Guns N' Roses
Chinese Democracy

I have noticed that many of the reviews on this site regarding the album in question are filled with utter nonsense from people who have only listened to the leaks without even bothering to purchase the original CD.

I should also mention that I'm not a die-hard fan of Guns since my musical tastes lean towards heavier shores, but I gladly listen to the releases from this band that has always conveyed strong and genuine emotions. All thanks to Mr. Axl Rose.

Call him rich, call him flashy, call him a drug addict, call him an idiot, but meanwhile, for 20 years, he has always been featured in rock magazines, and his songs are played every day on the world's best radios.

The history of Guns N' Roses is long, too long to describe in this review, so I will simply fulfill my duty and analyze the album in question, Chinese Democracy. 

Released on November 21, 2008, by Geffen Records, it already offered the first single, the title track, to radio stations, and a song was used in the RockBand game, a major commercial impact.

But I don't think that was Axl's intent, or at least not entirely... Who doesn't produce records for those beloved/hated bucks?? Metallica sold their soul just to become famous, so nothing to say!

15 years gestation, but a fact not yet emerged in these reviews is that the project wasn't meant for just this one album, but for two others that will be released between now and 2012, an immense work.

Guns' genre, due to lineup changes, has changed and slightly shifted towards a more spontaneous, impressive, direct, and assimilable industrial metal/hard rock. Slash, Matt, and Duff are gone, but in their place are now Robin Finck (ex NIN), Ron Thal, Chris Pittman, and Richard Fortus, first-class composers!!

Getting to the heart of the review, as soon as I put the CD in the player, a mishmash of sounds starts that takes my mind directly to China (where, incidentally, the CD has been banned... just speaking of democracy!), and after a brief guitar distortion, comes Axl's scream of anger, eager to show his old bandmates that he is still there selling records while they, with their solo projects, have done nothing and depended solely on him.

So we move on to the second song of the bunch: Shackler's Revenge, in my opinion, one of the worst on the album, made almost exclusively for the video game.

Better, excellent work, hard, raw, haunting riff, and especially a great vocal performance by Axl who can still manage his chords unlike those who see him as a drug addict.

Street of Dreams, initially The Blues... an excellent ballad with a piano base that vaguely resembles the sounds of the two Illusions. If The World with almost indie sounds, serves the function of My World even if composed with more caution and inspiration.

There was a Time: first masterpiece! Great song, where Axl surpasses himself in the high notes and pulls out from the hat one of those songs he likes so much, with an excellent interlude solo.

Catcher in the Rye, another song to listen to with closed eyes, with a text full of emotions and Brian May taking on the heart-wrenching solo.

Scraped and Riad n Beduins, two punk-style songs planted right in the middle of the album without even asking if we wanted them (personally, I would have excluded them directly...), although well interpreted, as usual.

Sorry: pure spectacle! I fell in love with this song... It has a wonderful text, and Axl is free to let his rebellious thoughts flow between the delicate notes composing the basic harmony. One of the best songs he has composed in my opinion, competing for the best track on the CD along with This I Love.

I.R.S. and Madagascar, two other songs with the same structure: slow start and then they explode into a myriad of sounds that seem to bring to life the hi-fi player bought some time ago at a flea market, which belonged to an old countryside drunk... now it's yours and it's alive!

This I Love, beautiful ballad accompanied by Axl on the piano  retracing many moments of his intense and difficult life spent between abuses and disappointments.

Prostitute closes the CD, a very catchy song that serves as an excellent closure to an equally excellent CD.

I've gone on a bit, but at least this way you can have a less approximate idea of the CD you are going to listen to. My belief is that many of the visitors to DeBaser comment on the album without even having listened to it, but as soon as they see that Slash is not there, they label it as "commercial crap from that crazy drug addict Axl Rose." (among other things even Ozzy Osbourne is a crazy drug addict, but like Axl, he also didn't care about others and continued on his path, leaving Black Sabbath and embarking on a solo career that made him go down in history as one of the best interpreters of Metal!)

Excellent album!