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Grab a coat, kiddies!! Hell might be freezing over!

Now, I suppose I could consider myself a rock n’ roll fan. I enjoy rock music, and I’ve been to plenty of rock concerts. My first concert experience was actually seeing Filter at the 9:30 Club back when I was a junior in college. Still, I don’t really follow rock enough to hang with the die-hard fans. I didn’t hate it when Metallica got rid of their long hair, and I’m sure some of the rock CDs I own would inspire either vicious tirades, or uncontrollable laughter (yes, I own BOTH Evanescence albums, and I’m not sorry!). But dammit, if I didn’t love me some Guns N’ Roses back in the day!

Of all the LA hair metal bands to rise to popularity in the late 80s/early 90s, GNR stood out the most. And it was “November Rain” that convinced me that they stood the best chance of transcending the subgenre, and maintaining their popularity for years to come. Needless to say, I was wrong. While other members moved on to other bands, Axel has kept a vicious death-grip on the Guns N’ Roses name like Amy Winehouse with a crack pipe, touring with a seemingly endless rotation of musicians, and recording a new Guns N’ Roses album. . . . for the last 13 years!!

It’s not like I’ve been anxiously waiting for Chinese Democracy like a lot of devoted fans, but I’m not gonna front like I haven’t been interested. With every live show performed, with every passing year, we’ve gotten bits and pieces of new music, supposedly meant for the album. There seems to be a definite split when it comes to the opinions of fans and music critics, some saying it’s the best material Axl Rose has put out since the original band was still together, while others compare it to warm animal feces. Even with all that, I still didn’t believe the album would ever see the light of day. And even with news that it will indeed see release on November 23rd, I still won’t believe it until I’ve actually listened to the whole album.

So far, I’ve only heard the title track, which has officially been released as a single, and you know what? It’s pretty damn good. It’s a well-crafted hard rock song that hits all the right beats at all the right times. It’s not terribly complex, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. It certainly has me looking forward to the rest of the album, or at least cautiously optimistic. Let’s face it, waiting over a decade for an album, you’d hope for it to be something epic. The whole popular music landscape has changed so drastically in the years since GNR’s heyday that it’s damn near impossible to predict what the reception will be to a new album, especially when the rest of the original band isn’t even involved.

Some fans may reject the new album purely out of spite, whereas they may have been more forgiving if Axl Rose had just come up with a new name for a new band, instead of using the name “Guns N’ Roses”. One thing’s for sure, if November 23rd rolls around and Chinese Democracy does in fact materialize in Best Buys across the country, Dr. Dre’s gonna have to come with that Detox album he swears he’s working on, post haste!

Check out the first single for yourselves: http://web.gunsnroses.com/splash.jsp