Slash - Apocalyptic Love review

Year : 2012
Genre : Hard Rock
Label : Dik Hayd
Origin : United States
Rating : 7.0 / 10

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The music of Saul "Slash" Hudson has evolved nothing at all since the Guns 'N Roses days, and it wasn't even in the need to, as he is without a doubt one of the most relevant contemporary blues/hard rock guitarists whose playing you can identify out of a dozen imitators. And I deliberately am refraining from offering any more ambitious number descriptors than a "dozen" when comparing Slash's playing to majority consensus, because, though I still consider him 101% legitimate-, - I guess now he is relieved greatly - I don't really consider him to be a player with an adventurous, daring musical vision who seeks to explore awesome boundaries like Paul Gilbert does with tracks like "Echo Song" for example, or Steve Vai with his piece "Massacre" from 1984. Yeah, I dare say one bar from "Echo Song" excites me much more than this here new Slash Guns 'N Roses solo album in its tepid, sweat-and-smoke reeking hard rock platitude entirety.

Popping this baby into the goodol' playa' immediately turned me into a teenager armed with an acoustic guitar and an agenda, making me recall how I listened to Guns 'N Roses in 1742, in the company of a bottle of whiskey when both it and I were left alone in the house, and how I could not walk straight and fell over like a sedated sloth upon I stood up, realizing I became shitfaced drunk in the listening process, but the rabid enjoyment of the Use Your Illusions G'NR albums prevented me from realizing that up to the point which from on I should have been exhibiting legitimate motor functionality.

To tell you the truth, I have almost nothing to say to you about this release other than this is verbatim Guns 'N Roses' Appetite for Destruction from 1988. Not a tad worse, not a tad "better", and not at all belonging to any other production ethos than that fueling the aforementioned premier inspirator. The album sounds like the 1988 album from top to bottom, I'm not kidding you. Total AFD warfare. Read on to find out more about this old school Guns 'N Roses release or feel free to skip it altogether as you won't be missing out on a single fricking thing of true relevance, I'm afraid.

There is not a force in this Universe or beyond that can-, or would possibly want to challenge the significance of Guns 'N Roses' Appetite for Destruction, a release that was the most vile hard rock stimuli conceivable by the day. The album still is a timeless classic, and, as a snob, I would be vastly embarrassed if I'd get caught listening to Guns 'N Roses in 2012, sorry. Yet don't forget that I know every Guns 'N Roses song by heart. But this is a secret.

This album is a copy of Appetite for Destruction in its INTENTIONS, in its aspirations, and, in its realization. The lead singer imitates the non-animalistic singing of Axl Rose, too. Not surprisingly, because it takes a throat that is 1 in a 1 000 000 - and a shooting star - to be able to sing like the animalistic Axl Rose, to be honest. The guy you hear on this release is a competent hard rock singer, competently imitating the non-dangerous kind of singing of Axl Rose, and, fuck, I'm at track number 6 right now, and am pretty close to a nervous breakdown of how utterly non-relevant the release sounds to be like from the standpoint of musical evolution.

Granted : musical evolution OR the mere desire for it is not really mandatory to be exhibited all the time, because there are people with a nostalgia craving, and, who's to say it is wrong to throw up on each other past 82 by alcohol, right? But still it is depressing to hear, in my opinion, that Slash is still all good feeding relentless bluesy phrases to the whammy pedal on top of huge ass distorted bonfire power chords, like he is doing since the historic dawning days of Guns 'N Fucking Roses. As I just said, I'm at track number 6 - at track number 7 right now - and I am pretty sure that it is totally acceptable to wrap this review up by summarizing my previous sentiments, because I no longer expect anything more or else from the release than the nostalgic pseudo-bliss it has the capacity to exhibit as its top value, at least according to my - in my opinion, fair, and totally good willed - impressions.

I will be the first to admit that I know all Slash solos from the classic G'NR era by heart, - and I'm not exaggerating - and many of those give me the high definition shivers up and down the spine to this day, like the short but stupendously vile/evil/haughty Slash solo of "It's So Easy" from AFD, or the "return-to-home" phrase-sequence in the solo of "November Rain", among a dozen others. (What a tremendous cheesecake factory song, "November Rain" is. You no longer can write a song like "November Rain", because it ALREADY is written, - and it is called "November Rain" from Guns 'N Roses, my love - and every copy of it is doomed to end up as the mere lost promise of putrid cheese.) Once again : this is the music of Guns 'N Roses from 1988, and Slash still is the Zuppa Guru of the guitar playing of 1988, and that's that.

Rating : 7.0 / 10

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