Well on contrband most of the riffs were around pre-scott - he then just worked on the song structures to make them work for him (which i'd guess ment no solos and lots of hook repeats) - I got the impression libertad was more of the ideas that scot wanted to sing. I read an interview where they said they each brought something to the album and that most of the songs wern't worked on as a group...and i think you can hear who wrote most of the songs in the song - like you can tell the ones that have obvious slash riffs to them...but i got the impression with VR overall that everything functioned to appease scott.

That's the best news i've read in ages! Getting out of the hard rock vibe with scott was the thing that spoiled VR i think. I mean i like them anyway - but guitarwise it was always less fun than snakepit...with a real rock frontman this band could be kickass

Yeah the old school fans often feel that way..but i think in terms of iconic status to people who don't really know the band...they just see an angry redhead and a dude wearing a top hat...to the general public the UYI lineup was still GNR without question, but the current line up doesn't have the same respect out there.

Really? Can i ask what's making you think that? I'll grant Slash's recent anti-leaker remarks were pro-axl...but in general its not like they rush for photo opps togher. Also - being photograhed together  - would allow speculation and confusion that slash was back in the band - something presumabely axl wants to minimise with CD comming out soon (apparently) and slash wouldn't appriciate with his solo album in the works and VR still listed as his main gig. So i mean unless he was actually announcing a return it would seem odd.

Yeah...the only person a kickass metallica album upsets is Dave Mustane...who goes and makes more kickass records of his own...and the cycle continues!