I don't care so much for lyrics apart from the way they sound when being sung. What I don't get about CD is how weak Axl sounds vocally when we know from the live shows that he had a great voice at the time. Not as much rasp as the old days, but still a very strong and powerful voice. Most of CD sounds like he's straining to sound like his old self. The IRS scream is good but is it really on the level of those Live and Let Die screams he did in 2002? Only the scream in TWAT and the vocals on Oh My God give credit to his skills at the time. This I Love too but that song is so cheesy.

I agree. It's been almost 20 years. Life is allowed to move on. If Queen can do it, Pantera can do it.

But in a hypothetical scenario where somebody has to fill in for Axl? I'm not sure I'd be okay with that.

As time goes on it becomes more and more obvious  GN'R started being run like shit after Axl Rose became the boss. He's the boss but he doesn't want to lead. His reputation so volatile that the only people who suffer working for him are yes men afraid to make even the mildest of unsolicited suggestions.

We were expecting things to be different when Slash and Duff returned. Finally real members of the band who don't need to grovel in Axl's presence. But of course they are the yes men of the old band. If Matt was let back in he would be fired in 5 minutes after telling Axl some truth.

There was this billionaire once who gave away all his money and became a monk or something. Most people wouldn't do that but you can understand why he did it. A lot of pressure, responsibility and fear with all that money. Probably his entire waking day was spent managing all that wealth. He just wanted rid of it and live a quiet life. Everybody has moments where a little peace and quiet can be the most priceless thing in the world. Even with somebody like Jeffrey Dahmer, while you can't understand his desire to kill and eat young boys and have sex with their corpses, once that desire is established his actions make perfect sense.

With Axl nothing ever makes any sense. He comes back on stage after a decade without doing any warm up for the gigs. He shows up at the VMA, his big fucking comeback moment, and as a seasoned performer manages to become gassed after 30 seconds despite having a great voice at the time. Then, after loitering and not running his band for a few years his new lead guitar player says fuck it and quits. But what do you know, just in time for another comeback attempt his old original guitarist comes to his door begging to come back. That old original guitarist who quit on you and who you were desperate to get back in the band, that guy is at your door right now and he is begging to come back in the band. What do you do?

Okay I get it you want to succeed on your own and you're still assmad about your former guitarist, but what about 6 months later when your other guitarist has also quit, the tour tanked and the album still in limbo, what do you do then? Call DJ Ashba.

There was a shooting in my country a few days ago, then there was a shooting in Denmark. Shootings of this type are all pretty rare in our part of the world and I don't believe for a second all these shootings in different countries in the same week is a coincidence. Summer break makes you go mad? Doesn't make any sense.

It's amazing how little has changed since 2001.