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Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
While it's well-known that GNR went on to work on a follow-up to Illusions in between '94-96, little has ever been heard of this material, even though Axl (of all people!) has occasionally teased people with descriptions such as '1996 Aerosmith Rocks' and saying he still has the rehearsal tapes after all these years, with Slash playing out the key parts of VR's Fall to Pieces. While all the material might as well remain behind lock and key 'till kingdom come, so ideas may be drawn from the evidence at hand. Here, I'll try and look into everything recorded or composed during that era, and draw some ideas as to how the lost album might've sounded. Others are invited to join.
Slash's Snakepit - It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
GNR according to Slash, from the demos recorded in late '93, finishing up in January '94. Duff was touring behind Believe in Me (which is left out as he always saw it as a solo album), while Axl was busy with lawsuits and whatever else. Which is why we got Slash banging out with Matt, Gilby and Mike Inez from Alice in Chains.
One thing is obvious from the get-go: Snakepit features some of the best riffs Slash has ever recorded. The bulk of the album rests on his shoulders, and he's more than happy to pull out a killer guitar part after another. Matt's drumming is another strong part; his fills have more imagination than on the oft heavy-handed approach he took with the UYI's. The album has only one significant problem: While Slash may maintain it's an album 100% in the true GNR spirit, I'd rather side with Duff and Axl on the matter.
There's some spectacular soloing with Slash going off to showcase himself at the top of his game, the leading blues-rock guitarist of the biggest band in the world. Still, only in about half the songs is that enough to conjure up reflections of a true GNR spirit. Mike Inez's bass thumps along well enough mostly during intros, but is left a bit unimaginative, doing only what is necessary and not much more.
Gilby's playing is even more depressing from a GNR perspective. Slash practically carries him on his shoulders for a good while, with Gilby only passingly encouraged to step outside the comfort zone and putting himself up against the leads. As daunting as the leads may be, Izzy never had a problem doing an inventive little undertone, circling around Slash's playing and contributing an additional texture to tunes.
Roughly half the album, to me, is Slash pointing out his creative peak as a lead guitarist, with the rest of the band doing little aside complimenting him and leaving more than enough room for his solos to twist, turn and entangle all over. Nothing wrong in that when talking about a band led by Slash, in which category Snakepit is excellent, but as a GNR album, it would feel a bit underwhelming.
Slash never goes out to do something extremely wild; there's no Coma, no Locomotive, nothing that really pushes those great abilities, harnesses the impeccable riffs into anything greater than the sum of their parts. Had the rest of the band worked on some of those songs, they could've easily been taken to the next level, while the simplicity Slash himself seemingly fancies could've been kept intact. I might personally go with songs like Neither Can I, Dime Store Rock, Beggars and Hangers-on, Soma City Ward and Be the Ball. There are also others, depending on the day I'm having.
Velvet Revolver - Fall to Pieces
The power ballad lacking from the Snakepit album? FTP is soft enough without getting sentimental, with Slash doing a more mature version of the haplessly sappy SCOM melody. The leads are still very much in tune with the Snakepit album, while the rhythm section obviously sound a whole lot more like Guns, for obvious reasons. Axl singing on top would've made this one fall excellently in line with the GNR versions of some of the Snakepit songs, contributing a more tender moment to all of Slash's solo frenzies.
Guns N' Roses - This I Love
Every GNR album has that defining Axl moment. On this one, TIL would've been it. Sticking out from between the aforementioned material glaringly, the song would've been redeemed more or less if Axl'd dared to keep the production in line with the rest. The lyrics would've been on par with November Rain on the tear-jerker department and here's where a top-notch Slash solo would've been in serious demand. A possible album closer, a more stripped version of the UYI epics,
Guns N' Roses - Sympathy for the Devil
The only chance to actually hear the lineup in a studio environment. The Stones' original is a bit too drowned in Axl's typically overblown production style, but the recording and mixing are certainly better than on the UYI's. You can actually hear a whole lot going on in there, and when you have so much commanding elements starting with the usual Axl/Slash duel, it's a small miracle to have a crystallized rhythm section on occasion.
Slash's phalanx
The jury should actually go out to wonder whether Gilby would've been the best possible replacement for Izzy when it comes to studio work with Slash. One thing's for sure: Slash himself had more than enough enough creative juices flowing, and he could've written all the leads a GNR would've needed. Placing Zakk Wylde or any other decidedly leading guitarist alongside would've just been overpowering and would've robbed Slash's work a lot of its impact. Not to say he shouldn't be let go too easy.
Zakk himself maintains glimpses of his tenure with GNR can be heard on Rose-Petaled Garden from the Black Label Society album Sonic Brew. Listening to the track, it's not too hard to imagine Slash and Zakk in the rehearsals, battling out with the sound ridiculously heavy. Fun? Most definitely, but certainly not GNR as it was known back then.
Judging by SFTD, Paul Huge doesn't do too much, but his style is somewhat comparable to Izzy; he's actually there, buzzing around Slash like a busy little bee, completely oblivious of the respecting manners Gilby'd adopted. The one person sure to find him irritating was Slash, because Paul's minor discords and fills tend to get in the middle of his solos in a way unheard of on the Snakepit album.
The resulting album...?
One can dream. Kick ass riffs and solos, more thought-out lyrics and some good screams. A serviceable package for sure, which would kept GNR afloat as a professional band, painstakingly sticking to the blues-based rock they knew best, despite grunge coming and going, with industrial and alternative already gaining a mainstream foothold. They would've likely been criticized at the time for rehashing and honing the UYI's into a more streamlined package, and would've, most importantly, lacked the sly humor Izzy brought on the table.
My guess is the album would've attained more appreciation over time, while much of the longevity would've depended on whether Axl would've sufficed to keep things simple. Going the UYI/SFTD route would've likely meant a lot of the solid guitars would've been irrevocably buried beyond superfluous keyboards and other knick-knacks, which would've had no place on the 1996 Aerosmith Rocks.
After that, the band would've more than likely broken up, since there would've been no immediate room to grow in the current musical environment while simultaneously struggling to maintain a presence as one of the world's biggest rock groups.
But then again.... That's just my guess. Others have theirs.
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
A mid 90's GN'R album would've been Load/Reload, in a sense. Metallica took 5 years to follow up their pinnacle self-titled album, and fans were a bit stunned at the great departure, and "ehh" moment, that was those two albums. Loaded with radio-ready singles, Metallica had done a first. Not made really complete albums, and if any double-effort (although it spanned a year), deserved a one-disc only treatment MORE than Use Your Illusion, it was Load/Reload.
I think that would've been GNR's moment, even more so than the Illusion's. The album would've been a hit, no doubt, but probably a bit less than the single-sales of UYI I & II.
GN'R, like Metallica also, probably wouldn't have broke up, but would've probably vanished for years from the scene, dropping the occasional EP and/or soundtrack song, just to keep the light on for the band, until more collaborations could've been made in the early 2000's, when Axl really had brought his CD vision into focus, and Slash & Duff had the creative juices flowing with VR. Even Izzy might've come back, seeing how he might've saved over some of his ideas, that were his late 90's/early 2000's solo records.
What would've resulted, probably would've been that of St. Anger. Too many ideas of a band too far apart from each other. Nobodies ideas mixing, and too much drama and hands in the cookie jar. Maybe by the latter part of the decade, we might've saw a new album, that was a tad of a throwback to vintage GN'R. Who knows.
I really have thought for years that GN'R & Metallica go hand and hand. Metallica IS what GN'R would've been had they stayed together. A band that spit and sputtered basically since the early 90's at their zenith of popularity, and only now have seemingly on the train back on the tracks, understanding that they are now a nostaglia act for the most part, and their days of cultural relevance and ruling the world, are long over.
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
Good thread 
Unfortunately the album you've proposed doesn't strike anything close to being memorable in my opinion, and not at all a direction that I'd like to have seen written into GNRs history. A melting pot of Snakepit, This I Love, Fall To Pieces and SFTD .... that just doesn't sit too well with me.
GNR hold back songs that they don't consider ready for release for years, eg You Could Be Mine, November Rain, Back Off Bitch all written prior to AFD, is it possible that some of the unreleased UYI songs could have been revisited for the '96 album? Sentimental Movie, Just Another Sunday, Too Much Too Soon etc, too weak to make the UYI cut but any of these could have been reworked later and possibly included.
Izzy was also close to being back in the fold around '95 in some capacity. Live guest appearances with Snakepit and a handful of writing sessions with Duff which saw Down By The Ocean penned. If you factor Izzy making a possible return into the equation I'd then have to question Tobias's role in the band at the time, and whether Axl would have still taken the 3 guitarist route 
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
I really have thought for years that GN'R & Metallica go hand and hand. Metallica IS what GN'R would've been had they stayed together. A band that spit and sputtered basically since the early 90's at their zenith of popularity, and only now have seemingly on the train back on the tracks, understanding that they are now a nostaglia act for the most part, and their days of cultural relevance and ruling the world, are long over.
Yeah, same here, I still remember those hard rock and metal magazines pitting the two against each other in head-to-head reviews of the bands, scoring them on individual items, etc... Amazing how many GNR vs Metallica articles I've read during those few years they ruled the musical roost.
Although I must say that reasoned for years that had GNR not dropped the ball both them and Metallica would've been a lot more relevant at least for a much larger part of the decade. They really didn't put up much of a fight against the Grunge movement.
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
I never understood Slash's beef with Huge - he's a lot better on SFTD than Gilby was on TSI. I know the "doubled up" guitar parts offended Slash's ego, but TBH the track works better with them.
If Slash hadn't had a stick up his ass over Huge's involvement, I could see a 1996 album with that line-up working. The Snakepit songs, Rose-Petalled Garden (maybe a Zack guest spot?), FTP, a couple of Izzy contributions (don't forget the Duff solo stuff that started out as GN'R tracks), This I Love, maybe even (given that Huge co-wrote them) I.R.S., Catcher and a Slash-heavy version of TWAT.
I'd buy that album.
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
...Though having said that, it's easy to look at something that didn't happen and claim that it would've been better than what we got. For instance, if you look at Queen's The Miracle, Innuendo and Made In Heaven, and the Brian May solo album, there's a killer Queen album in there somewhere. But, of course, you're cherry-picking the best tracks.
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
Okay let's make this hypothetical-could have been album up. Track by track.
Heres what I got.
1. Dime Store Rock Snakepit
2. Doin' Fine Snakepit
3. I.R.S Huge/Axl Collaboration
4. TWAT Huge/Axl Collaboration
5. The Rose Petalled Garden BLS-from Wylde/Slash sessions
6. Box (Down By The Ocean) Possibly one of the tracks Duff and Izzy wrote
7. Fall To Pieces Velvet Revolver- was written during the 94-96 era
8. Monkey Chow Snakepit
9. Believe In Me Duff Solo- featuring Slash
10. Catcher In The Rye Huge/Axl Collaboration
11. Beggars and Hangers On Snakepit
12. This I Love Axl
It's not a GREAT album but it's good and if they had went with it and reworked it, could have been pretty killer. Again this is all hypothetical stuff, like elevenday said I'm cherry picking.
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
And whilst I'm thinking down pipedream memory lane here's an epic setlist for a 96 GN'R Show in support of the 'Lost' album. This would be the kinda thing you'd want them to record and release on dvd.
1. Beggars and Hangers On
2. Mr Brownstone
3. Doin Fine
4. Nightrain
5. It's So Easy
6. Believe In Me
7. Don't Cry
8. You Could Be Mine
9. Civil War
10. Pretty Tied Up
11. Welcome To The Jungle
12. November Rain
13. Double Talkin Jive
14. Perfect Crime
15. Dime Store Rock
16. I.R.S.
17. There Was A Time
18. Fall To Pieces
19. Box
20. Patience
21. Coma
22. The Rose Petalled Garden
23. Sweet Child O' Mine
24. Estranged
25. 14 Years
26. Rocket Queen
27. Locomotive
28. This I Love
Encore
29. Monkey Chow
30. Catcher In The Rye
31. Paradise City.
That would be a killer show 
AND now back to reality.... I really hope Axl never performs Silkworms again.
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: The 'Lost' GNR Album from '96
Okay let's make this hypothetical-could have been album up. Track by track.
Heres what I got.
1. Dime Store Rock Snakepit
2. Doin' Fine Snakepit
3. I.R.S Huge/Axl Collaboration
4. TWAT Huge/Axl Collaboration
5. The Rose Petalled Garden BLS-from Wylde/Slash sessions
6. Box (Down By The Ocean) Possibly one of the tracks Duff and Izzy wrote
7. Fall To Pieces Velvet Revolver- was written during the 94-96 era
8. Monkey Chow Snakepit
9. Believe In Me Duff Solo- featuring Slash
10. Catcher In The Rye Huge/Axl Collaboration
11. Beggars and Hangers On Snakepit
12. This I Love AxlIt's not a GREAT album but it's good and if they had went with it and reworked it, could have been pretty killer. Again this is all hypothetical stuff, like elevenday said I'm cherry picking.
'Course, we're also overlooking things like: the versions of TWAT and IRS that would've appeared on this album would be extrapolated from the pre-Buckethead versions; so no gigantic solo at the end of TWAT (unless Slash had the same brainwave). Indeed, it wouldn't even have the killer Finck solo or his licks over Axl screaming "I would do anything for you." Which kinda make that song.
It's a pretty solid album, but the other thing we've got to remember is that in 1996, it would've been "just another GN'R album". The mythology of Chinese Democracy hadn't built up, GN'R-style rock had yet to be rehabilitated in the wake of the grunge explosion... I don't think it would've made that much of an impact. Certainly not as much as Chinese Democracy would've done had it been released in 2002.
