THE GENERAL - MONSTERS - Official Discussion Thread. NO LINKS OR ASKING FOR LINKS

[evilfacelessturtle]

7 hours ago, Blackstar said:

This must be the worst album artwork that I've ever seen in my life

Funnily enough, Iron Maiden AND the artist who made it agree with you. Supposedly it was a rough draft that was accidentally approved for print.

This was what the artist actually wanted it to be:

[evilfacelessturtle]

Am I the only one that likes the final CD album cover best?

[Blackstar]

19 minutes ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Am I the only one that likes the final CD album cover best?

No, I like it, too. People say that it looks plain and cheap, but I like simplicity and minimalist approach in album artwork. But I think the alternate artwork was okay, too.

[Gordon Comstock]

15 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

I don't know why people were expecting anything beyond what we heard on CD. A lot of the big songs on there had repetitive structures. Look at Madagascar. A much better song than TG, but similarly repetitive. It's one of my biggest criticisms of CD era material; with all the time spent on it, they weren't constantly re-writing and adding new sections to the songs. Even AFD songs were more progressive; WTTJ has a distinct intro, verse, chorus, short solo, clean bridge, a bigger solo built around a different chord progression from the first, and a breakdown with it's own little bridge that gets us back to the chorus. For all the grandiosity CD promised, the songs were never all that structurally complex, they just had a ton of layers over generally simple chord progressions. That said, I still like a lot of CD material.

That just reminds me of Iron Maiden's awful CGI cover for Dance of Death:

 

I can see what you mean about the cgi figures, but the CD/Shackler's cover is nowhere near as bad as that

I agree about the repetitiveness on CD though, I like Madagascar but I was always surprised when people said it was one of the best songs on the album. It's simple and repetitive, but it's got great vocals and guitars which is the bottom line for some people I guess. There's some genuinely great songs on CD like Prostitute and There Was A Time, but there's no Jungle or Rocket Queen or anything like that...

That said, Monsters is a legit 'big gun' and I hope they release it sooner than later. The NITL have all been mediocre tbh, but Monsters proved they do actually have some quality songs left in the tank.

[evilfacelessturtle]

2 hours ago, Blackstar said:

No, I like it, too. People say that it looks plain and cheap, but I like simplicity and minimalist approach in album artwork. But I think the alternate artwork was okay, too.

The alternates look amateurish to me. That bright red is not very aesthetically pleasing and contrasts too much with the other colors. The final cover has a consistent color palette and finer detail. It has a mystique and grandiosity to it. The bodies coming out of the hand are just weird.

1 hour ago, Gordon Comstock said:

That said, Monsters is a legit 'big gun' and I hope they release it sooner than later. The NITL have all been mediocre tbh, but Monsters proved they do actually have some quality songs left in the tank.

My only issue with Monsters is that the chorus seems out of place with how upbeat it is. Like the pre-chorus of Shackler.

[Radiv123]

Gor my first born 2 months ago and had completly forgot about this, stil havent heard the general and monsters... guess i have to wait

[Appetitefordiscussion]

1 hour ago, Radiv123 said:

Gor my first born 2 months ago and had completly forgot about this, stil havent heard the general and monsters... guess i have to wait

congrats! 

[Bitchisback]

11 hours ago, Trin9498 said:

Agree. The CD cover is flat out ugly

I actually love it. The fact that the photo was taken in Kowloon Walled City is so cool. The fact that anybody there was even listening to Guns n' Roses is just amazing.  And I love the colors. The only thing I don't really care for is how it says Guns N' Roses on the side.  With it being painted on the wall I think they could have just gotten away with putting Chinese Democracy on the bottom or the side with the GNR three star logo with it.

 

Truly a great photo too.  Iconic imo

[jimisbatman]

On 12/2/2023 at 12:29 PM, gavgnr said:

So, what’s the consensus. Is Monsters about child abuse or a toxic relationship? I think the former. Thoughts?

Answer = #slash

[DeNfr]

15 hours ago, Arnuld said:

I think what most old school fans struggle with is separating the early work from Axl’s modern work. It’s two completely different entities. While the CD work has elements of the previous work it’s not the same thing. Not the same band, not the same style. If CD was a brand new album by a brand new artist it would be considered one of the most ambitious and best debut albums of all time. Same with the follow up singles that comprise CD2. It’s the connection to the previous history that makes the mind think this music is bad when in reality most of it is quite good. 

yeah that's the same charade with all the bands really, "it's not the same since Terry left the band in 1987" "problem" with GNR is almost everyone left, plus it was around the same time. so there wasn't transition periods between changes of musicians. you add to that a long hiatus...

funny thing is, I can be considered as an "old school" fan but musically I find many common points with UYI material and even songs who could have recorded for these albums (This I Love, Street of Dreams, There Was A Time,  Madagascar...) so CD is not that different than 1990s GNR in terms of songwriting. 

[GnR Chris]

Count me in as someone who likes the Chinese Democracy cover a lot. I’m nitpicking, but I guess if I were to change something, I’d get rid of the vertical “Guns N’ Roses” text and move “Chinese Democracy” horizontally along the bottom. Gives a little more breathing room to the cover art.

I don’t remember, what gesture is the red hand doing?

[Sledge]

2 hours ago, GnR Chris said:

Count me in as someone who likes the Chinese Democracy cover a lot. I’m nitpicking, but I guess if I were to change something, I’d get rid of the vertical “Guns N’ Roses” text and move “Chinese Democracy” horizontally along the bottom. Gives a little more breathing room to the cover art.

I don’t remember, what gesture is the red hand doing?

Hmm yeah I agree but mentioning the red hand does make me think if the alt covers are the reason the band name and album title were necessary to keep consistency. Also love the band logo but on the cover was overkill 

[Sweersa]

I love the red hand and grenade covers. Never was a fan of the bike. 
 

I prefer the 2006 Guns logo. The variant with the star is the best. 

[Ratam]

13 hours ago, Radiv123 said:

Gor my first born 2 months ago and had completly forgot about this, stil havent heard the general and monsters... guess i have to wait

Congrats! ✊👊

[GnR Chris]

They should just reuse this vagina image as the cover for the next record. Right up Slash’s alley, honestly. 😂 

Edited December 3, 2023 by GnR Chris

[Rindmelon]

18 minutes ago, GnR Chris said:

They should just reuse this vagina image as the cover for the next record. Right up Slash’s alley, honestly. 😂 

I hear she is banned from that sweet shop for life

[Free Bird]

I think the cover is CD's smallest issue

[LandOla]

1 hour ago, GnR Chris said:

They should just reuse this vagina image as the cover for the next record. Right up Slash’s alley, honestly. 😂 

This I love indeed 👍

[jimisbatman]

I loved that general hat picture and honestly thought that was going to be the artwork. Way better than flowers and logo, which is so lazy in my opinion. 

[evilfacelessturtle]

15 hours ago, Bitchisback said:

I actually love it. The fact that the photo was taken in Kowloon Walled City is so cool. The fact that anybody there was even listening to Guns n' Roses is just amazing. 

Has it been confirmed that the graffiti is real? I always assumed that part was photoshopped into it.

[Gordon Comstock]

52 minutes ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Has it been confirmed that the graffiti is real? I always assumed that part was photoshopped into it.

 

Apparently it's real.

08.14.02 - Summer Sonic Festival, Hall 3, Hong Kong Convention And Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, China

"Before ‘Chinese Democracy,’ Axl explained the title of the album and showed the crowd [on the video screen] the artwork for the new album. The artwork is black and white and features a bicycle, with a wall behind it that someone painted with “Guns N’ Roses!!”

"He played two new songs, the first one a slow number that he didn't introduce. Before he played the second one, he told a little anecdote why the new album is called "Chinese Democracy". He said it was because he saw a photo taken in Hong Kong, which he's using as the new album cover. And then he showed it on the video screens, and it was a black and white picture of a bicycle with a basket, and in the wall behind it, someone had grafittied "guns n roses"!!! He said "I didn't paint that myself, so one of you motherfuckers out there must have did it!" The crowd went wild, and he launched into the song."

[2020_Intensions]

Was listened to The Wretched by NIN yesterday and it was reminding me a lot of The General 

[Bitchisback]

7 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Has it been confirmed that the graffiti is real? I always assumed that part was photoshopped into it.

It's not just the fact that it's real that's important, it was taken in the Kowlokn Walled City which is wild. The odds of finding that are incredibly slim. Next to zero. What a cool photo

7 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Has it been confirmed that the graffiti is real? I always assumed that part was photoshopped into it.

It's not just the fact that it's real that's important, it was taken in the Kowlokn Walled City which is wild. The odds of finding that are incredibly slim. Next to zero. What a cool photo

[DannyVinyard]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:32 AM, invisible_rose said:

Very well put. Chinese Democracy is criminally underrated almost entirely because people see it as "GNR without Slash". If it was its own standalone album, even just Axl Rose, I think it would be considered a modern classic. Maybe I'm bias, I dunno, but I listen to way more CD/CDII material now than the OG era. 

Call me crazy, but I rank it as the best album to this day, post 2000. It sold a million copies in the US without any promotion or support from Axl Rose, and releasing one of the weakest songs on the album as the first single. Let's say, Axl does proper promotion of the album, interviews, shows, releases There Was a Time as the first single along with epic UYI style music video, followed by Better, Street of Dreams, Prostitute, Catcher in the Rye....all with epic videos, this monster sells 10 million plus, easy. If Axl did this, Finck stays and hell, even Bucket might have come back.

[colonizedmind]

3 hours ago, DannyVinyard said:

Call me crazy, but I rank it as the best album to this day, post 2000. It sold a million copies in the US without any promotion or support from Axl Rose, and releasing one of the weakest songs on the album as the first single. Let's say, Axl does proper promotion of the album, interviews, shows, releases There Was a Time as the first single along with epic UYI style music video, followed by Better, Street of Dreams, Prostitute, Catcher in the Rye....all with epic videos, this monster sells 10 million plus, easy. If Axl did this, Finck stays and hell, even Bucket might have come back.

You think Robin left because of sales?

Any day now...anyone expecting it a little early? Around Wed/Thurs would be nice!