Posts Tagged with CD review

Slash and burn: former Gunner’s solo album scorches

Posted on

SLASH / Apocalyptic Love (Universal)

MUSIC fans may well wonder why a band like Guns N’ Roses gets inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when the lineup that made them famous hasn’t played together in roughly 20 years.

Then you hear what just one of them can do on an album like Apocalyptic Love.

Founding GNR guitarist Slash’s riffs and solos are as nimble as ever, and crackle with the energy of a musician still out to top everything he’s done before.

Slash’s second solo album kicks into high gear with “Standing in the Sun,” a melodic thumper full of the electric boogie that made GNR classic “Paradise City” such a crowd-pleaser. “Halo” boils over with sharp hooks and blistering lead guitar, and “We Will Roam” chugs along with radio-friendly riffs and an anthemic chorus.

Continue

Duff knows his stuff

Posted on

Duff McKagan’s Loaded / The Taking (Armoury/Eagle Rock)

It’s not easy to live down multi-platinum success, but every former member of Guns N’ Roses has to do it.

Seattle native and founding GNR bassist Duff McKagan has given it his best shot over the years, forming Loaded in 1999 and joining fellow ex-Gunners Matt Sorum and Slash in Velvet Revolver in 2004. Fans that have followed him from project to project will be pleased to know The Taking is actually good.

Continue

Bach for more

Posted on

Sebastian Bach: Kicking and Screaming (Frontiers/EMI)

After being the charismatic frontman for Skid Row in the later wave of hair metal circa 1989-91, Sebastian Bach has kept busy touring, but largely off the radar of current rock music. It’s a welcome surprise, then, that his latest solo effort has plenty of punch. The title track is hook-heavy and throws a deep thrash groove against Bach’s distinct howl-and-growl. Fans of Slave to the Grind-era Skid Row will not be disappointed.

Continue

Perfect for grade eight shops class

Posted on

Ratt: Infestation (Roadrunner/Loud & Proud)

Ratt has never been “cool,” but if you were in junior high in the mid-1980s, you can probably remember when they were “awesome.” After a couple of decades in the musical wilderness, the band — original members Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer, at least — returns with a new slab of glam metal that could have come right out of 1986.

Continue

SN Google Plus