They keep soundchecking TWAT so i'm expecting it soon.

Axl may be a bit inconsistent but his material is significantly harder too. His songs push both edges of his vocal range - there's insane highs and some very low notes too - then he adds the rasp - them he moves around a lot. It's a very hard package to replicate. The other singers some people have mentioned simply don't have that range - corey taylor for example has a strong growl but there's no way he can sing those highs.

Don't talk about Izzy like that

I'm sure it probably is a small percentage of people, we all know Axl and Slash could sell stadiums together with the smurfs on the other instruments, but as a hardcore obsessive fan that doesn't mean I have to want the smurfs.

Personally my vote goes to the guys who I think sound best for the overall chemistry. I'm not automatically biased against the CD era guys: I like Fortus a lot more than Izzy, Paul, or Gilby for example, as I think Fortus is the better player (although I respect Izzy wrote a lot). Likewise I enjoy Sorum's playing more than Adler, Brain or Frank.

To be honest I wasn't always a Sorum fan - I've evolved into the view. In the UYI tour when he was good I figured it just showed that drums were irrelevant - because it was so easy to replace adler and keep me happy. But then Brain came along and I never dug his version of the YCBM intro. Then we heard about multiple re-records of the CD drums and I expected awesome drumming but ended up finding the drumming bland on the record. Then we got frank who to me was always adequate but never a drummer I could get excited about. Then I realised out of the other Slash projects the one's that had drumming I admired were Snakepit 1 and Contraband - the other sorum projects - and I soon came to realise that fuck it I just like the guy. I know most on here seem to think he's a prick or whatever but at the end of the day he's a great rock drummer.

So yeah, I'd prefer him back. But does that mean I hate every version of the band without him? Nup. I saw frank a few times live and he was pretty great. So I don't hate frank. I'm just saying I watch these shows and I notice less chemistry than I'm used to with VR or even amongst nu-GNR. I love these shows - and I like this version of the band more than new-GNR and more than VR - but at the same time - it's noticeable how they are not on the same page yet - which surprises me given the importance of these shows.

I think a part of that lack of chemistry is Frank, and yeah, I think a part of it is Slash - he's making more mistakes than usual and he doesn't seem sort of locked in with the band the way he is normally - and I say that as someone who fucking loves slash - but yeah - he fucked up so much the other day I was worried he'd fallen off the wagon.....

But it's important to note both Slash's and Frank's "Fuck Ups" are minor things. The sort of things fans notice because I've listened to these songs thousands of times and watched hundreds of hours of bootlegs. It's part of the fandom to compare and contrast.

At least as far as I'm concerned don't take my comments as bitching or negative. If I notice that slash and frank do something strange it doesn't mean I don't love watching the shows or that I hate those guys. Sure in an ideal world they'd play things with my players and my way....but hey....it doesn't mean this isn't all great...just if you're obsessive you can hear some of these differences and it's interesting to think about why and how and what's better or worse.

Damn scary stuff....so glad you're ok James and i hope there's no issues recurring from your injuries.