?

I thought that the Monsters as a hidden track theory was rather unlikely, but upon further review I think it's quite possible. Maybe, as someone said earlier (sorry for not tagging - I forgot the username) Axl wanted it to be a cool surprise gift for the fans, but the writing credits on SESAC and then the leak ruined it for him, lol.

Although I'm not one to easily jump to conclusions, I would think that this is not up for debate. But here we are, lol. It's beyond me how this can be questioned, but Me and My Elvis being the same song as Soul Monster was considered "fact" (despite the lack of further evidence).