Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Jun 1 2010

Slash Promises New Velvet Revolver Will Be 'A Lot Heavier'

'When we started working with Scott, we started to lighten things up,' the guitarist says of former frontman Scott Weiland.

Other than taking a short break to play some riffs for Rihanna, top-hatted guitarist Slash spent the better part of last year working on his solo album, which many fans took as further proof that Velvet Revolver was no more.

The supergroup ? made up of Slash, fellow Guns N' Roses alums Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland ? produced a pair of well-received albums. Then Weiland went back to STP, leaving Velvet Revolver without a frontman. Still, despite the group having been mostly quiet for the last two years, Slash says they fully intend to push forward ? and the group even has some songs ready to go.

"As soon as we got off the road from the last tour and parted ways with Scott, we got together and wrote half a dozen really great, sort of heavy metal pieces of music," Slash told MTV News. "It's a lot heavier than what Velvet Revolver has put out, so I'm dying to put out the quintessential Velvet Revolver record."

Slash said the new material better matches the group's original intentions. "When Duff and Matt and I first got together, we wrote a ton of material that never saw the light of day, and that was all very heavy," Slash explained.

"It's definitely our natural way of doing things. But when we started working with Scott, we started to lighten things up a lot, and we progressively got lighter. As much as I love the two records we did do, one of the things that was progressively more and more frustrating was the direction the band took."

Slash's self-titled solo effort, released in April, features an eclectic mix of guest appearances, from Fergie to Iggy Pop to Kid Rock to former Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy, who's currently fronting the guitarist's touring band. And according to Slash, he wasn't the only Velvet Revolver bandmember with more than one iron in the fire.

"I've been doing this record, and there's a tour and Duff's been playing with Jane's Addiction, so everybody has been pretty busy," Slash said. "But at some point early next year, we're going to reconvene and take a good serious look at everything that we've got."

In the meantime, Velvet Revolver remain a band without a singer ? but not for lack of trying. "This next record will be us doing what we want to do without making any concessions to anybody," Slash declared. "Which is why it's taking so long to find a singer, because we want to find the guy who can front that band and not something we have to conform to."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1640481/20100601/velvet_revolver.jhtml

sounds awesome, libertad was a huge dissappointment

So basically he is saying they want to release old school GNR style music. I am good with that, and think that is what everyone had assumed VR would be from the start.

He mentioned "heavy metal pieces of music".  That doesn't sound like old school GN'R music to me at all.  The old band was never "metal".  Heavy at times, yes, but not metallic because that bluesy element was always present.

Ali

The unreleased demp songs I've heard so far sounded more GN'R like then Contraband / Libertad, or heavy metal-ish

Dave Kushner said before Scott they wrote alot of songs sounding from the Stones to Use Your Illusion 4 (he said 4). I think basically it'll be more like Slash's solo album, more blues based hardrock instead of modern.

That's what I was getting at. I remember the story they told about Scott not really liking alot of the material they wrote before he joined because it sounded too much like GNR. That leads me to believe that was the direction they were going before Scott, and would have gone had they not shifted gears a bit to better suit his style once he joined.

I can and do believe that the previously written material when they first started up would be more akin to blues-based hard rock.  But, to me, heavy metal can be something altogether different.  Much of metal from NWOBHM and onward was metal because the blues element was removed.  IF that is what Slash is referring to, it sounds like the newer material they wrote is different than the material they wrote when they started up.  I'm curious to see which direction they go in:  blues-based hard rock or a more metallic sound.

Ali

that's the way I would read between the lines if I was so inclined to read between the lines

Garden of Eden, Locomotive are pretty metal imo.

I guess we have widely differing views on what heavy metal is.  To me, the main thing is the "metal" portion and the absence of the blues sound, like I said before.

Ali

sabbath isn't metal to you?

Where did I say Sabbath wasn't metal to me?

Ali

guess i misunderstood what u meant.. i thought u meant like that the main thing about metal was the absence of the blues sound or something, whereas sabbath are metal but still very bluesy

Sabbath are bluesy and are the original metal band.  At least the original incarnation of Sabbath, not the Dio era.  But, what I said was that most metal from the NWOBHM (Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Tygers of Pan Tang, etc.) and onward removed the element of blues from their sound, and in that sense their sound was truly "metallic".  Look at many of the well known metal bands around today - from Megadeth to Metallica to Testament, they don't really have a blues-based sound, and I think that is a direct result of the NWOBHM influence.  That to me encompasses most metal, with the exceptions being early Sabbath and early Priest, most notably.  I think later on, both bands moved away from the blues based-sound.  I think with Sabbath that seemed more distinct when Dio came on board.

Ali

Is Metallica Heavey Metal?  On the Black album, a lot of the solos are blues bases solos... just saying...  Actually Heavy Metal has the devil's note, the flat 5th....  The flat 5th is a blues note.  I think what Ali is trying to say is more melodic, less bluesy type playing is what was big with the NWOBHM.

That's true about the devil's note.  But, yes, more melodic, less bluesy type of playing was very big with with the NWOBHM and most of the band that came out afterwards that were heavily influenced by NWOBHM.  Anyway, that's what I think of as being by-and-large "heavy metal".  I'm wondering if that is what Slash is referring to.  I assumed that sound is what he was referring to, but obviously, not everyone categorizes heavy metal the way I do.

Ali

Nothing to Say is pretty heavy, I always thought You Could Be Mine was on the fringe of an all out metal song.

I personally dont want Velvet Revolver doing metal songs. I like hard rock and dont we have enough metal bands at the moment?

About NWOBHM, I disagree about Motorhead having no blues elements. Slow it down and you got blues riffs.

Hopefully more along the lines of Slither.

Slash sounds great on heavier rock, so even if it ain't exactly metal, I'm happy to hear some heavier music from VR.

There is more than enough pop fluff music out there, and nothing is better than some pissed off heavy, hard guitar riffs to rock out to! :beer:

People seem to be forgetting that most of the music on 'Contraband' was pretty damn aggressive.
Personally, I don't believe they're ever going to release another record, but if they do I'd hope they don't release something that sounds like GN'R. They've done that... 'Contraband' was a success exactly because it didn't rehash what any of the members had done before. And "heavier" does not necessarily mean GN'R-style.