Guns N’ Roses
Use Your Illusion I
The Band: Axl Rose- Vocals, piano, acoustic guitar
Slash- Lead/rhythm guitar, six string bass, backing vocals
Duff Mckagan- Bass, backing vocals
Izzy Stradlin- Rhythm/lead guitar, percussion
Matt Sorum- Drums, percussion
Dizzy- backing vocals, piano
Guns N’ Roses are without a doubt on of the greatest hard rock bands of all time. The late 1980’s era was dominated by glam metal bands, but
GNR ushered in a new style of rock n’ roll. Their somewhat unique (at the time) style of music, combined with their onstage antics almost immediately solidified them as one of the greatest bands of all time. Another thing that helped to get their name out there was their debut album
Appetite For Destruction. Appetite for destruction is often hailed as the best hard rock. The album also sold more copies than any other album in the history of the music industry. At least it had about a year ago, the stats may have been updated by now. Anyways, with that amount of instant success it would be difficult to know what to do next. Imagine putting out your first album and having it hailed as one of the best. That would leave with the extremely difficult task of trying to top it.
GNR did release recorded a filler album while on tour entitled
GNR Lies. I myself don’t really consider this to be their second album, however. Because as I mentioned it was just a filler album they released while on tour. From my point of view it’s more of their one and a half release and can’t really be consider a follow up album to Appetite For Destruction.
Use Your Illusion I is GNR’s true second album, in my opinion. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite measure up to Appetite For Destruction, but there are few albums that do and although this album doesn’t quite match AFD it does come damn close. This album is a little bit light compared to Guns’ usual works, but just because this album isn’t quite as heavy as its brother
Use Your Illusion II or Appetite For Destruction doesn’t make it any less marvelous. I actually enjoyed the contrast between the harder tracks and the ballads. As some of you may have noticed I talk about contrast a lot in my reviews. Well, that’s because I really do enjoy albums with contrast. It just keeps the album interesting and fresh. It was also nice to see GNR working with some instruments you wouldn’t commonly see them using, such as the harmonica, piano, acoustic guitar and additional percussion.
Due to the contrast of songs this album also has a slight contrast in the department of overall feel. I’d say about sixty percent of the songs were hard rock, while forty percent had a more country/folk feel to them. I enjoyed both types of song, but I think on the whole I preferred the heavier tracks. Mainly because the heavier tracks were more guitar orientated and often had good length solos. I also prefer their pace. The quicker pace combined with distorted guitar just gives them more of a fun sound, which is why I ultimately prefer them over the softer tracks. Not to say the softer tracks aren’t splendid, as well. I particularly enjoyed the addition of acoustic guitar and it was nice to see some of the other band members try their hand at singing. It was difficult to tell, but I believe it was Izzy that sang
You Ain’t The First. Maybe not, but one thing is for sure it wasn’t Axl singing. Anywho, thanks to the contrast of songs in this album it’s good to listen virtually anytime. The heavier tracks are good when you’re in a hyper mood and the soft tracks when you’re in sort of a down mood. The two sort of cancel each other out creating a kind of lukewarm feel. So, when you’re in just a regular mood this album is a perfect listen. If you’re bummed you can just listen to the ballads, or if you’re really hyper you can listen to the hard rock tracks.
The guitar work in this album is nothing short of astounding. Slash is really on his game solo wise. For a good example of an excellent solo from the album listen to
Perfect Crime. That track, like several others contains a lengthy, distorted, very well written solo. The majority of the solos were a fitting assortment of scales with large bends in between the scales. Slash also threw in some FX, like wah in some places. I thought that was a nice touch. The rhythm guitar work was also spectacular. I noticed there was actually a bit more riffage here than in Appetite For Destruction.
Garden Of Eden is a cunning example of this. Just by listening to the first few seconds of the song you can here some of GNR’s best riffs. Several other tracks had great riffage, as well. None had as good of riffs as Garden Of Eden, though. The ballads were well written for ballads. Usually a catchy variety of chords jammed together. Add in some bluesy bends and the occasional pentatonic scale and you’ve pretty much got all the ballads from the album. Now, that may not sound that great, but keep in mind these were ballads. So, as far as country-esque music goes they were great. Besides, those songs were more vocal orientated. Overall some of Guns best guitar work definitely comes from this album.
The bass didn’t play as big of a role in this album as I would’ve liked it to. The first track on the album
Right Next Door To Hell had a pretty solid bass intro, but other than that the bass was somewhat scarce. Don’t get me wrong it played consistently throughout the album, it was just difficult to hear and didn’t get a lot of time in the spotlight. The bass lines were still well written. You couldn’t here them all that well. I would’ve liked to say a few more bass orientated intros/bridges, though. I know the bass usually doesn’t get too much attention in a band but it seemed just too quiet in this album. I did find that Duff has some great technical skill, though. He’s an excellent bass player, his bass lines are solidly written and he keeps excellent rhythm. Unfortunately those facts weren’t overly evident in this album.
It was nice to see some extra instruments in this album. It was intriguing to see the band working with piano, acoustic guitar, additional percussion and some harmonica. While as far as these instruments go the riffs/progressions/beats that the band came up with for them weren’t really up to scale with musicians who use them frequently use them, but seeing how this is a hard rock album they weren’t the main focus. They were more the icing on the cake. The fact that they were there at all is a bonus and they certainly did add atmosphere.
Pros: Solid vocals
Instrumentally sound
Additional Instruments
Cons: A couple tracks were boring
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
. I too am fond of "Back Off Bitch".
