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Re: Slash album reviews
If you didn't know CD was coming out, you are a fucking idiot, Axl had been touring in support of it since Rock In Rio 3, 2002, 2006, and now..
Excuse me? Did Axl happen to play to 6 billion people? Wow, that must have been a huge tour! Where was I?
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Slash album reviews
I really don't care. Most music fans knew the album was coming out, especially rock fans, there was so much rumor and speculation about the album. It didn't sell because people didn't like it that much. When they played the entire album in my city it killed it... People were like "wtf is this shit" and they never gave it a second listen.
- Mikkamakka
- Rep: 217
Re: Slash album reviews
It's time to create a Slash's album VS CD thread, I think, to avoid offtopic things in the reviews thread. Thanks in advance.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Slash album reviews
I've been enjoying this album more and more with a few more spins.
Overall I think the only thing wrong with it is the name.
Why? Because this album is a showcase of what Slash brings to other people's styles and how versitile he is. So what happens is you end up with a song that sounds like if slash was in wolfmother, and if he was in A7X, or in Ozzy's Band etc. And there's some great music on this disc.
But calling it "Slash" to me implies it's somehow the definative collection of his works, or that it's in someway a view into his mindset, or what he brings to VR, GNR and all the things that make him a unique player. And to be honest I think the Snakepit Records are much closer to that, like they're the sort of riffs slash brings to his other music without the influences of the rest of those bands, just beefed up on roids. So to me, to really "get" slash as a player I feel you need to listen to 5'Oclock Somewhere or something like that, which is more definative of his abilities and HIM than this self titled record. But that said, there's some really good stuff on this album, and there's a few tracks I can't stop listening to.
I've recently made me a new slash playlist, with my favs from this album, mixed with some snakepit favs, and a couple of the better guest apperances of the years, and i'm loving it. So this stuff definately takes it's worthy place as good slash fodder, I just think stylisticly it's more about the other artists than him, and so i'd have liked to see it called something else.
Re: Slash album reviews
I really don't care. Most music fans knew the album was coming out, especially rock fans, there was so much rumor and speculation about the album. It didn't sell because people didn't like it that much. When they played the entire album in my city it killed it... People were like "wtf is this shit" and they never gave it a second listen.
Ah so when you bring logic into the mix all of a sudden you lose the ability to argue your original point and fall back on spouting off things you can't prove? I get it.
I'm sure you went and asked everyone in your city what they thought of CD and they all said that. My guess if you live in Bum-Fuck Iowa with a population of 24 rednecks who love country music! Because any other way you wasted your time asking all those people what they thought about an album. Which may possibly show an insecurity in your own opinion if you look to others to validate what you feel about music.
You see, that's the wonderful thing about music is that NO ONE can tell you what to feel or think about it. They may try, and if you listen you are a dumbass. So I would suggest you quit trying to change other people's opinion on Chinese Democracy, ESPECIALLY in a thread dedicated to reviews of Slash's new album. Yes we all get it, Slash and Axl used to work together. Heaven forbid we let them each have their own career.
And for the record, these songs sound bland and unoriginal compared to CD. At least Axl tried to expand his borders a little.
Re: Slash album reviews
The old, why Chinese Democracy didn't sell well and was a failure argument, eh? I think we've beaten this to death. Let's put it to rest.
This Slash album is good, not great. Like monkey said, a problem for me is it sounds like Slash with The Cult, Kid Rock, Maroon 5, Avenged Sevenfold, etc. And I've heard a number of better tracks from those bands without Slash. I would've hoped for a bit more. The only song that sounds surprisingly different is the Fergie song obviously, and thankfully. I wasn't too familiar with Alter Bridge either so the Myles Kennedy tracks were a pleasant surprise as well. Still haven't listened to the last 2 songs on the record, just finished up "Starlight" as I pulled into the driveway yesterday. I'm really digging that song.
- MrWonderful
- Rep: 2
Re: Slash album reviews
Pretty decent album. My favorite tracks are Mother Maria (Beth Hart), Saint is a Sinner Too (Rocco Deluca), Gotten (Adam Levine), and Promise (Chris Cornell)...The guitar work at the 2:30 mark on Promise is vintage Slash, and 20 seconds of pure bliss.
Actually, this is a rather strong album. It sort of reminds me of CD, in that it lacks a hit single and kind of grows on you the more you listen. I have a feeling my favorite songs will change the more I listen...could end up being Kid Rock or one of the Myles Kennedy tracks.
The low points are Ghost, Crucify the Dead, and We're all Gonna Die...these songs are a little on the cheesy side.
- Mikkamakka
- Rep: 217
Re: Slash album reviews
'Slash'
Jim Farber
2,5/5
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen … s_fir.html
Slash's brilliant guitar work takes a backseat to showy collaborations on his first solo album
Slash's first official solo album has the feel of a Facebook page.
The guitarist filled it with just about every well-connected "friend" he ever met or heard of, forging a virtual who's who of heavy metal and hard rock. Turning up to squawk and preen on the CD are everyone from Ozzy and Lemmy to Kid Rock and Iggy Pop.
If Slash sent any "friend requests" to the singers most famously associated with him - Axl Rose or Scott Weiland - they went unanswered. Neither big mouth turned up.
Theoretically, Slash could have settled on a sole fresh shouter to front this project. But he already did that on his woeful band Snakepit. Instead he went this more showy and needy route.
As you'd expect from a project with so many egos in play, it isn't big on coherence. Then again, what's a guy blessed with Slash's particular talents and limitations to do?
Like Johnny Marr after the demise of The Smiths, Slash has wandered through a kind of journeyman's exile ever since the end of his one, great band - the original Guns N Roses - back in 1996.
Though his other longest lasting group, Velvet Revolver, put out two studio albums and endured six years together, they always seemed like a jerrybuilt project - like some lucrative, but tedious, time-filler.
Instead of going through that headache again, Slash choose a project that would both allow him to retain control and to reap the p.r. benefits of all the starry names involved. Hey, it worked for Santana on "Supernatural."
It hasn't worked quite that way here.
Make no mistake: Slash's driving solos dazzle throughout.
And the album does include a few collaborations that click. Lemmy attacks the guitarist's riff in "Doctor Alibi" with his delightfully satiric level of savagery. Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale conjures a convincing, "I-Am-A-Golden-God" Robert Plant impersonation on the single, "By The Sword." And Chris Cornell's erotic snarl pairs so well with the star's chunky riffs in "Promise," it suggests he might have started a worthy group with Slash had he not already agreed to reform his classic band, Soundgarden, this summer.
Most of the other collaborations seem merely hypothetical - like daydreams from metal heads better left to the realm of fantasy. Some of them prove outright laughable, including Fergie performing in guitar drag for "Beautiful Dangerous" or the cameo by Adam Levine from Maroon 5, which reeks of wimp tokenism.
Ironically, the track that works best offers no guest vocalist at all.
"Watch This: reunites Slash with GNR alum Duff, and adds Dave Grohl on drums, to create a teeth-melting instrumental. The result proves that Slash could have gone the Jeff Beck route, letting his brilliant guitar work assume the fullness of a human voice for an entire CD.
One day let's hope he works up the nerve to do so.
- Mikkamakka
- Rep: 217
Re: Slash album reviews
Slash still has it on new solo album
By Dustin Schoof
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/music/i … tar_f.html
Slash still has it.
The Velvet Revolver and former Guns N' Roses guitarist's new album, "Slash," is a hybrid of every band Saul Hudson has been a part of -- and that's a good thing.
There are traces of Guns N' Roses scattered throughout the album, most notably on the scorching "Doctor Alibi" with Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmeister on vocals; a song that could have been sandwiched nicely between "Nightrain" and "Out ta Get Me" on "Appetite for Destruction."
The other Guns nod appears on "Nothing to Say" with M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold. Shadows' familiar yowl soars over a breakneck guitar riff and thundering double-bass.
Slash's collaboration with Iggy Pop on "We're All Gonna Die" is pure punk snarl, with Pop's vocals reminiscent of the stiff upper lip he sported on his 2003 solo album, "Skull Ring."
Slash's riffs compliment each singer's style nicely on most of the tracks, with Adam Levine of Maroon 5 laying down a soothing vocal melody that glides gingerly over a cascading guitar hook on "Gotten."
The song "Promise" is more Marvin Gaye than grunge. Chris Cornell's smoky vocals float along a bluesy, rustic melody that harks back to Cornell's 2007 solo album, "Carry On."
On "I Hold On," Kid Rock ditches his rap-rock shtick for the Bob Seger sort of Detroit blues that his most recent efforts have been rooted in. It's the best song Rock has done in years -- a lighter-friendly anthem of hope and determination for the downtrodden.
Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy appears twice and for good reason. Kennedy's Robert Plant-like howl soars on "Back From Cali" and reaches Freddie Mercury stratosphere status on the dynamic fist-pumper, "Starlight."
However, the album does have its share of misfires -- though few and far between.
Slash's beloved Les Paul slithers and hisses but doesn't strike with as much potency as one would expect on a Slash solo record. Granted, that might have been the point since each song is tailored more to the singer than the songwriter.
His collaborations with The Cult's Ian Astbury on "Ghost" and Ozzy Osbourne on "Crucify the Dead" are solid tunes, but by-the-numbers and don't pack the same punch as most of the other songs on the album.
The biggest weakness is the song "Beautiful Dangerous" with Fergie. The Black Eyed Peas siren proves she can wail with the best of them, but the repetitive guitar riff causes the song to come off like a Ferrari idling in the driveway but doesn't actually go anywhere.
The instrumental track "Watch This Dave" lets Slash take the lead as he gives his fretbaord a workout while Dave Grohl pounds away on the drums. Unfortunately, with two such talented musicians trading licks, the song is not nearly as impressive as one would imagine. Even the opening/main guitar riff sounds identical to the Deftones' "My Own Summer (Shove It)."
"Slash" is not "Appetite for Destruction II" by any stretch. Those looking for another "Sweet Child O' Mine" should look elsewhere.
But it is stronger and sturdier than anything he's done since.
- metallex78
- Rep: 194
Re: Slash album reviews
Funny to see such opposing reviews. Just in the last two above, one praises Watch This as one of the best tracks, while the other says it doesn't live up to what would be expected from the musicians involved. I agree about the Deftones comparison too, I pointed that out in the thread about the song on this forum.
