Review by Rob Broom for MPM
There was a time when Guns N’ Roses were probably the biggest band on the planet, and even today, when I hear those opening notes of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, I still get a shiver of expectation, knowing what is to come.
The ‘Appetite For Destruction’ debut album (for which, ‘Welcome’ opens up proceedings) is a brilliant album, arguably one of the best debuts ever (along with Van Halens first).
The bands career has been well documented, full of sex, drugs and rock and roll along with band members falling out, leaving, and all sorts of other ups and downs.
At one time, the only original member of Guns in the lineup was vocalist Axl Rose, but nowadays, he has been rejoined by Slash (Guitar) and Duff (Bass) and the band having been reaping the rewards of large stadium shows around the world for the last couple of years.
Alongside that activity, they have found some time to get into the studio and record new music, and we are now receiving the fruits of that labour – a few months ago we had ‘Perhaps’ and now we have ‘The General’. The band have been playing the song live on tour, so it is not a completely new piece (and by all accounts has had a lengthy gestation!), but the accompanying video is a new visual spectacle combining live footage and AI technology.
Musically, the song is slow and pulsing. It broods, simmers and occasionally bursts into life. Lyrically, it sounds like Axl is exorcising some daemons and the content is definitely mature and deals with difficult subject matter. Slash gives us a tremendous guitar solo as the song fades out.
I do really need to make this particular point clear, the song is a much tougher listen than the recently released (and much more upbeat sounding and more easily accessible) ‘Perhaps’, but, I have found that repeated listenings certainly make ‘The General’ much more absorbing than one listen can ever give. In this case, first impressions definitely don’t count, so play it loud (ideally on headphones) and more than once, then the ear worm really starts to kick in!
Listened to back to back, both songs are extremely well put together and demonstrate remarkable potential for the future considering the place Guns N’ Roses are now in with regards to their career – imagine what the band could have achieved if they had stuck together or got back together earlier – but then again, perhaps this length of time was needed for them to get to this place. We will never know, but based on what we have here with these two new songs, is to hope for a new album, or double album, or triple, or what ever they come up with next!
That shiver of expectation is back…
The General is out now!
https://gunsnroses.lnk.to/TheGeneral
