Hard Skool Officially Released at Midnight - Sept 24

[MaskingApathy]

10 minutes ago, HollyWoodRose84 said:

Not at all what I was expecting. It’s average at best, and this is coming from me. The mix is awful. The drums are pretty bad.  I was aware of the new intro and that’s about the only thing that saves this. Like my buddy said to me a few months back (he’s heard the majority of the new tracks) after I said that I wanted to hear new Guns music, and his exact reply was “Yeah but do you really?” 
 

 Now I know what he meant. Hoping we get to hear some actual, all new material that was written and recorded by this lineup. 

Referring to the bold part, do you mean he's heard the other new tracks that they're planning to release (new album etc)?

So I've just listened to it once, I'm going to wait for it to go on Spotify now. The middle guitar solo sounds like classic Slash like something from Don't Damn Me and the slide part harkens back to The Garden. I'm not thrilled with the cut n paste stuff but I think Slash and Duff would want to put out material that they've written from scratch so I think we'll get that too. I think they're trying to compromise; do a few of Axl's old songs which they like and then he'll work on new stuff that the band comes up with. 

[batatadoce]

8 minutes ago, megaguns1982 said:

Wow. That bell ringing and the echo on “save what we had” 

cringe.

It sounds like something 60 year old dudes who are trying to act 20 would put out lol

what's cringe about echo ?

[TheSlashrose]

Need to use VPN to hear on YouTube. 

 

Slash sounds fuckin amazing, but The Village sessions sounds better to me 

I can hear EYE ON YOU part on Hard Skool 

[Homefuck]

c'mon now. I know it's prohibited to share links and ask for links, but this is just agonizing. I'm in the wrong time zone. Where did you guys, living in the "wrong" time zone, get a hold of it?

[Dangelus]

26 minutes ago, Pele said:

What do you think is more likely?

That he used 99 vocals, and also 99 cut'n'pastes from another demo, and then he recorded 4 lines two decades later - or they just used existing studio takes?

Yeah, but so what…?😂

[Pele]

3 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

'Atlas Shrugged', 'State of Grace' or 'Perhaps' will probably be next.

 

State of Grace only had scratch vocals so it won't be that.

[James Bond]

If my options were 2021 You Could Be Mine quality vocals or 1999 studio quality Axl vocals... I think I know what I'd rather hear.

[RussTCB]

3 minutes ago, Homefuck said:

c'mon now. I know it's prohibited to share links and ask for links, but this is just agonizing. I'm in the wrong time zone. Where did you guys, living in the "wrong" time zone, get a hold of it?

Several people have posted how: VPN. It's very easy. 

[megaguns1982]

3 minutes ago, Homefuck said:

c'mon now. I know it's prohibited to share links and ask for links, but this is just agonizing. I'm in the wrong time zone. Where did you guys, living in the "wrong" time zone, get a hold of it?

It’s on YouTube here in Australia Timezone.  They disabled comments though… I guess they learned their lesson from absurd haha

 

[Dangelus]

I’m still confused as to why it’s impossible for Axl to have recorded any vocals post 99 despite the fact that, erm, he has? A few were even on Chinese Democracy… 😂

[dontdamnmeuyi2015]

7 hours ago, DownUnderScott said:

Doesn’t play for me - It says not available in your country! What! Since when is NZ more important than Australia! 😁

Me too. Maybe on youtube?

[WhazUp]

30 pages already and the song isn't even available in all time zones yet? I am guessing in one or two days it will usurp the Absurd thread in post counts no problem lol

[TOS--LOA]

1 hour ago, Basic_GnR_Fan said:

That's GnR to me. VR + CD is essentially what GnR would have evolved to naturally.

You're not wrong 

[Dean]

Hi-Res audio is even better. Ooft. I reckon this will go down well with the casuals.

[Pele]

22 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

Do you just keep "99 vocals" on a clipboard or do you type it out every time? 

I've a keyboard shortcut.  Ctrl and 9.

[loko]

Exactly what I was afraid about since reunion.

They butchered great and interesting song into completely bland, dull and boring random pieces of solos and old vocals.

God, I wish they will stop releasing this crap and focus on leaking demos from 2000'

[RussTCB]

3 minutes ago, Pele said:

I've a keyboard shortcut.  Ctrl and 9.

Sweet! 

[rocknroll41]

New version definitely growing on me now! Think it’s safe to say I now like it better than the village cut, though that version will always have a special place in my heart too.

[klakly]

 

In Italy it's only 21:40 😥

[WhazUp]

4 minutes ago, loko said:

Exactly what I was afraid about since reunion.

They butchered great and interesting song into completely bland, dull and boring random pieces of solos and old vocals.

God, I wish they will stop releasing this crap and focus on leaking demos from 2000'

I dunno, to me this song really only had going for it the fact that it sounded closest to old GNR than the rest of the CD session stuff.  Now that Slash and Duff added and changed parts it actually sounds a GNR track in my opinion

Edited September 23, 2021 by WhazUp

[Swede1991]

OMG! So fucking good!! 🎉 This is what ive been waiting for! I hope the radiochannels here in Sweden pick it up 👍 its a fucking great comeback

[Nick85]

52 minutes ago, Pele said:

The hilarious thing is that they are actually resorting to Evader like techniques of cutting his vocals from other 99 demos and pasting screams and 'hey-hey's' in!

 

Congratulations, you are literally the only one who will let something this trivial ruin a badass song.  Why is that a win for you?  Just don't get it. 

[Homefuck]

I like it!
Not a big fan of the echo on the "save what we had", it's an effect that's been used too many times by generic pop/rock-bands, so I could live without it. Love the slide guitar! Axls vox in the chorus is really classic aggressive Axl. Love it! Love the buildup to the last chorus because it's funny. 
I think that rock radio will get this on hard rotation, sounds much more appealing to the casual listener than Absurd.

 

Questions to more knowledgable people:
What parts are "new" compared with the demo?
Does anyone have a clue if this is a song from '96 or the chinese-era?
Who wrote it?

[Lies They Tell]

I've been listening to the soundcheck version with the added vocals a lot lately and I was surprised how similar this was to that. No big surprises. 

Overall I liked the song very much. Getting rid of the unnecessary intro was good. In general I just prefer Slash's take on the song. The bell ring was fun and added a bit more personality to the song

That being said I wasn't a big fan of the added effects on Axl's vocals. The echo felt unnecessary. Even the hey hey parts seemed to have same effects on top of them and I just don't understand why. Not to mention the scream after the slow part. None of that bothers me too much personally, but I know that many classic rock fans despise effects on vocals and this could have been a great song for those people without the unnecessary effects. So in that sense it's a bit of a bummer that Axl had to add those effects, cause they really weren't necessary.

I was hoping that Axl would have added some new lyrics to the song. Especially the slow part could have benefitted from some additional lyrics. It could have brought the song to a whole new level.

But it's a great song nevertheless and I'm happy that GNR is finally releasing music.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Lies They Tell

[Pele]

Just now, sofine11 said:

Congratulations, you are literally the only one who will let something this trivial ruin a badass song.  Why is that a win for you?  Just don't get it. 

The song is fine.  I enjoyed it.

It's not a win.  We all lose.

This should be a hard dose of reality to anyone expecting new songs.  Instead people still seem to think desperately cutting and pasting his old vocals over new music means he has an album of new songs ready to go.

1 minute ago, Lies They Tell said:

I've been listening to the soundcheck version with the added vocals a lot lately and I was surprised how similar this was to that. No big surprises. 

Overall I liked the song very much. Getting rid of the unnecessary intro was good. In general I just prefer Slash's take on the song. The bell ring was fun and added a bit more personality to the song

That being said I wasn't a big fan of the added effects on Axl's vocals. The echo felt unnecessary. Even the hey hey parts seemed to have same effects on top of them and I just don't understand why. Not to mention the scream after the slow part. None of that bothers me too much personally, but I know that many classic rock fans despise effects on vocals and this could have been a great song for those people without the unnecessary effects. So in that sense it's a bit of a bummer that Axl had to add those effects, cause they really weren't necessary.

I was hoping that Axl would have added some new lyrics to the song. Especially the slow part could have benefitted from some additional lyrics. It could have brought the song to a whole new level.

But it's a great song nevertheless and I'm happy that GNR is finally releasing music.

They added effects to Silkworms too.

It's partly to create the illusion there is something new there.