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

[Hello, how are you?]

I think it is pretty damn cool. It is the really gritty, slimy, purposely divisive-styled songs that are some of my favorites from the band. The cacophony-like, jarring mix makes it seem like even more of a haunted nightmare I am within when listening. To me, this is gnr and axl firmly adhering to what he/they have always done - going against the very obvious expectations/demands and doing things however the hell he wants. 

[Cosmo]

1 minute ago, sl4yer said:

 

Anything Goes is kind of a filler and it contains some cringe worthy lyrics but it’s fun and has good energy.

Idk how can you even compare it to The General. TG is a entirely different type of song. They are not made by the same band and they don’t even belong in the same genre.

However, The General is barely listenable. The composition itself leaves a lot to be desired as it’s very repetitive and goes nowhere but the execution and production is just atrocious. I’ll take everything off CD and AFD over this garbage. I’m not a big fan of Scraped or Riad but at least they sound like finished songs.

Even live version sounded better and we all know Axl’s voice is completely shot. I think it says a lot.

I can’t stand Anything Goes. It brings AFD’s  listening experience down. I always skip it. The General is a completely different song, yes, and it’s made by a completely different band but I can compare them like if I were to say I prefer Maiden’s Hallowed Be Thy Name to Daft Punk’s Give Life Back To Music 

[ToonGuns]

1 hour ago, SoulMonster said:

I think The General is absolutely good enough for an album and could have replaced many songs off UYIs or CD and made a better album. So no, "we" won't look back at this and laugh because I didn't have unrealistic expectations nor do I share your opinion on the song. I will, though, probably look back at this thread and all the hysterics and laugh. 

It is good enough for an album, but not in the released version. The song itself is good, but the production, mixing and mastering are not great at all let’s be honest, and I think the band would struggle to place it, at least as released, alongside Hardskool etc and get away with it sonically. The album would sound like a mess. They should have re-recorded it from scratch as a fresh production with a decent studio engineer, producer etc.

[SoulMonster]

1 minute ago, ToonGuns said:

It is good enough for an album, but not in the released version. The song itself is good, but the production, mixing and mastering are not great at all let’s be honest, and I think the band would struggle to place it, at least as released, alongside Hardskool etc and get away with it sonically. The album would sound like a mess. They should have re-recorded it from scratch as a fresh production with a decent studio engineer, producer etc.

I am honest. Why do you suggest I am not? 

Obviously, songs that go on an album with be mixed/mastered to go together sonically, that's a given. I am talking about the qualities of the song. 

[Old_school_gnr_fan]

The General could pass for mediocre if the vocal distortion was absent.

[oneway23]

46 minutes ago, Cosmo said:

Better than Riad and Scraped, for sure, better than a few cuts off UYI and better than Anything Goes, IMO.

Don't know why Scraped gets so much heat...Far from a great song, but, the bridge is among the most OG Guns sounding bits on the whole record.

38 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

And it's not even months since it leaked (it's only 6 weeks). I'm sure that by the time Monsters is released it will be slammed as being "shit", too.

I think I understand the point you're making, but, I don't know...Monsters is a whole different kettle of fish altogether.  I think we'll see much more uniform positive opinions on that one.

Edited December 9, 2023 by oneway23

[ToonGuns]

15 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

I am honest. Why do you suggest I am not?

Apologies I typed that quickly and broke my own personal forum rule of criticism of opinions. I’m not suggesting you’re not being honest at all. It was just a phrase I misused.

I think the song is great and agree it is deserving of an album spot - I just struggle to see how that would be possible given the poor production.

I’m a big fan of Steven Wilson / Porcupine Tree and his production is always excellent (regardless of what you think of the songs), so it just annoys me that Guns could have such poor QC and / or standards on that front. 

[JimiRose]

They played the General at Crystal Palace v Liverpool in the premier league pre kick off, so the dj there must be a GnR fan, coz there's no way axls childhood rape orchestral epic is a song that would be enjoyed in the build up to a big football match 

Also seen a few people suggesting the pixilation on the vinyl is on purpose - it isn't. the digital releases and all artwork GnR have posted or released to press do NOT have this pixilation issue. It's just a fuck up using a shitty small image they've stretched. A mistake a 14 year old intern might make, but not a single person with any design or grapic imagery experience would make. So very very GnR. 

A good song, that would have had soo much more impact released as part of an album with soul monster immediately after. never ever a mainstream digital single. Again, so very very disappointingly GnR. 

[oneway23]

2 minutes ago, ToonGuns said:

I’m a big fan of Steven Wilson / Porcupine Tree and his production is always excellent (regardless of what you think of the songs), so it just annoys me that Guns could have such poor QC and / or standards on that front. 

Me too...big fan... And he works in a home studio...A REALLY nice one, but, still...It's not the thousands a day facilities Guns were accustomed to in their prime, and certainly nowhere near what Axl was afforded for the CD sessions.

As an aside, Steven mixed the Illusions records in Dolby Atmos for the recent set, but, the final mixes were apparently rejected and not signed off on by the band, according to a few folks on the Quadrophonic forums who have direct access to Steven.

Anyway, the new Peter Gabriel is a phenomenally produced album, as well.  Low dynamic range, but REALLY well recorded.  

[oneway23]

21 minutes ago, JimiRose said:

They played the General at Crystal Palace v Liverpool in the premier league pre kick off, so the dj there must be a GnR fan, coz there's no way axls childhood rape orchestral epic is a song that would be enjoyed in the build up to a big football match 

 

A good song, that would have had soo much more impact released as part of an album with soul monster immediately after. never ever a mainstream digital single. Again, so very very disappointingly GnR. 

Watching that now...did miss the pre-show, however...

What do you mean?  You can't picture 12,000-15,000 people screaming "Daddy don't!" at the top of their lungs, in unison, after a few beers at the next round of Enormo-Dome shows?  

Edited December 9, 2023 by oneway23

[Live Like a Suicide]

3 hours ago, Spoon87 said:

Despite the shitty ass production and the stylistic choices I really can't ignore (distorted vocals), I find various melodies of the song stuck in my head. There's a good song buried beneath all the mess. 

I prefer Monsters, but the chorus in The General is 100x catchier for me personally. I like the song, but it's just terribly produced.

[Blackstar]

7 minutes ago, JimiRose said:

A good song, that would have had soo much more impact released as part of an album with soul monster immediately after. never ever a mainstream digital single. Again, so very very disappointingly GnR. 

Maybe that's why they had not decided whether to release it or not as a digital single (I believe that Fernando's "perhaps" was literal) - it was really meant to be a "b-side". But then they saw the reaction on their social media when the vinyl was delayed. That shitstorm was probably so unprecedented to them (and it went to show that the portion of the fanbase that cared about The General may be small in numbers, but very vocal and loud) that they went out of their ways and addressed the delay on their social media and also decided to put it out digitally.

[yourcrazy]

This song is just plain bad and no amount of mixing can fix that.  Unfortunately, it looks like GnR have no creativity left.  I find it hard to believe that we are going on almost eight years since they reunited and all they can do is rehash songs that were not good enough to release 16 years ago.  I would have thought some new tunes would have been written and released by now.  I hate to say it but it is getting time to retire.   

Edited December 10, 2023 by yourcrazy

[jamillos]

1 minute ago, yourcrazy said:

This song is just plain bad and no amount of mixing can fix that.  Unfortunately, it looks like GnR have no creativity left.  I find it hard to believe that we are going on almost four years since they reunited and all they can do is rehash songs that were not good enough to release 16 years ago.  I would have thought some new tunes would have been written and released by now.  I hate to say it but it is getting time to retire.   

Or do proper math. :D

Edited December 9, 2023 by jamillos

[guitarpatch]

57 minutes ago, ToonGuns said:

It is good enough for an album, but not in the released version. The song itself is good, but the production, mixing and mastering are not great at all let’s be honest, and I think the band would struggle to place it, at least as released, alongside Hardskool etc and get away with it sonically. The album would sound like a mess. They should have re-recorded it from scratch as a fresh production with a decent studio engineer, producer etc.

They should have re-recorded all of these songs from the ground up to make them more of their own. They clearly didn’t want to put in the $ and time on that level 

They sound like CD leftovers because that’s the foundation. It’s Slash and Duff pasted on Brain and early 2000/late 90’s Axl’s vision of the band. It simply doesn’t represent the current band  or how they’d play these songs live 

[agustingloger]

The frogs ... The fucking frogs haha why?!?! Sounds better than Axl tough

[oneway23]

15 minutes ago, yourcrazy said:

This song is just plain bad and no amount of mixing can fix that.  Unfortunately, it looks like GnR have no creativity left.  I find it hard to believe that we are going on almost four years since they reunited and all they can do is rehash songs that were not good enough to release 16 years ago.  I would have thought some new tunes would have been written and released by now.  I hate to say it but it is getting time to retire.   

Bruv....I know people lost a few years there with the pandemic, so some of us are still maybe a little discombobulated, but, they've been reunited for what will be eight years next year.

[colonizedmind]

Relief...Finally....A miracle. A band manages to deliver a 7". Going in first play...Got a good system, let's see...

 

[LandOla]

31 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

Relief...Finally....A miracle. A band manages to deliver a 7". Going in first play...Got a good system, let's see...

 

And? Did you like it?

[dave94]

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 

[fabrph5]

These "new" songs are just odd all around.  Listen to Sebastian Bachs NEW song.  Besides the fact that he still sounds really good, the overall sound is also really good.  Why can't this band just release something on that level?  A comment said, "I heard the new GnR and was filling bummed, then I heard this" Kind of my feelings as well.

[Voodoochild]

4 minutes ago, dave94 said:

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 

Although there were several people warning that the leak was the final mix. I know the educated guess from people like me couldn't be taken as gospel, but still...

I think there is a lot of overreaction to this track. I knew for sure that it would be divisive, but it seems that the negativity is way out of proportion. I saw some popular Brazilian twitter account saying this was the worst thing ever, and to me this is obviously not true. And I get, regular non-fan people won't compare this to CD or things like Shotgun Blues and Reckless Life/Anything Goes (I like all of those songs, I just think the overall opinion on them are not so great), they will compare with their peak. Which is fair in a way, but it's also delusional because they will never write a new WTTJ or Estranged. 

I mean, if you don't like it, it's fine. But it's not the end of the world nor the band. 

[tboneman]

17 minutes ago, fabrph5 said:

These "new" songs are just odd all around.  Listen to Sebastian Bachs NEW song.  Besides the fact that he still sounds really good, the overall sound is also really good.  Why can't this band just release something on that level?  A comment said, "I heard the new GnR and was filling bummed, then I heard this" Kind of my feelings as well.

New Baz was alright but I liked new Ace even better for that new classic rock sounding song.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by tboneman

[Miden34]

3 minutes ago, tboneman said:

New Baz was alright but I liked new Ace even better for that new classic rock sounding song.

 

New Baz was alright but I liked new Ace even better for that new classic rock sounding song.

 

now this is what some people want from Gn'R. NOt ME. this is the most boring. generic sounding rock shit i have ever heard. The general isnt to everyones liking but at least its unique. Ace frehly 10,000 is just stock rock garbage. 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Miden34

[Voodoochild]

7 minutes ago, Miden34 said:

now this is what some people want from Gn'R. NOt ME. this is the most boring. generic sounding rock shit i have ever heard. The general isnt to everyones liking but at least its unique. Ace frehly 10,000 is just stock rock garbage. 

Agree with you. Also, the guitars on this one sounds very tamed and boring.