Chinese Democracy?

[dan weapon]

I do really dig Alice in Chains

agreed.

 

[Notuern]

Now that you guys are talking 90's music, I am amazed that you guys haven't mentioned Pantera(Although they played before that, but not really the same music. ).

 

[jrt12]

a friend of mine burned me a copy of the cd, and i dont konw whether it was a sloppy burn (like a low bitrate or somethign) or what, but it sounds like a complete mish-mash of songs and production over time. I mean, track #3 sounds so thin, cold and sterile (production-wise) with his vocals cranked all the way up in the mix....and then track 4 sounds so well done, warm and all the parts sitting in the mix really well. I dunno if theyre using tracks they recorded 5 years ago along with the tracks they did last year or what? Did anyone else notice a huge disparity in the recordings or did i just get a crappy copy?

overall though... i think Axl should have released this as a solo record. while i like a handful of tracks, they surely arent what the way GnR should end its legacy. I've seen them twice live in the last two years... they still play a majority of old songs and only like 3 new ones. now i know why

 

[LSD-Studio]

Most of what i listen to IS 80's metal-thrash-hard rock-poser-glam!

And lasse secretly does too He has the cinderella discogrpahy

SHHHHH!

 

[Metaltastic]

Now that you guys are talking 90's music, I am amazed that you guys haven't mentioned Pantera(Although they played before that, but not really the same music. ).

Hmm, well I've learned to keep my mouth shut on that one Then again, there was tons of amazing Swedish metal recorded in the 90s, but this whole decade-generalizing thing is beyond retarded, so I'm not gonna go any further than that

 

[Notuern]

but this whole decade-generalizing thing is beyond retarded, so I'm not gonna go any further than that

I dont know about "beyond retarded", since you can divide a particular sound into eras.
70's had natural sounding kits, crunchy guitars with riffing based on blues-scales, really powerfull vocals.
80's had gated snares with tons of verb, the riffs was more dim-pentatonic-aeolic, and the singers where doing siren falsettos.
90's had downtuned kicks, snappy snares and the recordings sounded more like concerts, the riffs where based more around chromatic then before, singers started to yell/growl.
2000's just suck so hard, with so perfect guitartracks that you know that a guitarist couldn't play a song that good in one take, drums that are samplereplaced and undynamic, singers just growl and/or sing like douches trying to get their girl by playing acoustic guitar and singing.

But hey, its a generalization from the "mainstream"-metal, but its kinda true(Except 2000, thats based entirely on my hate for 99% of modern metalbands. ).

 

[Metaltastic]

Except the 80s also had disgustingly raw, badly-produced thrash (that might as well have been punk), the 90s had everything from Faith no More sounding hard rock to the origins of Swedish Death Metal to grunge to nu- and rap-metal etc., and modern metal after 2000 is pretty much my favorite so we're guaranteed to disagree on this I still adore old stuff as well; I keep mentioning Hear 'n Aid's "Stars" as one of my favorite songs of all time, but modern metal is always what I come back to. And if you think everything these days is inhumanly over-produced, listen to Opeth, as well as Primordial's "To the Nameless Dead" for a less obvious example.

 

[JBroll]

99% of EVERYTHING sucks, Notuern. There's still good stuff being put out - and having seen a good number of modern bands that can play their parts tightly, sing well, and get good natural drum sounds I'm pretty sure the good stuff doesn't give much to complain about.

Oh, and as far as annoying studio tricks... Vinnie Vincent.

Jeff

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Oh, and as far as annoying faces... Vinnie Vincent.

Fixed.

 

[spioraid]

On Topic/Original Post: This is just another case of new band/old singer. It's not the same GnR that came from the 80's (maybe good, maybe bad), nor should it be. I think some of the solos are pretty cool, but that's about all the credence I can give this album and probably the band as a whole.

Off Topic/Fun Stuff: I'm a huge fan of every genre of music out there. I can't stand however the hype that many of these genre's seem to produce, so trying to scale things to a particular decade doesn't work for me. :\ Because at that point you're looking at one side of the equation (the talent or the hype) and making a generalization on the entire decade. Generalizations can have their place but in the realm of music you skip over a lot of stuff that shouldn't be.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Recording 'Chinese Democracy': Axl Rose at the Palms Studio
04:28 PM PT, Nov 25 2008

Next month will mark two years since audio engineer Mark Gray, 31, dropped by the studio at the Palms to say goodbye to his co-workers before departing for a vacation. His boss asked him if he would be willing to come back early to do some just-booked sessions. "I went from 'no way,' " he recalls, "to changing my plane ticket right away." All it took to change his mind is what the sessions were for recording. And, on Dec. 27, 2006, Gray found himself one of the many engineers to be connected to the legendary Guns N' Roses disc "Chinese Democracy."

Axl Rose arrived at the Palms Studio inside the resort and worked for 13 days in 2006 on his vocals for the finally released disc. Gray recalls a list of 14 songs (the same number as on the released version) many with working titles. Among those Rose worked on at Palms Studio he is sure are on the disc are "Chinese Democracy," "Madagascar" and "Prostitute." Despite the years and controversies that accompanied over a decade-long (The Palms was years from being built when Rose started work on the album) process of creating "Chinese Democracy," Gray found Rose focused in their sessions at the end of 2006. Gray recalls:

"He had a firm handshake and looked you straight in the eye. It was all vocal overdubs or vocal leads. He would move from song to song, working on different parts. He was jumping about, but he knew exactly what he wanted. The producers set everything so the workflow is catered to the artist for anyone, and that is how it went down here. From what I saw, it was first takes or at most two or three takes. Rose would say, 'I can get the part better' or 'I can tighten it up.' "

And even if it took two more years for the results to be released, Gray was sure the album would eventually come out based on what he heard during those weeks working with Rose. While Gray was happy to play his tiny part in the disc, of course, he is happier now that "Chinese Democracy" is available to all, with Gray's engineering work from 2006 integrated into the finished disc. Gray notes of the sessions:

"This is Guns N' Roses. I had the butterflies in the stomach the night before each night. It was absolutely special. When you hear his voice, it was a highlight of my career. He just went in and sang. He was living with the record a long time by then, and he really knew what he wanted to do. He proved a good guy to be around. We would start about 5 or 6 in the evening, hitting tape by 7. We worked five or six hours. These were great sessions. It was a great moment in the studio for me, and it was technically flawless."

Nothing spectacular, though.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

90's horrible?!?!?!?!?

Soundgarden dude, FUCKING SOUNDGARDEN!

Forget Kyuss. We had Soundgarden in the 90's and they surpass pretty much of all the 80's bands.

I remember a lot of the 80's bands and non of em grabbed me like SG.

Fuck they were a great band.

Fuck I hated Soundgarden! Every time I heard "Spoonman" I wanted to gouge my fucking eyes out! AAAAHHHHGGHGH!!! uke:uke:uke:uke:

Soundgarden sucked bigtime. "Black Hole Sun?" Damn, talk about fucking boring! "Outshined?" Made me want to slam my hand in a car door. "Rusty cage?" Please hit me with a rusty cleaver!


Sorry man, nothing personal: If Soundgarden did it for you, then hey, you must have loved radio in the 90's. I threw mine in the garbage. Seriously.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Back on topic:

One thing brought to my attention about Chinese Democracy:

IT WAS MASTERED TASTEFULLY!!!

I finally got to checking it out, based on the whole mastering thing: It's averaging about -14db RMS... that's fucking unheard of in this day & age.

Turn it up, it sounds great! The choruses on "scraped" actually come roaring out of the speakers........ imagine that... dynamics.
I'm not so sure about the rest of the songs, but I'll be giving the disc a serious listen tomorrow.

 

[ConspiracyBass]

Fuck I hated Soundgarden! Every time I heard "Spoonman" I wanted to gouge my fucking eyes out! AAAAHHHHGGHGH!!! uke:uke:uke:uke:

Soundgarden sucked bigtime. "Black Hole Sun?" Damn, talk about fucking boring! "Outshined?" Made me want to slam my hand in a car door. "Rusty cage?" Please hit me with a rusty cleaver!


Sorry man, nothing personal: If Soundgarden did it for you, then hey, you must have loved radio in the 90's. I threw mine in the garbage. Seriously.

If all you ever heard of Soundgarden were their radio singles, than you missed out. I can't imagine you'd do a complete 360 and fall in love with em if you heard all their material though. Also, their singles weren't always my favorite songs, but I thought they were a lot better than other things being played.

I'm a total 90's kid though (I'm 26, btw) so of course I like a lot of the music. But I like music from all era's. Good music is good music no matter when it was created. I just don't think the 80's gave us a lot of good......anything. Haha.

And yeah, its nice to see that Chinese Democracy is mastered at sensible level.