IBeNimages & Words
My daily crumbs of interestsArchive for Music
5 Reasons Why You Need to Hear Guns N’ Roses Album “Chinese Democracy”
GN'R Chinese Democracy
- You can still hear it as GN’R. Yes, it’s only Axl from the five original members of the group who is featured in this album. But most of the times, when the vocals don’t change, you still hear it as the same old group. That’s why John Corabi never succeeded to be Motley Crue vocalist. That explains the failure of Gary Cherone in Van Halen s well. In this record, you will still hear Axl Rose, alive and kickin.
- Great songs. And lots of variety too. But if you still cling to the golden era of “Appetite for Destruction”, and expect to hear the same, then get a life. This one is not for you. Because in this record, Axl reminds me of Mike Patton (Faith No More) who explores uncharted territories, mixes genres of rock and produces unique sounds with help from orchestra, Dr.ProTools and digital material. You can still find the old GN’R flavour such as in “I.R.S” or “Chinese Democracy” but you will find a lot of Nu Metal flavour (Korn and Nine Inch Nail esque) as well here. Check “Shackler’s Revenge”, which is suprisingly to myself, grows on me, and I’m in the end love it.
- Buckethead. Slash is gone. Accept it. But most of the songs in the record feature Buckethead, an extravagant guitarist who once was Paul Gilbert understudy. His clean picking and authentic solo are just exciting to hear. And this album contains lot of shredding and soloing from this guy. Sorry Slash, I don’t miss you in this record.
- Experience the History. It is the most expensive record ever made. Rumoured to be produced at $13 million for the space of 15 years, involving 40 musicians in the process. You may think this is enough reason to check this one out.
- Help to convince the mega label to produce more albums from these guys. If this one sells well, following the recent success of Metallica’s Death Magnetic and Motley Crue’s Saint of Los Angeles, you may see more and more albums from our old school rock hero next year.
2008: Year of Come Back for Great Rock Bands?
Whitesnake, Motley Crue, Judas Priest New Albums
One of my colleague who observed my iPod song collection put it a truly spot-on comment:
“Ben, I noticed you shut off your musical exploration after early 90s”.
Indeed. When the alternative/grunge music started to conquer the rock scene, leaving the long haired metal bands as trend of the past and omitting guitar solo on their songs, I knew I’m done. I never closely looked at rock music scene anymore. As a matter of fact, from then, I bought Indonesian albums more than the western’s. Simply because I think the Indonesians are better (and closer to the heart, I know)
But recently, I noticed it looks like the trend of “old school” rock is back!. At least there are 3 great rock bands which released their new album–but in old formula: heavy guitar riffs, old song structure and yes, it includes guitar solo. Whitesnake, Motley Crue and Judas Priest, big bands from the 80s came back with a bang.
Take for example, Motley Crue. They released the first album with the original members of the band. Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil and Mick Mars joined their forces back to release the first full album since the “Carnival of Sin”. Watch their music video here from the album-titled song “Saints of Los Angeles”, and you will suddenly feel back to those glory 80s days! David Coverdale also still sounds great in his new album “Good to be Bad”, despite missing his rooster of influential guitarist such as John Sykes, Adrian Vandenberg and Steve Vai. Judas Priest is maybe a bit off-topic here, as they release their new album “Nostradamus” which has “new rock music element” at them, instead of hard and heavy formula they ever created in mid 80s. But I’m happy enough they don’t leant toward the ever decreasing ‘alternative’ mainstream (what an oxymoron it is).
‘We Will Rock You’
Pardon me for being too ignorant with the opera for all of this time. I never watched any single play in an opera, I am never interested with the likes of “Hamlet”, and I found opera is too “sophisticated” for my liking. Until last Saturday.
I was in Singapore last weekend with my wife (Elok). Travelling without the kids allow us to explore things we haven’t done before. Including this opera-watching activity.
The reason why I decided to watch this show was simply because of the “Queen” association with the show. “We will rock you” itself is an inviting title for me. Opera play with rock music? Yeah, I’m sold.
