Ten Reasons why Guns n' Roses Suck Now

[DADINK13]

I had typed this huge-ass thing up before..but IE was a b1tch and crashed when I had submitted it.



I happen to be a big Guns n' Roses fan, so don't get me wrong when I say this. Axl Rose has lost his edge. After eight years of not being on the scene, I have decided to develop a list, simply titled:

Reasons Why Guns n' Roses Suck Now
Reason One: Axl Looks and Sounds like Crap. What happened to the pretty-boy frontman we all know and love? He gained like 200 pounds, got some braids, and lost his voice completely. What happened to his long blonde mane? Crappy braids.

Reason Two: Slash is gone. Slash WAS Guns n' Roses. The big curly hair. The huge-ass hat. The signature cigarette from his mouth. From this unasumming weirdo came some of the loudest, craziest guitar chords this side of Eddie Van Halen. Without Slash, the band is nothing.

Reason Three: Izzy Stradlin is no more. Izzy and Slash were the hardest working element of the band. Where Slash screamed out, Izzy backed up with equally powerful chords and riffs as a rythym guitarist. The two worked in perfect harmony together.

Reason Four: Where's Duff? Duff McKagen made up the powerful bass guitar section of the band. Simple single notes and power chords that bellowed from his bass made some songs like "Civil War" truly unforgettable.

Reason Five: The whole orginal lineup is gone. No Slash, no Izzy, no Duff, and Adler (who was actually replaced by Matt Sorum). Axl gets a bunch of freaks and misfits to replace them.

Reason Six: Who the HELL is Buckethead?! I think Axl has some sort of fetish for lead guitarists who wear some sort of oversized headgear. While Slash's hat was cool, Buckethead wears a big-ass KFC bucket on his head. Who the hell does he think he is? Slash??

Reason Seven: Going into hiding for eight years causes fan loss. By going into hiding, gaining like 800 pounds, and coming back with a crappy voice doesn't help keep your twelve remaining fans.

Reason Eight: Cancelling a concert causes fan loss. Cancelling shows isn't good for the four fans you have left Axl. When they riot because you decided "Hey, let's not do a a show because I don't want to" doesn't look good.

Reason Nine: This new album can't be any good if it's taking so long to write and release. Face it Axl, The Spagetti Incident was a huge mistake, and it cost you your band. Deal with it.

Reason Ten: It's been too long. Ten years for a new album has been too long. Even Boston managed to release two albums in eight years. Guns n' Roses WAS a far superior band to Boston. Let's have it already.



Now don't get me wrong--I love Guns n' Roses. But after seeing "The New Guns n' Roses" perform at the MTV Video Music Awards, I was highly disapointed.

The floor is now open to discussion.

[Big-O Ryan]

Whooo!

Guns n' F'n Roses!

They rule - show some respect.

..damn kids..

[Big-O Mark]

Aren't reasons 2-5 pretty much the same?

Seriously though, Guns n' Roses rocks. The new Guns n' Roses don't rock as hard as the old band, and they will never be the same. I'd much rather have Slash and the guys back than these new clowns. However, if this is the way it has to be, I'd rather have some new music and uncancelled tours over nothing.

[DADINK13]

Whooo!

Guns n' F'n Roses!

They rule - show some respect.

..damn kids..

They aren't the same Gn'R we all know and love anymore. If you saw the VMAs you know what I mean.

This was on my mind for a long time, being a huge fan of Gn'R back in their "Use Your Illusion" Days. I own all their albums other than The Spagetti Incident and The Live Era, but after reading and hearing about all the stunts and crap that's been going on, I just got completely turned off. I may buy this new album just to see how it is (it's supposed to come out this spring), but I don't think it's gonna be anything like the Gn'R we all know and love.

[Big-O Ryan]

OK, seriously..

Reason One: Axl Looks and Sounds like Crap.

I really don't care what he looks like, and his voice was hit or miss in November -- some songs, he sounded incredible, others only sounded all right. It's not what it used to be.

Reason Two: Slash is gone. Slash WAS Guns n' Roses.

Not much I can do but disagree here. There's at least 3 people who define gn'r for me. I know what you're getting, of course, we all miss slash.

Reason Three: Izzy Stradlin is no more. Izzy and Slash were the hardest working element of the band. Where Slash screamed out, Izzy backed up with equally powerful chords and riffs as a rythym guitarist. The two worked in perfect harmony together.

Izzy also wrote some (most?) of their best stuff -- at least, my favorite stuff. I've always got the impression that Axl favored the Appetite material more, but I'm not sure why..

Reason Four: Where's Duff? Duff McKagen made up the powerful bass guitar section of the band. Simple single notes and power chords that bellowed from his bass made some songs like "Civil War" truly unforgettable.

Oh well.

Reason Five: The whole orginal lineup is gone. No Slash, no Izzy, no Duff, and Adler (who was actually replaced by Matt Sorum). Axl gets a bunch of freaks and misfits to replace them.

We know, we know -- everybody knows. It's Axl and Dizzy and some dudes, playing Gn'R tunes, and some new garbage. But it's the best we're going to get.

Reason Six: Who the HELL is Buckethead?! I think Axl has some sort of fetish for lead guitarists who wear some sort of oversized headgear. While Slash's hat was cool, Buckethead wears a big-ass KFC bucket on his head. Who the hell does he think he is? Slash??

I wouldn't expect anybody to think anything of Buckethead without seeing him in person. I've got several Buckethead albums, and they really don't do anything for me. But when I saw this guy live, it was unbeleivable. I've never seen anything like it -- I looked around halfway through his solo, and jaws were on the floor everywhere. Also, he and the other lead guitarist (NIN guy, I think, also quite a freak) did an excellent job with Slash's old solos -- everybody seemed pleased, and we're talking about fans who've been listening to the same few Gn'R favorites for no less than 10 years, we know every single note.

I admit that I was hoping Slash would make a surprise appearance at the show, but the new band was suprisingly incredible.

Reason Seven: Going into hiding for eight years causes fan loss. By going into hiding, gaining like 800 pounds, and coming back with a crappy voice doesn't help keep your twelve remaining fans.

Eh.

Reason Eight: Cancelling a concert causes fan loss. Cancelling shows isn't good for the four fans you have left Axl. When they riot because you decided "Hey, let's not do a a show because I don't want to" doesn't look good.

Yeah, cancelling stuff sucks. I'd never cancel something that people really wanted, when I was expected to deliver. Oh no, wait -- yeah, this sucks, I'm just glad I caught one of the few shows they managed to attend.

Reason Nine: This new album can't be any good if it's taking so long to write and release. Face it Axl, The Spagetti Incident was a huge mistake, and it cost you your band. Deal with it.

I don't know how much the Spaghetti Incident cost them (really, I have no clue), but it was pretty darn weak.

Reason Ten: It's been too long. Ten years for a new album has been too long. Even Boston managed to release two albums in eight years. Guns n' Roses WAS a far superior band to Boston. Let's have it already.

Eh, whatever.. I'll be excited if it ever drops, but from what I've heard so far, I probably won't be that excited after I get it.

Now don't get me wrong--I love Guns n' Roses. But after seeing "The New Guns n' Roses" perform at the MTV Video Music Awards, I was highly disapointed.

I had a great time at the Gn'R show in November. It was a blast, and everybody else seemed to really enjoy it, too.

Axl was the weakest link, but they played a lot of (mostly) favorites, and they ranged from sounding good to flawless (Axl sounded weak on some, but they still sounded good overall, and he really did sound flawless on at least one song (Knockin'..)).

It's not 1993, and it's not going to be what it was when they were double-headlining with Metallica -- but I was too young and foolish to see them then, so I was really happy to get a chance to hear Gn'R (at least, in some form) playing some of my favorite tunes in concert.

One of their new songs, Madagascar (it's the one you heard part of at the VMA's), is actually pretty good. It's not really Guns N' Roses material, but even the people at the concert seemed to dig it. The rest of the new stuff did pretty much nothing for me.

[Big-O Ryan]

As usual, Mark said it better in far fewer words, and I agree; It's not what it was, it's probably not even what it could be, but it's something!

[DADINK13]

I admit that I was hoping Slash would make a surprise appearance at the show, but the new band was suprisingly incredible.

I highly doubt we'll ever see Slash and Axl side-by-side ever again.


All in all, I'm just highly disapointed. It's not very often when you get the older rockers from the 60s, 70s and 80s back in gear today. I was really hoping for better that what we got. Seeing The Who perform last October for the Concert for New York nearly brought a tear to my eye. There they were (minus Keith Moon, but was taken account for by Zack Starkey), older than my dad, and bringing both young and old to their feet. If The Who can do it..if the Rolling Stones can do it..why can't Guns n' Roses?

[DADINK13]

As usual, Mark said it better in far fewer words, and I agree; It's not what it was, it's probably not even what it could be, but it's something!

lol...he's quicker on the draw Ryan!

[fuuucckkers]

I like Guns n Roses! So bah!! hehe...

[Chinchilla!]

I agree with everything mentioned in the first post (nicely written too!). Axl needs to give it up and stay secluded forever.
Guns n roses did release a song called 'oh my god' off of the end of days soundtrack, that will probably be the last thing they ever put out because this chinese democracy album that axl has been hyping will never come out.

[DADINK13]

this chinese democracy album that axl has been hyping will never come out.

In fact, Chinese Democracy reminds me a lot of another project that lots of people have been hyping over for years now...Duke Nukem Forever!