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Is Coma the forgotten Gn'R masterpiece?


trqster

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I mean, sure Estranged is considered by many Gn'R fans (myself included) one of the, if not the best Gn'R song ever made, but somehow I can't stop to think if Coma ever did get a video made, it could probably be as popular and epic. I mean it doesn't get more epic than a full 10m13s(!!) of pure raw rock n'roll. Axl's vocal performance is as good as it gets (especially on the last part) and Slash's guitar solos are mind-blowing to me. It's really Gn'R at its best and imo a true rock masterpiece. :axl92:

The song has its downsides though, like it's a bitch to perform live and no way other than Axl at its peak could really perform it. And even then Axl considered it to be so intense that he only felt he could be able to pull it out a couple (three times maybe?) live...

Any love for Coma? :)

Edited by trqster
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Guest Len B'stard

The songs of GnR with the more universal appeal are the ones that are the more rock n roll or the more balladey, the metal type ones are never gonna get as broad a range of kudos cuz metal is relatively a niche thing. GnR would do well to bear that in mind actually.

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I remember thinking this was really different from them. Such a left turn, but at the same time, it was so good, so heavy, almost prog-like with all the changes, and especially that ascending chord progression near the end. Nice and morbid theme, fitting sound effects.

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Guest Len B'stard

OR...desperately corny with a musical accompaniment that fed into that whole anguished metal-head bollocks, a really tired old theme really. A really naff woe-is-me-but-i'll-make-it-despite-the-odds rant of a song that showed Guns to be slightly short on ideas.

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Not being a single with a video or getting played live didnt help it.

Maybe it will be on a best of gnr. Wasnt it a bonus live track on japanese import Live Era?

It was. I still need to buy that some day. It's roughly 30 to 45 dollars on eBay.

But making a 10+ minutes track with this kind of complexity a single would be very difficult. NR already gets cut on the radio. So does the live (single) version of KOHD. It's just not radio-sized, nor is it radio friendly. Most DJ's don't give tracks that long any airplay at all. NR is a very big exception to this. But I doubt coma would be widely accepted enough to do the same. It's better off being an album gem really.

I'd love to see a video for it. Would be epic! But, again, something that long wouldn't make it on MTV either. Not then and certainly not now.

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It is among the best and also the most overlooked. Thing is, with Estranged, I find it gorgeous throughout, while with Coma the last two minutes shine far beyond the previous eight, which I'd consider good but not out of the park the way the end of the song is.

I've also had the pleasure of hearing Estranged actually played in full on the radio one time.

Edited by Flayer
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It's tied for the best old Guns song, with Estranged. It's the "Slash masterpiece" of the Illusions records I think (Estranged being the "Axl masterpiece"). The intro builds from the dark tone Duff and Matt set up and just kicks you in the face once the riff really kicks in. The guitar is awesome throughout, and it's probably Axl's best vocal moment (the last verse).

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It's a masterpiece, but I wouldn't call it forgotten. It's a great song, afterall.

Forgotten among casual fans maybe? The "casual epics" would be Estranged and Nov Rain I guess, since those are the ones that get played live. But yea, it's always been a favorite among hardcore fans.

Yeah, I've never known too many GNR fans, real hardcore fans, that don't have Coma in their top 5 or 10.

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