"Next Album" rumor / speculation thread *UPDATE AUG 22/2023*

[peter7411226]

I drove a long way by myself to a gig and decided to listen to all of GNR's albums back to back. I hadn't listened to Chinese Democracy in a while and had never really heard all of the albums back to back. As you listen to them you see the growth album by album. But after listening to Chinese Democracy I got the sense that something was lacking. After listening it for a second time I concluded that what's missing is the attitude. Not in the lyrics but the music. The music on the first 4 albums sounded mean and nasty. Thats what drew me to there music in the first place. At the time it didnt sound like anything else out there. The music reflected the swagger and attitude of the band. I mean even the drums in Its so easy sound mean. I feel that that was missing on CD. It sounds Overproduced ( when you have a bunch of different producers working on the album in a 10 year period it will happen). I feel like with a new album the band has to go into the studio and capture that chemistry they have on stage and just release the album quickly. Dont record, let it sit around, tinker with it, fine tune it again and then release it. Trust yourselves. You have a great band. DJ's a good songwriter and seems to have a certain swagger. Take advantage and create something great.

I agree with you about the music not sounding as mean or nasty as the early stuff, but I took that as a positive because to me it reflected emotional growth and maturity.  After a certain age, the bad-ass attitude pose comes off a bit ridiculous, so I appreciated that the album had a sound that revealed some vulnerability.  But what was consistent from the old days was the honesty. 

My issue isnt with the lyrics. Lyrically most of the songs are dark and honest like you say. The music is what im talking about. It doesnt capture the mood of the lyrics. Take for example a song like Catcher in the Rye. Lyrically its pretty dark but you wouldnt know that from listening to the music. I dont think the bad ass attitude is posing at all. They were bad asses. Axl is still a bad ass. He exudes that attitude. Look at a band like the stones. They are well into there 60's and still give off that bad ass vibe.

[ITARocker]

Take for example a song like Catcher in the Rye. Lyrically its pretty dark but you wouldnt know that from listening to the music.

Wrong example  : the music to me matches perfectly with the lyrics, because  the song is about somebody who's out of his mind or at least estranged from reality... for you and everyone else words are "dark", but not for the character of the song. And yes, it sounds like a carol,  it's  a kind of leitmotiv like on the book catcher in the rye.. "gin a body meet a body...", you know... And holden caulfield wasn't like a "normal" guy...

I think it's one of the best song ever written because of the music and the lyrics

[draguns]

A co-worker of mine asked me yesterday if he should get Chinese Democracy. He had heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on Pandora and asked me what I thought of the album. I was honest with him. I told him it's good but not as great as previous albums by GNR. I told him some of the songs that I like such as: "Better", "There was a Time", "Sorry","Chinese Democracy" and a couple of others. You still hear the honesty to the songs but it's missing soul to it. I think too many guitar players were on the album, which for me just didn't have the same passion  as what Slash and the original members of the band brought to GNR.  You have one member of a band who is saying that he's only in it for the money, another member who wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head (like  I can really relate to that nut job), and third member who came in as gothic then you really can't connect and feel that passion in the music. As I told my co-worker yesterday, I'm looking forward to the next album since DJ Ashba is now part of the band. I think he will be the key to all to bring that passion and excitement back along with Bumblefoot. I think there is some really good creative chemistry there with this lineup that can bring that bad ass back but in a more mature and passionate way.

[wadey]

A co-worker of mine asked me yesterday if he should get Chinese Democracy. He had heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on Pandora and asked me what I thought of the album. I was honest with him. I told him it's good but not as great as previous albums by GNR. I told him some of the songs that I like such as: "Better", "There was a Time", "Sorry","Chinese Democracy" and a couple of others. You still hear the honesty to the songs but it's missing soul to it. I think too many guitar players were on the album, which for me just didn't have the same passion  as what Slash and the original members of the band brought to GNR.  You have one member of a band who is saying that he's only in it for the money, another member who wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head (like  I can really relate to that nut job), and third member who came in as gothic then you really can't connect and feel that passion in the music. As I told my co-worker yesterday, I'm looking forward to the next album since DJ Ashba is now part of the band. I think he will be the key to all to bring that passion and excitement back along with Bumblefoot. I think there is some really good creative chemistry there with this lineup that can bring that bad ass back but in a more mature and passionate way.

WTF!!!!

[draguns]

A co-worker of mine asked me yesterday if he should get Chinese Democracy. He had heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on Pandora and asked me what I thought of the album. I was honest with him. I told him it's good but not as great as previous albums by GNR. I told him some of the songs that I like such as: "Better", "There was a Time", "Sorry","Chinese Democracy" and a couple of others. You still hear the honesty to the songs but it's missing soul to it. I think too many guitar players were on the album, which for me just didn't have the same passion  as what Slash and the original members of the band brought to GNR.  You have one member of a band who is saying that he's only in it for the money, another member who wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head (like  I can really relate to that nut job), and third member who came in as gothic then you really can't connect and feel that passion in the music. As I told my co-worker yesterday, I'm looking forward to the next album since DJ Ashba is now part of the band. I think he will be the key to all to bring that passion and excitement back along with Bumblefoot. I think there is some really good creative chemistry there with this lineup that can bring that bad ass back but in a more mature and passionate way.

WTF!!!!

I like the album but it really isn't as great as some of the other stuff. It was too overproduced. I'm entitled to my opinion just like you are. I think with this current lineup, it'll edge out CD easily. 

[wadey]

A co-worker of mine asked me yesterday if he should get Chinese Democracy. He had heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on Pandora and asked me what I thought of the album. I was honest with him. I told him it's good but not as great as previous albums by GNR. I told him some of the songs that I like such as: "Better", "There was a Time", "Sorry","Chinese Democracy" and a couple of others. You still hear the honesty to the songs but it's missing soul to it. I think too many guitar players were on the album, which for me just didn't have the same passion  as what Slash and the original members of the band brought to GNR.  You have one member of a band who is saying that he's only in it for the money, another member who wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head (like  I can really relate to that nut job), and third member who came in as gothic then you really can't connect and feel that passion in the music. As I told my co-worker yesterday, I'm looking forward to the next album since DJ Ashba is now part of the band. I think he will be the key to all to bring that passion and excitement back along with Bumblefoot. I think there is some really good creative chemistry there with this lineup that can bring that bad ass back but in a more mature and passionate way.

WTF!!!!

I like the album but it really isn't as great as some of the other stuff. It was too overproduced. I'm entitled to my opinion just like you are. I think with this current lineup, it'll edge out CD easily. 

it was the "Nut job", "missing soul", and "can't connect and feel the passion" that did it mate 

[draguns]

Dude, can you really relate to someone like Buckethead who wears a mask and shows no emotion??? On the album, Axl displays all the emotion. The others not as much. I got the sense that CD was Axl's baby but the rest of the people who played on it just didn't take it to the next level. That's why I think "This I Love" is better live than on the album. I love the live version of the song because you can feel DJ bring it on the solo to another level along with the playing of others when you hear it live. . The album version is blah for me.  My opinion is that it wasn't translated as good as it could have been.   

[Buddha_Master]

Dude, can you really relate to someone like Buckethead who wears a mask and shows no emotion??? On the album, Axl displays all the emotion. The others not as much. I got the sense that CD was Axl's baby but the rest of the people who played on it just didn't take it to the next level. That's why I think "This I Love" is better live than on the album. I love the live version of the song because you can feel DJ bring it on the solo to another level along with the playing of others when you hear it live. . The album version is blah for me.  My opinion is that it wasn't translated as good as it could have been.   

Uh, Im a family man, a stoner geek. I can't relate to a dude in a top hat who does heroin, coke, drinks a bottle of jack and whatever else all the while fucking a different bitch every other day sometimes 2-3 bitches at a time.

Buckethead is shy and insecure. Loves horror movies and Disneyland and is a bit of an outcast. Much more relatable mask or not. I love fucking oddities. Bucket is fascinating and talented as hell.

[draguns]

Dude, can you really relate to someone like Buckethead who wears a mask and shows no emotion??? On the album, Axl displays all the emotion. The others not as much. I got the sense that CD was Axl's baby but the rest of the people who played on it just didn't take it to the next level. That's why I think "This I Love" is better live than on the album. I love the live version of the song because you can feel DJ bring it on the solo to another level along with the playing of others when you hear it live. . The album version is blah for me.  My opinion is that it wasn't translated as good as it could have been.   

Uh, Im a family man, a stoner geek. I can't relate to a dude in a top hat who does heroin, coke, drinks a bottle of jack and whatever else all the while fucking a different bitch every other day sometimes 2-3 bitches at a time.

Buckethead is shy and insecure. Loves horror movies and Disneyland and is a bit of an outcast. Much more relatable mask or not. I love fucking oddities. Bucket is fascinating and talented as hell.

I didn't find Buckethead fascinating at all. I thought he hid behind his  mask as a coward who is afraid to show what he's really like. The guy used  a puppet to talk to people. Yeah,  I can really relate to someone like that. Slash did drugs, drank a lot and banged a lot of women during GNR's heyday. The rest of GNR  did that as well back then. What was appealing to me back then was how 5 guys could overcome  obstacles  despite many roadblocks. That's how I can relate to those guys. They help me to achieve success. With the current band, it's being more of a respect among peers. DJ Ashba  is about 3 years older than me I think. I know the guy is in his 30s. You see his facial expressions when he plays a song. You see that he puts everything into it.  The guitar has much more soul to it. He may not be the most technical player (correct me if I'm wrong) but he has put the emotions behind playing. There's definitely a difference now than before. It reminds me a lot of the old GNR with that bluesy, hard rock sound. This is why I think the next album will be much better.

[imcrazy]

Wow - this thread really went off the rails!

[Axl4Prez2004]

A co-worker of mine asked me yesterday if he should get Chinese Democracy. He had heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on Pandora and asked me what I thought of the album. I was honest with him. I told him it's good but not as great as previous albums by GNR. I told him some of the songs that I like such as: "Better", "There was a Time", "Sorry","Chinese Democracy" and a couple of others. You still hear the honesty to the songs but it's missing soul to it. I think too many guitar players were on the album, which for me just didn't have the same passion  as what Slash and the original members of the band brought to GNR.  You have one member of a band who is saying that he's only in it for the money, another member who wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head (like  I can really relate to that nut job), and third member who came in as gothic then you really can't connect and feel that passion in the music. As I told my co-worker yesterday, I'm looking forward to the next album since DJ Ashba is now part of the band. I think he will be the key to all to bring that passion and excitement back along with Bumblefoot. I think there is some really good creative chemistry there with this lineup that can bring that bad ass back but in a more mature and passionate way.

draguns, who said they're only in GNR for the money?  Just curious.

btw, different strokes for different folks...I feel a soul in CD big-time...it's like a soul at times is literally ripped out of Axl's body, cut open with a rusty knife, doused with gasoline, set on fire, extinguished with super-cooled ice shards shot out of a high-pressure hose, with the soul placed back in his torso, where he's forced at gunpoint to sew it up himself with barbed wire. 

as much as I loved CD, I agree with you on DJ.  I think he brings something to the table Finck didn't...(based on what we heard of course, because perhaps there is unreleased Finck work we haven't heard)  I just fucking love DJ's solos...in my opinion, much more enjoyable than BH's or RF's.   

[draguns]

Oh, I totally agree with you on Axl pouring it on, Axl4Prez. I just didn't get that from other people in the band. That's all. Brain said it as a "joke".  I'm not quite buying that. I think DJ and the rest of the band will be much more into it. They just seem more into it when I saw them at the IZOD center. The chemistry of the band really showed that night. I could only imagine how the next album will be like in the studio. It seems these guys  enjoying playing with each other.

[Buddha_Master]

The thing is Dragon is the guitar work on Chinese D especially the solos are sublime. I don't think you or anyone can deny the solos on If The World, TWAT, Sorry, This I love. They are absolutely beautiful work. If someone just really loves guitars they should probably dig the fuck out of CD. I really don't think Slash could have conceived a better solo for TWAT. Someone doesn't dig Buckethead fine... but you can't deny the dude brought it. That is amazing guitar work. You have to respect that talent on display.

Having said that, I agree that DJ's solos at the concerts are better then Buckets or Robins were. Although I doubt DJ can wield the nun chucks as good (or be able to beat Bucket in Star Wars trivia).

[tippasaurus]

Dude, can you really relate to someone like Buckethead who wears a mask and shows no emotion???

At the end of the day we are talking about music.  I don't really care so much about the look of the artist as much as what they are playing.  I really like what Robin and BH bring to the table, despite their less then stereotypical appearances.  I find DJ's playing style to be more or less typical (i.e. boring).  But that's just me.  When you've listened to as much music as I have you tend to be drawn to things you haven't heard a million times already.

Some people like hearing the same things over and over.  That's how ACDC or the Ramones can have a career.  Neither preference is intrinsically better than the other, but I don't find it necessary to point out these things as somehow set in stone.  That is to say, I don't take it as a fact that the current lineup is somehow better than previous permutations.       

[draguns]

Dude, can you really relate to someone like Buckethead who wears a mask and shows no emotion???

At the end of the day we are talking about music.  I don't really care so much about the look of the artist as much as what they are playing.  I really like what Robin and BH bring to the table, despite their less then stereotypical appearances.  I find DJ's playing style to be more or less typical (i.e. boring).  But that's just me.  When you've listened to as much music as I have you tend to be drawn to things you haven't heard a million times already.

Some people like hearing the same things over and over.  That's how ACDC or the Ramones can have a career.  Neither preference is intrinsically better than the other, but I don't find it necessary to point out these things as somehow set in stone.  That is to say, I don't take it as a fact that the current lineup is somehow better than previous permutations.       

I tend to disagree with you. I think Buckethead and Robin would be better in a different type of rock band. Like a Nine Inch Nails type of band. That would fit their image much better I think. Image is part of the music as well so you can't really say that's it's not. Why do you think we have hot looking women who can't sing but are popular??? Why do we have  a guy like Justin Timberlake or Beiber in today's music??? I'm comfortable in my own masculinity to say that these are good looking guys but they can't sing.

There's a reason why CD wasn't commercially successful compared to previous albums. As was discussed previously, a lot of it was marketing issues. It also had to deal with the fact that Axl went away from what made Guns a great band. Too many ballads and not enough rockers. A few of the rockers had an industrial/electronic feel to it. I think "Better" is the only rocker that combined everything successfully. Guns was never an industrial/electronic band. In my opinion, he tried to make GNR something that it was not. It's good to expand but go with your strengths. GNR follows more of the lines in the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin type of rock. He brought back  that type of sound again with DJ Ashba. I think he saw what was lacking in the band after Robin left in 09.

I saw Guns in 2006 and last year. As I told my date last year, there was a big difference in the way Axl and the band sounded. You could tell that there was chemistry going on with the band that night and other nights on this 2 year tour. It seemed more like the original GNR (i saw 3 times) than previous lineups. With the previous members, the band just didn't look like they had a good time. They didn't look like badassses who put everything into their music. There is a difference that I think will lead to a great album when they head back to the studio. I'm looking forward to hearing the next album.     

[Bodhi]

I think Guns have finally found the "it" factor with the combo of Richard, DJ, and Ron.  Buckethead never did it for me, he is a great player but never seemed right for GNR.  That is not to say he didn't have some cool contributions to the music because he certainly did.  But you know how something is missing when Myles sings old GNR songs, thats how I felt when Buckethead played old solos.  No emotion, he was just like a machine who nailed all of the parts and then some, it just didn't move me.  As I have said before I never liked Robin's playing on the old stuff, just too choppy, I know that is his style and it sounds great on HIS music he wrote for CD but I never felt like it did the old stuff justice.  DJ, Richard and Ron are the best of both worlds, they nail the old stuff and sound great on the new stuff both on CD and in concert.  I love Sixx A.M as well, and can't wait to see what DJ brings to his first Guns record.

[Gavgnr]

New album?

Hope so one day but i think if there's gonna be one we may be a loooooonnnng way off

 

[Spirit]

New album?

Hope so one day but i think if there's gonna be one we may be a loooooonnnng way off

 

Dunno, but I was quite intrigued by Fortus' comment on the subject.

[faldor]

New album?

Hope so one day but i think if there's gonna be one we may be a loooooonnnng way off

 

Dunno, but I was quite intrigued by Fortus' comment on the subject.

Yeah, that would seem like a solid plan.  Hopefully they follow through on that.  Finishing touches on the album after these run of dates that is.  For those too lazy to refer back to the initial post or remember what Richard said on the subject in the first place.

[ecwfan]

         Chinese Democracy was a successful record. It never matched Illusion's sales for quite a lot of reasons. But any album that at last check sold 6+ million albums worldwide is a very nice feat.


1.) In the 1990's there was no internet. Its been said that more fans own Chinese Democracy from having downloaded the songs and demo's the decade before the album was released. Which in turn hurts sales. Internet piracy has hurt the industry and as one expert claimed when Nickelback's one album sold 6 million copies in the USA after a few years , it could be the last for awhile. Due to digital sales etc etc.

2.) The wait - Guns n Roses hadn't released an album in 17 years of original material. They hadn't released an album in 15 years since the Spaghetti Incident. They hadn't had a new song released since 1999. So it was quite a number of years.

3.) The media perception - The media ever since the change in the band has blamed Axl Rose and painted the guys as not being right for the band and being hired Guns. Its just sad to see that perception continue . But its one that the media took a stance , never would change and no matter if fans claim the 3+ hour shows by the guys are awesome now. These are hacks.

4.)  The album was quickly pushed out after the label saw a fun spot from Dr.Pepper challenging them. Rose himself was going through issues where Finick had left the band and there was no way to tour in support of it. Also there was no music video or push by the label here to sell the album. Once the bill was cleared by Best Buy , it was (runs hands together) ok time to fucking move on.

5.) The album became a bigger hit outside the USA which is why Guns n Roses tour those countries the past couple of years. The album overseas is moving and whoever handled that really knew what they were doing.

                          In all the perception the album was a dud is a bit wrong. It didn't sell as well as prior Guns n Roses albums. But those albums came 17+ years ago , in an era of non piracy online. As well as the changing times etc etc . But the album at last check had sold very well outside the USA. (Its a bet that many have the album downloaded more or less)