Kerrang review of Contraband

Vice City

A Nightmare trip into the dark heart of LA with Slash and Scott Weiland

4/5

Reviewer Matt Potter

The Lowdown:

No, you first. What do you think it sounds like? Because for all the anonymous packaging and the "New group" Shtick, here you have former STP pincushion Scott Weiland fronting GNR refugees Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum. Plus some other guy. So hey, it's only natural that some folks are gonna call theis GNR Version 2.0. th eband know it too - Look at that name. Yes, a Revolver is a Gun, as in "Guns" - plus something all soft and romantic and girly - Roses... Velvet! See what they did there?

The good news is: this isn't a GNR tribute band. Okay, for the first few listens you'll be listening out for those tricksy, fluting "Sweet Child O'Mine" guitar patterns. But if this is a cash cow, they sure as hell hide it well. And as for Weiland, he might have chopped and snorted his credibility long ago, but - crucially - he sounds like a man consumed by the burning need to get it the fuck back. the result "Contraband" drips with the dark-hearted pissed-off-ness five californian millionaires - Okay, 4 millionaires and Dave Kushner - have no business knowing what to do with.

But they do. When it works - on "Big Machine" and single "Slither", say - its a fine, ugly thing thaht drags you right between the cracks into its own brutal netherworld, somehwere between LA and your worst nightmares. From the wailing sirens that usher in the opener "Sucker Train Blues", Contraband takes a sick gleeful joy in taking your memories of their past achievements, spiking their drinks and pushing them into the back of a seedy mini cab headed for the darker side of town.

Weiland is Master of Ceremonies here, playing a nasty little batard who rabbits bad news in your ear like a reptillian Joe Pesci conducting a guided tour of Dante's Hell AKA LA: It's all coke, comedowns and con artists. But in LA you take your troubles and face them on down. Which makes Contraband's ballads, notably "Fall To Pieces" and the Beatles-esque "You Got No Right" things of rare, cracked beauty.

The music is superb "Do It For The Kids" displays Contraband's dirty trick of penning you in with Slash's itchy, wise guy guitar before sending you reeling with a big long, rangy upper-cut chorus. "Big Machine", meanwhile, sees Weiland's multi layered vocal swaying like a rattler among the thick instrumental foilage. "All that first class jet shit is brings me down, down, down" he croons.. And you just know he'd be the worst person to sit next to on take off.

Fighters? Snakes? Demons? Crashes? No shit, sherlock. this is one pissed off little group - And they are just about done biding their time