While the good times could only last so long, lead singer Axl Rose seized control of the band and for the last 15 years produced an album that became notorious for its delayed release, "Chinese Democracy." After addiction, rehab and a thousand different mixes of the record, "Chinese Democracy" was finally released. With a final budget of $15 million, it's arguable whether the musical result was worth the wait.
The entire album is a knee-deep mire of guitar solos, overdubbed vocals and other completely random facets implemented by Mr. Rose. Though the record could be viewed as a complete disaster, it's more akin to a train wreck that's fascinating to watch (or in this case hear) as it runs off the rails completely. Take, for instance, the song "Shackler's Revenge," which starts off with a fairly simple metal guitar riff, but by the last 30 seconds of the song, this one riff turns into a guitar army with what I could discern to be four guitar parts overdubbed on one another. When you have to resort to putting the guitar through a pedal that makes it sound similar to beeps from a videogame, you might want to rethink your approach, Axl.
Guns N' Roses isn't the first band to utilize this sort of massive overproduction on itsrecords, though. The Beach Boys used everything from dog barks to harpsichords and the widely revered Pet Sounds to a better-received effect. Most music critics consider the album to be one of the most influential of all time, so what makes the difference between Axl's magnum opus and The Beach Boys? To me it seems to boil down to the genre.
Whereas The Beach Boys established harmonies and sounds that had never before been heard of by listeners of the pop genre, everybody's listened to the mile-a-minute shredding of most metal at least once before. Most people can instantly recognize "God Only Knows" as being by the Beach Boys, while "Shackler's Revenge" could be confused for almost any other piece of "hardcore" music played on rock radio.
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