http://www.gunsnroses.us/videos/
http://www.gunsnroses.us/
That which the world has got bored of waiting for is finally due out next month. And thanks to friends on LJ, I stumbled on the above site.
It don't really matter You're gonna find out for yourself No it don't really matter You're gonna leave this thing to Somebody else
The chorus kinda sums up my reaction. It's not ground breaking. Title track Chinese Democracy sounds like Pitchshifter played at half speed. Only without any of the catchyness. Usually playing the same track 5 times over leaves it stuck in my head for days. Not this one. It just disappears after listening. Must be the DRM 
.
Also on the forthcoming album are Madagasgar and There Was A Time, both sound tired, over-rehearsed and too slow. The best I can say about them is they're only mildly irritating. Madagasgar is soaked in what sounds like synthesised salvation army brass, there's a almost catchy guitar refrain, but it sounds like it's being milked for every drop of emotion by someone who doesn't quite have slash's magic touch. I have this vision of axl screeming "More Emotional, Sadder, Make Me Cry!" until whichever minion currently on the studio side of the revolving door consideres strangling him with a guitar string.
There Was A Time seems lie an exercise in attention defecit, it bounces from mood to mode and riff to riff like axl couldn't decide what he liked before settling down into an epic guitar solo, at least in terms of the pile of peanuts that maybe needed. It sounds like someone desperately trying to impersonate slash, and whilst a fine display of dexterity, it just seems devoid of emotion.
The production is very slick, the drums pop right out of the mix which is a shame because they sound horribly overproduced. Heavy distortion, notched EQ, a little splash of gated reverb. And every fill reminding me of the drum fill button on my Yamaha VSS200.* It sounds really out of place on Chinese Democracy and at times appears to be a pale immitation NIN.
Perhaps I'm expecting too much out of it. I'd like to be able to listen to it without knowing what it was.but even then I don't think I'd like what I've heard so far.
*1988 lo cost keyboard/sampler. 8 bit lo-fi abomination.
