Artist: Velvet Revolver
Label: RCA Records
Release: 2004
Supergroups of one kind or another are always a tricky business – exceptional individuals team up to make something truly great, but because of those very individuals’ exceptionality, the whole thing often falls apart or doesn’t turn out quite as great as hoped. Time will tell whether we’ll be talking about Velvet Revolver in superlatives like CSN&Y and The Traveling Wilburys…
Given the musical style, those last two comparisons aren’t really the best fit, and a better parallel for Velvet Revolver would be Audioslave, where members of Rage Against The Machine and Soundgarden joined forces. The result was an interesting Audioslave record, and we’re still waiting for its follow-up, which will show what, if anything, we can expect from the band.
Velvet Revolver are made up of Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Dave Kushner (Suicidial Tendencies), and Matt Sorum, Duff McKagan and Slash (all three, of course, ex-Guns N’Roses). Even before their debut Contraband dropped, they stirred things up with the song Set me free for the superhero movie Hulk and with a cover of Pink Floyd’s Money for the film Italian Job.
The new or different Guns N’Roses? Hard to say! The songs are quite similar to those on “Appetite For Destruction” (2004), but the sound is much more modern, the vocals are of course different and recognizable, and the songs are, for the most part, extremely energetic.
I have to admit I wasn’t too thrilled with the music at first, since a lot of the guitar patterns struck me as too familiar and heard too many times before. I comforted myself that it would probably get better with listening, that the songs just had to sink in. But those were all just excuses!
Contraband is basically “Appetite for Destruction” in 2004! Weiland’s vocals win you over right away, since they’ve got their own charm, even though they’re (way too) often overly distorted and get lost in the wildest instrumental outbursts (Big Machine, Illegal I Song, Set Me Free).
The best part of the band is definitely Slash, who proves that more than ballads like November Rain, he wanted to make dynamic, energetic, guitar-packed songs full of solos and transitions (Sucker Train Blues, Spectacle, Headspace, Dirty Little Thing).
The oddest track is the last one, Loving The Alien, which is pretty acoustic, with some strings in there too, and instrumentally it ends up somewhere between pop and very saccharine rock. Tasteless.
Toward the end of the record the tempo drops considerably, everything sounds familiar and predictable, and at times even drawn out. Velvet Revolver have enormous potential, since this is a lineup of excellent, convincing musicians, but I got the feeling the whole thing is too driven by quiet revenge on Axl Rose for kicking the trio out of the band while still having no record of his own (and who knows if he’ll ever have one?!).
Apart from the vocals, Weiland hasn’t brought anything special to the band, and Kushner mostly just follows the basic rhythm section, which dictates music very similar to what they played in their original Guns N’Roses for a good decade. The next record has to be better and more truly theirs, otherwise they’ll be remembered as just another failed super attempt!
Lineup
Scott Weiland – vocals
Slash – guitar, backing vocals
Dave Kushner – guitar
Duff McKeegan – bass guitar, backing vocals
Matt Sorum – drums, backing vocals
Production
Velvet Revolver
Tracklist
1. Suckertrain Blues
2. Do It For The Kids
3. Big Machine
4. Illegal 1
5. Spectacle
6. Fall To Pieces
7. Headspace
8. Superhuman
9. Set Me Free
10. You Got No Right
11. Slither
12. Dirty Little Thing
13. Loving The Alien
