Blackstar

And to add to this, many of the trends Axl was supposedly chasing were themselves inspired by older ('70s) stuff that Axl was always a fan of, so it was natural that he would like them.

Maybe you're confusing it with Sorry?

The solo was made from Buckethead solo tracks, the vocals and the rest of the instrumental (except the orchestra) from Rock Band stems. Evader has explained the process of making it:

No, Baz didn't sing on The General. He just talked about it after he heard it. Why we weren't going to get it? They're registered as one song, so we're probably getting as a kind of concept song consisting of two parts. The guitars in his version are taken from various Buckethead works. It's not the guitars on the cell phone recording.

Jarmo doesn't know anything. Just a couple of days ago he was saying he hadn't heard anything about a delay. Yes. Unless Axl didn't want to release it on streaming services (at least not yet) so someone from the camp took the risk to leak it (without Axl's permission, of course) to appease the fans.

Writing credits are out.

Maybe it's not from a vinyl rip, yes. But that doesn't mean they're older versions. There are other ways to have access to these and the result to be of this quality than a vinyl rip or someone having the source file.

There's no way it was recorded before 1993. Aside from everything else, it's a song based on an instrumental written by Brain. It couldn't have been written before 2000.

What you mean by "rough mixes from back then"? If you mean early versions from the NuGnR era, that can't be possible since it's clearly Slash playing on the leak. And of course that's why it's different from the cell phone clip. My guess is that the leak didn't come from a hoarder (whatever hoarders have must be versions from the NuGnR era - I doubt they have anything recently recorded), but probably from someone who had some kind of access to it through someone inside or close to the band. But I don't think it ultimately matters who leaked it.

... and? (What's the point of posting random comments from youtube?)

It was just fan speculation turned into a "rumour".

Slash is definitely on it. But as far as the last part, people have pointed out that it's likely Fortus.

I saw on Reddit that it's a claim made by a supposed "insider". I think that's how it works, as a song with pt. 1 and pt. 2.

Where does this Atlas/Monsters rumour come from? I think it's without merit, since The General and Monsters has been registered as one song in databases. EDIT: I just saw where it comes from: I don't know who the person on Reddit is, but even if that was the original plan, it seems clear now that they'll be released as one song. Edit 2: Oh yeah, it's an "insider" who has been source of various rumours that were never turned out to be true.

Opinions

He didn't mention a year. He only said that he recorded it on a Christmas Eve. Since it's been registered in credits databases as "The General and Monsters", it's safe to assume The General is first.

That was an instrumental only piece that Axl had written in '98-'99.

The one I listened to has about 6,300 views It's one song with two parts.

He told the audience to check out Duff's new album. That was cool.

I listened to the "cleaned up" rip on youtube that has the two tracks together and they really sound better, especially The General I think sounds significantly better.

That was The Garden.

Whatever they were, they were good. I hope it was another song and not just a jam.

And sing it live, I would add.

Me and My Elvis is clearly another song than Monsters. And if Monsters is Soul Monster (and I believe it is), then Me and My Elvis was never Soul Monster. It was just that fans jumped to conclusions because of "Elvis" in the title.

If you mean on SESAC, it didn't have it before either. I found it searching for Axl's writing credits. I don't think it means anything though.