Oliver Clothesoff

This is a good-to-great record. Shame a lot of people had made up their mind to hate it before it was even released.

cungar

I made up my mind to hate it after it was released.

Supermallet

I would say you're being too lenient.
Exactly, it's been 14 years. This is the best he could come up with in that time? That's just sad. I was never expecting it to sound like classic GnR, that will never happen without Slash and Izzy. But it could still have been great GnR. It's not. If this had been released by a new band, I think most people would dismiss it far more readily. But because it's branded with the name of a legendary rock outfit (nevermind that everyone who actually made it legendary have been kicked out by the least talented member of the band), people are giving it way more credence than it actually deserves.

Sure, it's not much worse than most popular music these days. But that's like saying your pile of shit doesn't smell any more noxious than anyone else's. And yes, unfortunately I did listen to the whole album.

DVD Josh

IRS, Better and Madagascar are the only three songs I can listen to all the way through. I actually think Madagascar is one of the better songs in the entire GNR catalog.

dvduser6

This is a very polarizing album. With so much drama and broken promises from Axl over the years regarding this release, I certainly didn't expect it to fly off shelves. That being said, I happen to think there are some great songs here, especially the title track, "Better", "There Was a Time", and "Sorry". What I wonder now is what he has up his sleeve for a follow-up to this. We've been hearing about many of these tracks for almost a decade, so I would like to think now that this is out, it may allow him to move forward more quickly. Not expecting that to happen, but time will tell.

fmian

Don't know if this is allowed or not, since there was a post before about some pre release thingy that was deleted. Let me know if I should edit my post.
The songs sound way over processed, and definately benefit from a more raw rock style rather than the synthetic, smoothed out and slowed down sound on the final release.
Don't know where I got it from but I was listening to what I thought was the final release quite some time ago, only to find all the songs had major work done on them. A raw, gutteral, faster pace and the occaisional glitch in Axl's voice makes for a better sound than what was released.
If the album had stayed as it was mid editing process, I'd give it an 8.5/10. With 9 of the 11 songs being fantastic.
The final release would probably get a 5.5/10 from me, with the additional 3 songs being crap, and most of the good songs being slowed down and tweaked to something further away from what rock music should be.

nodeerforamonth

My condolences.

I'm still in shock after hearing how wimpy this album is...

gerrythedon

Axl Rose Pipes Up On GNR Message Boards

He's yet to grant an interview about Guns N' Roses' recently released "Chinese Democracy," but last night (Dec. 11) Axl Rose broke his silence by answering questions on the message boards of popular GNR Web sites MyGNR.com and Here Today ... Gone to Hell.

Rose addressed a wide range of topics, including the status of his relationships with former members of the band, several specific songs from "Chinese Democracy" and whether guitarists Buckethead and Robin Finkc would one day return to GNR.

"What I can say now is you've been told a lot of things in order for others to promote themselves that factually they cannot backup in regard to either," Rose said when asked for his opinion on why the original lineup fell apart. "They are complicated legally, financially and have devoured a good portion of my life."

Rose added that he was recently sued by Duff McKagan and Slash over a merchandising issue "that I was unaware and not involved in. Fortunately that was resolved but it got ugly and took a while going into arbitration."

The artist did not directly address what exactly took so long for "Chinese Democracy," which was started in the mid-1990s, to be released. But he did acknowledge there is a wealth of additional material that could potentially be released in its wake.

"For now we'll concentrate and keep our focus on this album but I will say I've always thought of it as a double," he said of "Chinese Democracy." Earlier, he told fans that a video for the new album's "Better" would be released "in a week or so."

When one fan took Rose to task for steadfastly avoiding the press, he responded, "What I have to say a lot of people have no desire to hear." Another fan tore into Rose for his reclusive lifestyle and what he deemed fan-unfriendly behavior, to which Rose replied, "Your misconceptions and fantasies along with your misguided sense of entitlement don't dictate my actions."

"Chinese Democracy" was finally released Nov. 23 as a Best Buy exclusive. It debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 261,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, but slumped to No. 18 this week with 57,000.


BILLBOARD.com

Paul1957

Axel interview on "Chinese Democracy" and Guns and Roses past, calls Slash a cancer:

http://www.spinner.com/2009/02/27/ax...570x1201344671

The Cow

Meh, he's still living in the past, nothing really new. I wish the interviewer would have asked him about his thoughts on Buckethead also.

His answers on the current band/future pretty much sum up his current state.

(and he is looking more and more like Mark McGwire, heh)

Sonny Corinthos

So, how did the album do? Is it considered a success or failure? I haven't kept up with album sales on this so I don't have a clue.....

gerrythedon

Guns N' Roses Brings 'Democracy' to 'Rock Band'

Axl Rose may have spent 15 years fine tuning the 14 tracks on "Chinese Democracy," but it only took five months for the entire album to make its way into the "Rock Band" video game franchise.

"Chinese Democracy" will be released in its entirety into the Rock Band Music Store on April 14 and gamers will be able to download and play all 13 songs from the record, Harmonix and MTV Games announced Friday. "Shackler's Revenge," the first track to emerge from the album, made its debut in the "Rock Band 2" release.

Gamers who use the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 gaming systems will be able to purchase the entire album and individual tracks, while Nintendo Wii players can only buy the tracks individually.

In an exclusive interview, Axl Rose told Billboard that the game's producers felt the album's multiple layers and tracks needed extra programming to sound and play correctly. "They felt the record - based on the nature and complexity of the depth of instrumentation - deserved a bit more attention and some more involved elements than they've generally dealt with," he said.

"Chinese Democracy" was released in November 2008 and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The album has sold 570,000 copies to date according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Daytripper

It sold a million units. Not a dent in GNR's past sales. But the record industry is dead now, so that's not TOO bad considering.

FWIW, I never saw any ads or any promotion for the album. Just reviews.

fmian

I saw a whole lot of trucks with an ad on the back around the release. That's here in Sydney.

WMAangel

I'm excited to play all these tracks next week! Though as a PS3 user, I have to wait two extra days
As I mentioned in the VG forum RB thread, I wonder how they are handling "This I Love" considering the song does not have guitar until over 2 minutes in, and no drums until over 3 minutes in....too bad they haven't made a piano/keyboard expansion kit yet!
I want a keytar for RB3!

Spiderbite

I really liked this album so I will probably spring for it on Rock Band. It's a good Axel Rose solo album. Guns it's not.

gerrythedon

Guns N' Roses Officially Announce 13 Canadian Concerts!

Legendary rockers Guns N’ Roses will bring their Chinese Democracy World Tour to Canada in January 2010. The Winnipeg, Manitoba concert at the MTS Centre on January 13th is the first of thirteen Canadian concerts on the GN’R world tour, which begins in Asia on December 11th, with tour updates and announcements planned throughout 2010.

Guns N’ Roses – Axl Rose, Frank Ferrer, Tommy Stinson, Richard Fortus, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Dizzy Reed, and Chris Pitman – welcomed guitarist Dj Ashba into the band earlier this year and are scheduled to begin rehearsals in Los Angeles shortly.

The upcoming worldwide tour promotes the band’s latest album, Chinese Democracy, which debuted at #1 on the charts in thirteen countries including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, as well as the European Top 100 Albums survey.

Chinese Democracy was released on Black Frog/Geffen Records in November 2008 and reached 3 times Platinum in Canada, Platinum in Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, UK, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. The album is Gold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Holland, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil and Colombia. In the U.S., the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 3, 2009.

Guns N’ Roses last toured the world in 2006 – 2007, performing 60 concerts in 26 countries playing to more than a million fans.

Canadian Chinese Democracy World Tour concert dates are:

January
13 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
16 – Calgary, AB – Pengrowth Saddledome
17 – Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
19 – Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre
20 – Regina, SK – Brandt Centre
24 – Hamilton, ON – Copps Coliseum
25 – London, ON – John Labatt Centre
27 – Montreal, PQ – Bell Centre
28 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
31 – Ottawa, ON – Scotiabank Place

February
1 – Quebec City, PQ – Colisee Pepsi
3 – Moncton, NB – Moncton Coliseum
4 – Halifax, NS – Metro Centre


Source: Bravewords.com

Rypro 525

how many will be cancelled/have axl no shows i wonder

gerrythedon

Hope they announce one ova here.

sleepyhead55

Can anyone explain why it took so long to piece together a tour for this? The album was released last year, yet the tour is only happening now. The promised "Better" video never showed up. DJ Ashba joined in the Spring and they had rehearsals for a planned summer tour but that never happened.

WMAangel

No....in fact, I doubt even Axl himself could (or would)....

Seriously though, it's GNR, after years and years of this behavior, why would you even bother to question it at this point? If you want to remain a fan, you pretty much just have to accept the fact that the band is completely disorganized and haphazard, and will just randomly end up scheduling and then maybe playing some shows every couple of years....
It seems like a minor miracle in and of itself that CD ever made it out anyway....oh well, I still love the album and am forever content that I actually did get to see them live at Baltimore in 2006....

Jason

So when are they heading into the studio to record the follow up?

dvduser6

gerrythedon

The tour for the album already passed... This is a tour for the follow-up to Chinese Democracy.

UAIOE

The clone of Axl Rose might release the follow up album in 2130.