Guns And Roses - 'Chinese Democracy' Profile

  by Aaron Brown

published: 6 / 7 / 2008

intro

Several tracks from Guns 'n' Roses' long delayed and fourteen years in the making 'Chinese Democracy' album have been leaked onto the internet. Long term fan Aaron Brow is disturbed by the results

I, like most other hard rock fans, am more than curious than to hear to what the Guns 'n' Roses' long delayed 'Chinese Democracy' album is like. Having learned on 'Teletext' (how last century) that 'Chinese Democracy' had been leaked on Antiquiet.com, I was instantly on my trusty laptop to download what has been the biggest and most expensive album in musical history. 14 million dollars, 14 years later, countless band members sacked and lawsuits galore, I was expecting this to the best thing since Jesus spoke at the Sermon on the Mount. It is to my sadness then that I was greeted with some of the worst tripe ever recorded. Opener 'Better' is over-polished and just a Guns ‘n’ Roses ballad-by-numbers, a major disappointment to say the least. Not being too dismayed, I forwarded on to next track, 'Chinese Democracy'. This is an absolute beast of a song and probably the best use put to the Guns name in about 20 years and since the excellent 'Lies' EP. Axl Rose, while getting on a bit, isn’t showing any sign of losing his air raid siren vocals that made him a household name. His vocal range, even in this updated version, of the Guns 'n' Roses sound, still packs a punch. Unfortunately it turns ugly again as the woeful 'Madagascar' is just another wannabe epic ballad of cringe worthy 'November Rain' smaltz. A track entitled 'New Song 3' is probably the most disturbing of all with its Spanishesque guitar, horrid wa-wa peddle and puke worthy funk bass, making it sound like a third rate knock off from Faith No More’s 'King for a Day'. Perhaps the only positive thing about these tracks is that they might be just demos and not the final cut from the long awaited album. While the title track itself is a great rock number, I hope this is the founding stone for the album when it is finally released. In reality ,however, when the album is released China will probably have a democracy, the war on terror will be over, hell will freeze over and pigs will most certainly fly Easy Jet.