Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Slash is kind of a one-note player. Meaning he only does blues rock well. He can't do progressive or complex stuff, which is the direction Axl wanted to head in. We see the players Axl picked: Bucket, Bumblefoot - virtuoso players skilled in many different kinds of music, especially Bucket who could literally play anything. You had avant garde guys like Robin who could play a variety of different kinds of stuff, riffs and leads Slash would never dream of.

Now, Slash is back in the band. I have to question, could his presence hamper GN'R's musical progress? Axl said back in 2000 or so that Slash wasn't willing or able to take GN'R forward musically. Replacing Bumblefoot with Slash, in terms of pure talent, promise and ability, would be like Led Zeppelin replacing Jimmy Page with Keith Richards.

Progress? Don't talk about progress! You kidding me? Progress?

? "I originally wanted to do an Appetite-type of album, because that would have been a lot easier to do, but I was really not allowed to do that"

"What prevented you from doing like a traditional rock record?"

? "Slash."

"You could've found another guitar player, right?"

? "Somebody didn't come into my radar that would have replaced Slash in a proper way"





If they record new music, I don't think there's anything wrong with a "traditional rock" record. If Estranged is traditional rock, and they make another song like that.... well.

Progress! Haha! No chance, sadly. At this point we'd regard a lineup confirmation as progress, let alone new material!

WTF?

There's a reason Slash has the respect of classic guitar players and new ones each day...There's a reason the Gn'r name is blowing up again...

My answer is a loud and clear - NO

I agree with the style comment. Slash has his style, and it's not something that's considered progressive or highly technical.

That said, I don't think you can claim he's holding GN'R back. Guns put out one album, and one live set, in his absence. They played lots of shows, and frankly, I loved the most recent line-up, but in no way is Slash holding anyone back. If they wanted, they could still put out some of the songs they have in the vault, or they could do new bluesy stuff with Slash, or anything else.

You people saying Slash is not technical enough make me laugh.

Slash plays technically enough but knows when to stop.

If you play too technical, it sounds like atari masturbation.

Slash plays with feeling, which is what music is all about.

Slash could've probably learned how to play like buckethead and bumblefoot, but probably doesnt like that style.

Plus, he writes cool music on his own, BH and BBF do not.

As for Robin Fink playing stuff that Slash can't ? are you kidding me. I love Robin, but in the early 2000's he was struggling to play AFD.

I felt that the playing from BBF and DJ was a step back from Robin and Bucket. Slash is one of the main reasons we all came to love GNR from the start.

I know a lot of people, myself included, who prefer Keith Richards guitar playing to Jimmy Page, although they are more similar than Slash and Bumblefoot are to eachother.   Talent and ability only go so far, its more about what you do with the talent you have.  That's why Kurt Cobain and Billie Joe Armstrong are better known guitar players than Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci.  Talent and ability wise, Cobain and Armstrong aren't in the same stratosphere as those guys, but when it comes to songwriting forget about it.  Each wrote genre defining records, (Billie Joe actually wrote 2 of them in seperate decades)  meanwhile most people couldn't even tell you who Malmsteen or Petrucci are, nevermind any songs they wrote.

I prefer Bucket's solo work over Slash's, but that doesn't mean the band would have Rocket Queen or Estranged for example with Bucket ...

Nah. Slash is a legend. You can definitely work with that. Having him in the fold allows Guns to progress in a different, "more traditional" way- but progress nonetheless IMHO. In a way- I kind of look at Axl as a great all-time NFL offensive coordinator- who through free agency or whatever was separated from his top weapons for several seasons. To his credit- he was able to improvise/create (brilliantly IMHO) w/o them and stay in the hunt- but now he's got his top weapons back and can gun for the title. Exciting times... : ok:

Robin is one of the worst guitar player to play Gn'R style. No Slash is not holding back gn'r. He has come home  :beer:

Not even a little bit.

His guitar sound is the band.  Not the whole band, obviously, but an enormous part of why I became a fan.

My only regret is that we didn't get more of what he had to offer under the GNR banner.  He's awesome.

I never got to terribly into his solo stuff.  But whenever it came on the radio, I instantly recognized that guitar and appreciated it.

Dude hasn't even played his first show back yet.

I think he will be fine.

No. Not even a little bit. There is nothing on CD better than slash's good work. Not slash's best, just his good stuff. Because to compare slash's best work to anything on CD is just unfair. And i love CD and think the is great guirars on there. But slash's best blows it all away.

lol :rofl: yeah, right :rofl: you should check their stuff first, before you write something so utterly untrue.

Yeah and what we got with prgrresive rock music...Now we haven't young band who replace bands like Guns n roses,Acdc,BonJovi,Pearl jam,Metallica...
I wanna see Slash part like on uyi era and everything will be perfect

dude, progressive rock genre is something totally different and trust me, there are tons of bands. of course, not "replacing" those you wrote, those can be considered classic or radio rock, which was popular in the 1980's and early 1990's. that era is just completely gone, that's why such bands don't exist, or to be more accurate - of course exist, but are not that visible, because radios today play totally different... things (I hesitate to say "music" :confused: )

No!

omg

Brain, buckethead, bumblefoot... Great players but... In gnr they still played 4/4 tempo songs...

well, based on old demos and final ChiDem cuts, I can safely say that Buckethead had by far the hugest influence on GNR sound direction. too bad he had so little chance to shine. now, it's a question if GNR will get back to their roots or will pursue some kind of hybrid way. it would be a shame if they completely dropped the 2000+ sound :)

Nope.....Check out Slash's last 2 albums...They remind me of where GNR may have been heading.The guitar playing was more complex like Locomotive, Coma YCBM or Pretty Tied Up rather than basic blues rock..l

This is dead horse to me, I think we've been discussing this "style/feeling vs. technique/hability" forever now since Buckethead first joined the band in 2000. 16 years!

I know a lot of you play guitars here, so think about it: is there ANY progressive stuff in Chinese Democracy? The backbones of the songs are just straitghfoward rock and hardrock, nothing too complex. The only thing I feel sounds a bit more tricky is Shacklers. But Slash could play any of those riffs and rhythm with ease, and his solos would fit just fine in there.

Don't think so. Bucket had a huge influence, yes, but the majority of the songs pre-date him. He reworked the solos and it elevated the album, but I don't think he influenced that much with riffs and song writing: Scraped and Shacklers were cool but those didn't sound that much different than Riad and Better in terms of song structure to me (Im not talking about quality).

of course most stuff pre-dates him, but just have a listen to the "1999 early demos" - same songs, but the outcome is just like day and night. ultra-prominent guitars and much heavier sound are (I believe) mainly Bucket's influence, because those simply weren't there before. 2001 shows hinted the change a bit and 2002 tour got those even more apparent.

The much heavier sound may be from the mixing, specially on the drums sound and not really the guitars: just listen to OMG, that was heavy as fuck.

I was listening to one of the Hammerstein 2006 shows the other day.  When Robin did his little intros to certain songs (or even classic trademark GNR solos), I couldn't help but cringe.  I had apparently forgotten (or had deceived myself) how sloppy he is/was...

Avant garde ?  Maybe...  Progressive ?  Hell no.

Also, there is a reason every person in the world knows at least one GNR (87-93) song, and hardly anyone knows a Buckethead or Bumblefoot song.

Think about it.

Slash is moving the band forward......The tenure of Bucket and Bumblefoot  added a new dimension to GNR, but  Slash's guitar tone and style is signature GNR , even when he wasn't playing with them.
 


 

Slash is holding up in his shoulders the name of Guns N' Roses.

This is a totally success!!

CherryGarcia, you have been coming up with some  insane topics as of late. Slash holding back GNR????? WTF! I can't even.

I already have checked out their stuff. Its called an opinion.

Stupidest thread ever!!!;;; ??? ???

I mean... I feel like this is a troll attempt, but I am not sure. 

Anyways, I think everyone on this site would agree that Axl and Slash working together is a good thing as they both push each other outside of their boundaries to create amazing music.  This seems to be a big part of why the band broke up.  Hell they were young guys with huge egos, a ton of money and they owned the music world for a solid 3 years and they each thought they could be successful without the other. 

No.

His sound is a large large part of the Gn'R sound. It always will be. He's clearly the best guitarist that Gn'R has ever had.

He plays a blues/rock style that has soul to it. While technically Bumblefoot or Ashba might be close in skill, they don't play or have that feeling as much. Maybe it is just me though?

Notes per second or whatever doesn't qualify someone being good at guitar. It is the creativity of it. Kurt Cobain was far far from being a good guitarist. It was he creativity and style that makes him so popular with people and legendary. Cobain vs Slash? Slash blows him always with 4 notes lol.

Cobain had style. He's an great example as to how a very average guitarist can use cool effects and a cool style with a great vision and be great in their own way.

No Slash isn't holding anyone back. I've read every book on Gn'R that their is. Axl Rose held Gn'R back.

Exactly.  Slash was a better guitarist emotionally, which is what people will remember.  Few people ever remember the technical guitarists no matter how "great" they are.  The ones that play their instruments from their hearts are the ones who, in turn, communicate that to the listeners' hearts.  That's why Slash is remembered.  That's why he'll never be replaced as the ultimate Guns N Roses guitarist.

This^^^^^

Spot on.

And, as a bonus, people can stop pretending they always hated him now that he's back.  Win-win!!