The General being released (perhaps B-side)

[The Prez]

Long time I was here.
Was looking forward to the song and bumped into the leaks. Hopefully the actual release is a better mix but it's clear the style is in the same absurd (sic), Chinese Democracy era way.

Not bad but 'different'...and not really 'my guns n' roses'. So the looking forward part is away now 

I really hope the reunited band will brings us again real hard (bluesy) in your face rock n' roll some day.

[Six Strings]

Wow. Monsters is sick.

[Ignatius]

Love Monsters!


I was there for you
It's all I could do
Oh But it's over now...

[cineater]

I didn't give them a listen but am reading what people think the lyrics are.  I know at the time the lyrics were written things were pretty fresh in Axl's life, coming from several sources and there was a lot of hurt.  Understandable there is a lot of songs around the same themes and from a very dark place.  I kind of don't want to hear these.  It's too close to things I don't want to revisit.  I have resolve, peace and joy in my life.  Wonder if Axl's not really interested in the revisit either, if he's moved on, if these songs aren't really important to him any more and that's why he doesn't say much about them or put them in the set list.

My take on it.  Could have nothing to do with what Axl's thinking.  

[Six Strings]

I think Monsters has one of the best lyrics that I ever heard in a long long time. And the track is a killer. The General is very good as well but it took a couple of listenings to grow. I love them.

[gunns1]

This is my first post in 5 years.

Anyone else notice the subject matter is alluding to a very sensitive topic? Perhaps Im reading a bit into it, but it feels like it's centered around what's happened to Axl when he was young, or maybe he's shedding light on the atrocities involving childhood trauma?

[sky dog]

I agree with you…

[ITARocker]

Sry but this is just pure studio recording onanism… bunch of sounds and effects trying to fill the vacuum left by the music that is completely lacking. I see why these 2 songs are released as b-sides. You can see them as soundtracks or something like that but that’s it.

[rebelhipi]

I loved ''The General''. It's dark, powerful, doomy, and has a catchy/aggresive chorus, with Axl's vocals at their best.

''Monsters'' sounds very good, and it's more radio friendly i think. With a potential for a single. Overall i prefer 'The General' but 'Monsters' has some devilish/ferocious Axl's vocals at the end, which are really impressive. One of the best Axl moments in the GNR song catalogue for sure.

What these 2 songs miss is a monster guitar-solo by Buckethead. That's a real pity.

Good to see you here Estebanf!

I love both songs. And yeah, the subject matter is super heavy. Im gald he made great art from it.

[kyrie]

This is my first post in 5 years.

Anyone else notice the subject matter is alluding to a very sensitive topic? Perhaps Im reading a bit into it, but it feels like it's centered around what's happened to Axl when he was young, or maybe he's shedding light on the atrocities involving childhood trauma?

The General in particular, yes.

And I think that may be why it's coming out as a b-side. It's a very heavy topic and maybe one that Axl doesn't feel needs to be pushed as a single. That might also explain the "no streaming" rumors as well.

[Eppe]

The more I listen to them, the more I like them. The General is so amazing and different what GN'R has done before and it still sounds like GN'R. There's so many levels and changes in the song that you have to listen to it multiple times to really appreciate it.

[tim_m]

Imo the general has a very NIN vibe type of sound. I'm huge NIN fan so I really dig it.

[asdf gunner]

The general was a grower for me. The last time, I heard it through good quality headphones and found it to be just brutal, the overall atmosphere, the lyrics, the chorus, everything. Monsters was good, but i was not blow away by it (yet).

Is "monsters" the same song as soul monster or a different song?

[kyrie]

The general was a grower for me. The last time, I heard it through good quality headphones and found it to be just brutal, the overall atmosphere, the lyrics, the chorus, everything. Monsters was good, but i was not blow away by it (yet).

Is "monsters" the same song as soul monster or a different song?

That seems to be a subject of some debate at the moment. The locker leak of the "My and My Elvis" track seems completely different. I think that's what most of us assumed Soul Monster was. The words "monster" and "soul" do appear in Monsters but there's nothing about Elvis (originally that was Elvis Presley and the Monster of Soul, and Leave Me Alone was an alternate title I think?)?

I think we're going to need Axl or someone to clarify. But honestly I hope whatever the instrumental was, it gets finished off as well. Was one of my fave demos.

[DAVE ROCK]

These two leaks sound like demos IMO

Not very impressed anyway :/

[ITARocker]

These two leaks sound like demos IMO

Not very impressed anyway :/

vocal melodies, as usual, are good. Musically speaking these songs are really poor. basically 3 chords with 300 layers. I don’t see them as ‘songs’ but more as ‘soundtracks’. Very repetitive with a lot of atmosphere. I can see these songs in a sci-fi movie. But again, if u need 23 years or more  to release these songs (which sounds old already, maybe not to people who listen to gnr only, but it is what it is) something went wrong. These songs sounds like demos because  they are not going anywhere, like a typical studio song. Like you have these good melodies but u stuck there, you can’t develop them so you keep adding things here and there till you can’t get rid of any of it. So you have 300 reverbs, delays, vocoders etc etc making the song more of an ensemble of sounds than a structured song.

[DAVE ROCK]

They should get rid of Brain, Frank... and get a proper rock drummer. That hip hop groove/beats are awful. They should go back to the hard-punk-bluesy-rock sound
Slash and Duff want to please Axl with this reworked CD era material, but IMO they should focus on writtin new rock stuff songs with a proper rock drummer

[axe]

If there ever will be a new Guns N' Roses record, these two newest (along with Absurd) hopefully won't make the cut. These aren't guns at all, let alone big guns. Truly B-sides, curiosities, appetizers.

I agree with ITARocker, these are just cut & paste jobs in the studio, not real songs. We have these two lines sung here, another two lines there, another different part somewhere else. Then we have a sort of wall of sound behind them, not really sounding like a band playing a song together. Then we put these two vocal parts together, then copy those exactly same parts again, add the different part...and we're still not in two-minute mark, so we paste the same clips again, maybe leave one part away or change the order. Vocal melodies are pretty good, but it's really boring to get the same exact studio effected clip three or four times.

Kudos for the subject matter in the lyrics, though.

[slash&axl]

They should get rid of Brain, Frank... and get a proper rock drummer. That hip hop groove/beats are awful. They should go back to the hard-punk-bluesy-rock sound
Slash and Duff want to please Axl with this reworked CD era material, but IMO they should focus on writtin new rock stuff songs with a proper rock drummer

Brain being on Perhaps, saved that song for me.
As for the General etc I’ll wait for a properly mixed and mastered version before making a final decision.
Based on Absurd, hardskool, Perhaps sound quality, this is not the final versions of the General and Monsters.

[Bodhi]

I don’t illegally download stuff but I heard it on you tube , I thought the whole thing was phenomenal.  Band pushing themselves to places they’ve never been, which is what they’ve always done. None of their albums sound the same , which is a big reason they are my favorite band. 

So many bands are content just putting out the same record over and over, what is the point of that?  The new Green Day song which I’ll use as an example because it came out last week sounds like an AI generated song of what a “Green Day” song should sound like.  And I like them a lot , but I see no point in doing that.  The same can be said for a lot of other bands, I’m happy GNR aren’t one of them.

I also do hope it does come out as that 9 minute single song, I really enjoyed it like that.