dave94

Excellent news, another distribution channel for Axl to not release new music through, just what was needed

I really like it, it’s a fun listen with some nice guitar work and I like the vocals from Brian. Not a fan of the album title “orgy of the damned”, it sounds like something from a really bad metal band

On 1/31/2024 at 8:29 PM, El Guapo said:

With Hardskool...it just sounds bad. The casual listener won't realize the bad production, the copy and paste stuff and all that in detail, but the released version just feels off and cold.

Hard School just sounds like generic ‘dad rock’ to me, it’s got lots of guitars and drums but easily forgettable. Monsters has more of an edge to it which is more deserving of being in the Guns n Roses catalogue 

I kinda liked the animation and some of the transitions were pretty cool, so I guess I like it more than most do, but I didn’t really pick up on any story or narrative other than “look at this animation and computer effects we’ve done”, which was disappointing 

Out of people who have listened to the song, the hard core fans will probably support the band no matter what even after an underwhelming new release, and casual fans who will listen to it and think “not for me” will just move on to the next song without thinking twice about it

2 hours ago, Cosmo said:

It’s funny how this track has leaked for months now and, pretty much up until its release, people were excited, the overall feeling was “Its an okay song, but hell yeah we’re finally getting The General!” And then suddenly, it became an embarassing shitshow of a song that is worse than My World. The herd effect here is way too strong. All it takes is a few better known posters saying it’s shit for the dominoes to start falling and the whole boards suddenly think so too. 

I don’t think The General is anything to write home about, but it’s not that bad. I do have some issues with the sound, especialy the digital drums and the sitar effect in the rhythm guitar, but other than that, it’s just a solid track, IMO. Better than Riad and Scraped, for sure, better than a few cuts off UYI and better than Anything Goes, IMO.

Or maybe people thought the song was OK considering the poor production which they had attributed to it being a low quality leak or even that it was a demo, and the final product would sound much cleaner and more complete. That’s not what we got. Also the initial intrigue and excitement has long since passed for anyone who had the leaks 6 weeks ago and even at the time the overwhelming consensus was that “monsters” was the far superior song 

1 hour ago, star said:

 

Based on what has been released since the released of C.D. it makes sense why those songs failed to make it onto the album, as they sound unfinished. Hard Skool, Absurd, Perhaps, The General all sound, lacking to me. Hard Skool is probably the most G'N'R sound track of the bunch. I have yet to hear Monsters. 

The Monsters leak sounded decent and worthy of the Guns N Roses name, but I agree with everything else, it’s clear why this stuff wasn’t released and if it’s the best they had It’s no surprise CD II was canned by the label 15 years ago.
 

Hard School and Perhaps the demos were interesting but the final versions ruined (to no direct fault of Slash / Duff) by having the songs re-done so many times the original vision had been completely erased over. The General on the other hand just doesn’t sound completed at all, a distorted mess, off sounding drums, too many repeated sections and the ending sounds like scratch vocals waiting to be replace with lyrics which were never written. The crazy thing is we’ve been given this when we know a finished version of monsters exists and Atlas Shrugged could/should have been done too

1 hour ago, Rovim said:

in page 192 in this thread, from Apple music (official lyrics)

Does anyone know where the Apple Music lyrics actually come from though? If it’s just linked to “genius lyrics” or something like that then practically anyone could have uploaded them

10 minutes ago, 2020_Intensions said:

I just can't believe the arguably most hyped unreleased song for over a decade turned out to not only not be an A tier song, but a mediocre one, and then released with shit production. I wish I never heard it. 

It’s better to be put out of our misery than left wondering if there’s another estranged or you could be mine lurking in the back of the vault. 

None of the ‘newly’ released songs have been particularly compelling as new music 

Personally I’m finding this whole “non-release” completely tedious now. It feels like forever ago I was hyped for these songs, now it’s a case of wanting to hear the final version just for curiosity’s sake rather than being genuinely excited for new music. I get the vinyl delay was “one of things”, still farcical nonetheless, but there’s no reason it couldn’t have come out digitally especially after it was played live. It’s just being held back for the sake of being held back.

On 11/17/2023 at 2:46 AM, gunsnchalupas said:

 

I don't mean to be a jerk, but this is such an absurd idea. I always assumed it was named Duff beer because duff is slang for butt, and in the context of the show, the storylines and gags with the beer and alcoholics in the show are typically portrayed as fat lazy slobs. 

Had Duff not been a word prior to GNR, I would understand people making this connection. People are acting like he made up the word and people weren't commonly aware of it being slang already prior to GNR.

The beer being named after Duff doesn't make any sense in the context of the show. I can't imagine how anybody even got the idea. I'd guess that maybe Duff just heard it somewhere and assumed it was true. 

There is no reasonable connection. I get it was a different time, where members of bands were much more visible as pop culture figures, but it isn't even like your average person knew who Duff McKagan was. Axl or Slash, sure. 

To be fair I’ve never heard the word “duff” used mean butt in my life until reading this thread, it must be any US thing as in the UK that word usually means either useless or “up the duff” means pregnant. Both GNR and the Simpsons are as popular outside the US as they are in the US so to the vast majority of people “duff beer” is just a nonsense name which could have come from anywhere. 

The copyright infringements certainly comes across as amateur whether there’s any malicious intent or not, it’s just not the way to manage a high profile multi million dollar global business. I’m not as clued up on the management as other members here, but everything I’ve ever heard about them has been negative, they don’t seem to have any experience outside of being personal assistants to Axl Rose.

Think some of these songs are a victim of being worked on, reworked and then worked on again to the point they’re long detached from the original vision.

Hard School is the best example, the demo sounded interesting at least even if you didn’t like it, but the final release just sounded like throwaway nondescript “dad rock”. The cheesy tacked on parts don’t help but really the song needs to work with the original sounds intended for the song.

I really liked the demo of perhaps but the final release was over-layered to the point no parts of the song really stood out anymore (apart from the poor guitar transition at the start of the solo). At least Absurd was a bit different and stood out, a shame the song itself is pure garbage (although I like Slash’s guitar work on it)

36 minutes ago, DoMw94 said:

It is a fad though. Vinyls sales are on the up – it largely went away. 10-20 years ago there wasn't 10 different colour options of vinyl or entire sections of shops like HMV devoted to it. I get that there's a collectors market for it, and that's fine, but buying vinyls to listen to them – as someone's only means if listening to something – is plain daft. Why would you go out of your way to listen to the worst version of something?

Modern vinyls aren't even made right! They're the same digital files put onto a vinyl – they're a square peg in a round hole. They're low quality pieces of crap made to sponge off gullible fans.

Old vinyls? Whatever, good at the time but outdated tech. Modern vinyls? Utter bullshit. They're for putting on a shelf and looking at, not for listening to.

You need to stop sitting on the fence, and tell us what you really think about vinyls!

22 hours ago, jamillos said:

Someone on FB said it would be the end of the world in Dec. 2012. What gives? 

The end of the world probably has a greater chance of happening than GNR releasing music on time

5 hours ago, Spiritual_Chaos said:

Great song. But with the way Axl struggles live, I imagine it will be a wash for the crowd, with no one picking up any of the (mainly) chorus lyrics, and people will if anything remember Slash cool ominous guitar parts when leaving the arena.

Unfortunately as much as I’m sure we all love Axl, this has been the case for most concerts in the last few years, new songs or otherwise

Now they’ve played it live is there any reason they can’t just put it on Spotify

1 hour ago, Rodela said:

Guys, THE GENERAL is really bad, isn't it?

It’s a “grower”, after a few more listens it gets better. I do hope though they tidy up the vocals as they aren’t clear enough in the mix and the distortion effect just doesn’t sound very good

22 minutes ago, DannyVinyard said:

If Axl didn't no-show Philly 2002, they could have taken the world by storm. That band had so much talent, potential, and who knows how high of a ceiling. The Philly no show, which triggered the tour being cancelled as well as Buckethead leaving, is what doomed NuGNR.

Probably always was a doomed project to be honest, Guns n Roses were known as true rock n rollers and “NuGuns” were not that at all. An early 2000’s release and then a proper follow up would have at least earned more respect for Axls vision, which is probably more interesting than trying to imitate Appetite a dozen times but I bet if Axl could turn back time he’d have done something different in those 20 years 

54 minutes ago, Miden34 said:

Also like we ALLLLLL keep saying, the registration came out for "The General and Monsters" 5 days before we got the leak. On a legal document, the two entities would need to be listed as sperate. "the General" and "Monsters". not "The General and Monsters". if its registered as one phrase, its one song. thats just legal fact. 

no. i dont wanna listen to all of the general to listen to monsters. i dont .like the general half much

The copyright / licensing filing is interesting because if it is actually “The General and Monsters” why was it explicitly listed and sold on the vinyl as “The General”?

I don’t think we can conclusively say yet if it’s one song “The General and Monsters” or two songs “The General” and “Monsters”. Maybe even both and either format can be used interchangeably based on the desired purpose at the time? If they are one song then there would need to be a better bridge between them, which we haven’t heard yet on the leaks.

16 minutes ago, DSTK said:

There's no official version...how the fuck can a leak be official? 

Probably someone’s just ran the standard leaked version through an AI software and then pretended they have a newer or official version 

I’m curious whether this is the final version or if there’s still more to come. It doesn’t seem like the leak could have come from vinyl as it doesn’t appear anyone could have got a copy of it yet. It must have either come from a hoarder (if so, why now) or from the band / management as an apology for cocking up the release - in either case we don’t know if this is the final version or not. I don’t think the vocals are particularly clear in the mix especially on The General which kinda makes me think the official release might have ended up being reworked a bit

Not sure on “The General” but “Monsters”… yes just yes this is what we’ve been waiting for

I wasn’t fully expecting The General to be released online immediately as it would have made sense to try to hype up the vinyls a bit first, so not particularly upset about that - but I do completely agree with the criticisms over the last minute delay on the pre-orders and then lack of communication, it’s really poor for those who have spent money on something which hasn’t turned up as advertised. It’s nothing to do with being angry at GnR for the music it’s just really bad customer service all round.