Monday 10 May 2010

Slash Forgets To Go Wild



One of the best assets of early Guns 'n Roses as we like to remember it was guitarist Slash. His guitar play and appearence was a huge plus to the band. Now Axl Rose is trying to revive those golden years but in reality is destroying a well-earned place in rock history. Slash has chosen his own path and after an effort to star again with Velvet Revolver and making guest appearences on many albums he now is trying it on his own by releasing his first solo album. Well not exactly on his own since he invited a bunch of friend vocalists to help him.


Slash - Slash (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
And when superstars decide to guest on each other's records this usually doesn't lead to great achievements. Unfortunately this holds for Slash's record as well. An impressive list of singers like Ozzy Osbourne(Black Sabbath), Chris Cornell(Soundgarden, Audioslave), Andrew Stockdale(Wolfmother) and Iggy Pop to name a few make their appearence. This could lead to fireworks but that only really happens on just a few tracks.

The song 'By The Sword' with Andrew Stockdale is by far the best track on the album. This is the kind of song you would expect from a rock guitar hero like Slash with one of today's most interesting rock singers. Slash's guitar is moaning, screaming and pumping while Stockdale is singing his guts out like we're used of him. Album opener 'Ghost' with The Cult's Ian Astbury isn't bad either with a great repeating riff. Also the track with Lemmy 'Doctor Alibi' lives up to the status of both performers.

Unfortunately most of the tracks are merely mediocre. Some have just poor choice in guest singers. An artist like Kid Rock just doesn't belong between the likes of the mentioned rock singers. And I don't understand why he chose to work with Maroon 5's Adam Levine who just turns every song into awful yammering. The choice of playing 'Beautiful Dangerous' with Black Eyed Peas' Fergie doesn't even turn out that bad compared to these tracks. Relatively unknown singer Myles Kennedy who will be touring with Slash isnt't one of the best rock voices around either and cannot lift the songs to great heights.

It isn't only that the choice of some singers is a bit odd but most of the songs simply aren't that great. Slash is showing he's not brilliant at writing songs. He could have made that up by playing killer riffs, grooves and solo's but that hardly happens. Of course the guitar parts are good but he never challenges himself and safely plays his parts in the same way we're used of him. I'd have loved to hear him just go nuts with his guitar and spin out of control here and there.

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