I really believe the record will be based on guitars, but with some modern arrangements, some modern touch. I trust Axl to make great music.
Of course it will be based on guitars. Why the hell he would need three (or even four, with Paul Tobias) guitar players if the album wouldn't be full of guitars? Even the songs we already know has a lot of guitars. The most powerful one, IMO, is Rhiad. It's full of riffs, licks and guitar work. It's heavy and, despite some misunderstoods, it's more rocker than the other new ones.
You can add some modern touch without sounding "techno". I guess this is what Axl wants to do.
"the blues","madagascar" and even "rihad" sound Rock.
I've been saying that for years. I take Radiohead for an example. They made Ok Computer, a really great rock album, full of loud guitars and yet sounding really modern. For me, it's even more modern than the follow up, Kid A, wich is full of eletronic sounds/noises and indeed is more techno-oriented. Tom Morello (RATM and Audioslave) never did any techno stuff with his guitar, but he played some modern sounds. Even Hendrix did some weird stuff with wha's, reverbs, delays and layers to sound modern. Just listen to Crosstown Traffic.
But don't make sense say that "it would explain the role of Pittman in the band". When you say it, seems that before it, there was no reason for have him in the band.
When a guy like Pittman is in the band, you can be sure that the main idea is create different textures in the song, and this is the reason why he's in the band.
Agreed. Pittman is not in the band just to back the guitar sounds. You can not like him, but don't think he is that useless.