Guns N' Roses began and ended in a hailstorm of prescription pills, booze and a plethora of righteously sweet riffs.
While the good times could only last so long, lead singer Axl Rose seized control of the band and for the last 15 years produced an album that became notorious for its delayed release, "Chinese Democracy." After addiction, rehab and a thousand different mixes of the record, "Chinese Democracy" was finally released. With a final budget of $15 million, it's arguable whether the musical result was worth the wait.
The entire album is a knee-deep mire of guitar solos, overdubbed vocals and other completely random facets implemented by Mr. Rose. Though the record could be viewed as a complete disaster, it's more akin to a train wreck that's fascinating to watch (or in this case hear) as it runs off the rails completely. Take, for instance, the song "Shackler's Revenge," which starts off with a fairly simple metal guitar riff, but by the last 30 seconds of the song, this one riff turns into a guitar army with what I could discern to be four guitar parts overdubbed on one another. When you have to resort to putting the guitar through a pedal that makes it sound similar to beeps from a videogame, you might want to rethink your approach, Axl.
Guns N' Roses isn't the first band to utilize this sort of massive overproduction on itsrecords, though. The Beach Boys used everything from dog barks to harpsichords and the widely revered Pet Sounds to a better-received effect. Most music critics consider the album to be one of the most influential of all time, so what makes the difference between Axl's magnum opus and The Beach Boys? To me it seems to boil down to the genre.
Whereas The Beach Boys established harmonies and sounds that had never before been heard of by listeners of the pop genre, everybody's listened to the mile-a-minute shredding of most metal at least once before. Most people can instantly recognize "God Only Knows" as being by the Beach Boys, while "Shackler's Revenge" could be confused for almost any other piece of "hardcore" music played on rock radio.
At least the band manages to achieve a much better balance on this record than its hard rock peers. For every song that seems as convoluted as the above mentioned "Shackler's Revenge," there is often a better thought out and more melodic counter. Instead of bludgeoning the listener with overwrought noise, songs such as "Street of Dreams" and "Sorry" do a much better job letting the musical hooks come out themselves, instead of weighing them down with a fourth guitar solo.
I guess it's good to report that after 15 years the record is neither a complete hit nor miss, but that being considered it's still a disappointment. There was just no way an album no one had actually heard that morphed into a pop culture phenomenon could ever live up to all of the hype, especially considering most fans equated its release to the second coming of Christ -- or at very least the force to save rock 'n' roll. The most disappointing idea is that for all the time and money he wasted, Axl Rose still didn't manage to make a more definitive statement than his band's first outing, the essential "Appetite for Destruction."
The band's latest effort stands in direct contrast to its first by sheer principle. "Appetite" was made for pennies on the Sunset Strip while the band was strung out on its numerous vices. On the current record Axl seized total control, becoming a diva instead of the leader of one of the heaviest bands on the planet. After losing the sledgehammer riffs and attitude of guitarist Slash, the technical guitar noodling of session guitarist Bumblefoot feels like an ill-advised replacement. Opposed to the hammering and direct songs such as "Think About You" and "Nightrain" that run three to four minutes, almost a third of "Chinese Democracy's" are over five.
If this is an evolution in the music, so be it, but this doesn't sound like the natural progression of the band that made "Welcome to the Jungle" pervasive around the world; it sounds like the work of a man who had to put this record out to satisfy his label. I can't put myself in Axl's shoes, so I don't know exactly how he feels about his latest creation, but I'm pretty sure if he looked back at what he had in the later 80s, he'd end up being disappointed.
Is it fair to judge this record compared to the band's past output? The short answer is probably not. After the years and millions this album has moved through, the mere fact it was released is worth celebrating -- that being the album, not the music featured therein.