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White Collar Criminals

AXL ROSE IS THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF (OR: CHINESE DEMOCRACY IS COMING OUT IN 6 WEEKS AND NO ONE SEEMS TO GIVE A SHIT)

 Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 11:30am by

Is it just me, or is the blogosphere / webernets almost completely mum on the fact that Chinese Democracy, the long awaited Guns N’ Roses Axl Rose album 17 years in the making, is finally set to be released on November 25th? Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize how soon that is??? Seventeen years we’ve been waiting for this. We’ve been misled into believing the album would finally see the light of day so many times before, but never have the facts been as solid as this: Never before has there been a concrete release date; Best Buy announced they’d reached an album exclusive deal to release it; Best Buy has even launched a pre-order page. It would seem that this album is finally going to actually hit the shelves.

And yet, it would seem that no one is talking about it.

It’s not that we don’t give a shit. We clearly do. Everyone on this site goes ape shit each time new leaks / demos have surfaced over the past year and a half or so. It’s just that, after so many years of being led to believe the album was about to drop only to be let down and strung along again and again, we’ve become numb. It’s as if we’ve grown accustomed to the GNR hype machine so much so that we just shrug our shoulder: “Oh, it’s finally going to come out, how about that?” We’ve all heard close-to-finished versions of most of the songs anyway, but Axl’s camp has let this mess drag on for so long that it appears the iron isn’t hot anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, this album will sell like chopped liver to a bunch of Jews coming out of their fast on Yom Kippur; but it just seems like there should be a lot more hype than we’re seeing at this point in the game. Maybe the PR machine is just now kicking into motion, but 6 weeks out from release of the new Metallica album you couldn’t go ANYWHERE metal-related without hearing about it. Like ‘em or not, Metallica’s management team and PR folks worked that album damn well, whipping up the Internet into a frenzy of mushy pulp consisting solely of Metallica. It worked. And that band had released an album way more recently than 17 fucking years ago.

Will Chinese Democracy see the same success as Death Magnetic? We’ll see. It’ll sure be fun to watch the run-up and the hype machine kick into motion.

-VN

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  • Gibbo

    The fact that no-one has commented on this yet says it all.

    Fuck Axl, nobody cares.

  • http://www.last.fm/user/cooperaa Aaron

    Guns n’ Roses, seriously? Who gives a shit about that band? What are they doing on a metal blog anyway? They barely pass as a hard rock band.

  • http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/82/image1llrk5.jpg Revrant

    Well, you’re dealing with meatheads, you can’t expect them to care for a metal band that integrates such vast amounts of melody, and even harmony, right?

  • M. Meyer

    In short, you’re pissed you haven’t received a promo.

  • Michael

    I’ll say it again

    I’m more excited about getting a free Dr. Pepper

  • jesse

    My biggest “who gives a shit?” lies in the fact that G ‘n’ R, unlike Metallica, is Axl and some other guys. Metallica got a shit load of hype because the same guys that wrote Death Magnetic wrote Kill ‘em All. At least that’s how I feel about it.

    Oh yeah, and when was the last time they changed their shit up? I know it’s been 17 years, but I see this album sounding like every other G ‘n’ R album out there. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I just don’t expect huge things out of these guys. Whereas I expected/hoped for great things out of Metallica.

  • http://www.thedevilsdemons.com Vincent

    It’s because this music is fucking old and there’s nothing memorable about it. It’s like hearing a new Rolling Stones album- it’s cool because it’s the Stones, but it sucks because it sucks.

  • Blackthorned

    I had been more excited than most people to hear this album – completely against my better judgement. I see it as the Axl Rose Band’s debut and I was excited to finally hear it, even though I knew it wouldn’t change the world of rock.

    But now after all this time apathy is all it seems to really deserve. This release could have been a big deal about two years ago – the moment was lost as far as I can see.

  • http://www.baltimoresun.com Sean

    Chinese… what? Guns n’… who? I predict it will sell less than 100,000 copies.

  • Michael

    damn if it does sell less than 100,000 copies axl and slash will just bitch about the leak and how it ruined sales and their music. When in fact it’s probally cuz no one gives a shit now.

  • http://www.verbeat.org/blogs/bereteando tiagón

    attempting to give a fuck… …… ………….

  • billybob

    We already heard most of it from the leak, and if they’ve recorded as many songs as they say they have, they should release a double-album. We all know fans deserve it for waiting so fucking long. Alas, this is essentially an Axl solo album and is not GNR by my books. I’ll might buy a GNR album when the core line-up gets back together. THAT is Guns n’ Roses in my opinion.

  • key

    I want my dr. pepper. If that turns out to be a joke I’ll be pissed.

  • Jason

    I don’t believe Slash will bitch about sales, since he is not in “Guns N Roses” anymore.

    I do, however, believe this album will sell well if it does actually come out. Though I’m not one of the folks who will put money towards the Axl Rose Project.

  • Don’t Damn Me

    Nobody gives a shit? Every online news outlet going ran with the story the other day. MTV, Sky, BBC, The Guardian, Blabbermouth, Billboard. How many times does the BBC write articles on rumoured release dates? Not for bands nobody gives a shit about.

    And they’ve supposedly sold 3 million to Best Buy already. It’ll certainly shift a shitload by todays standards.

  • seveword

    I wonder why. It’s not like we have better things to listen to. Oh wait. Gojira, Enslaved, Scar Symmetry, Amon Amarth, Opeth, Testament. Never mind, scratch that first point.

  • Tommy Leebowitz

    Axl is a cunt, fuck his album.

  • http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/82/image1llrk5.jpg Revrant

    seveword: Had a seizure after Oh wait, caused by some kind of rare suck tumor by having read each of those ten birrion triiiimes on this site.

  • Sammy

    So if they pre sell 3 million copies to Best Buy, and then sell another 10 million copies (of this Axl Rose and Friends/Former Friends vanity solo album), they might recoup just the costs alone to make the album.

  • benny

    The band hasn’t officially announced the release date, there’s one reason that people aren’t paying attention. Secondly, they haven’t started the promo!

    It seems the general populace has the attention span of a dead goldfish nowadays, so I’m sure they’re waiting. Hell, Metallica’s single went to radio 2 weeks before the album.

    Don’t worry. People care (not just GN’R fans), you’ll see that soon enough.

  • Travis

    “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..wha….what? Oh, sorry, I was sleeping.”

  • Kye

    I fucking love Shackler’s Revenged, so I’m mildly excited for this release

    But honestly, I won’t be truly upset if this thing never comes out. I hated everything after Appetite anyway.

  • Ross

    This news is two weeks old, so it’s not that nobody was talking about it, you guys just took forever to report it.

  • Porkspam

    I don’t know if any of you checked the link, but bestbuy says there are 2 covers? cover a (which is a bicycle) and cover B which isn’t shown? WTF? lame best buy shit to get you to buy more..

    and as far as press for the cd? well that’s maybe more in the best buy department.. I mean, the label sspent how much on this cd? I doubt they feel pushing any interviews would do any good. people who are going to buy it will buy it.. also axl isn’t too keen on interviews as metallica :cough lars cough: tend to talk more

  • http://www.myspace.com/bminekime enemyofgod72

    Axl Rose has shit on fans for years and I encourage everyone to not buy this crap when and if it ever comes out. Axl has caused riots by canceling shows at showtime b/c he just didn’t feel like playing the set that night. So fuck you Axl take your album back to whatever rock you crawled out from under and shove it up your ass. No one cares about your new album b/c you treated your fans like shit, so hype it all you want no one with any self respect will buy it.

  • http://laburroteca.blogspot.com K-milo

    Well, i care. And i think that “IRS” is a great song…

  • Don’t Damn Me

    Well y’know, i was planning on buying this on the day it came out, possibly more than once.

    But now i’ve been encouraged not to by some random guy off the internet (along with a groudbreaking bit of news from 1991), i don’t think i’ll bother…

  • http://www.myspace.com/bminekime enemyofgod72

    I apologize for the virtriolic rant but I still would encourage everyone to ignore anything Axl puts out. Yes the St Louis and Montreal riots were years ago and only old fucks like me remember but they happened b/c Axl is a dick. The constant release, non-release of Chinese Democracy goes to that point. I liked G’n'R back in the day, I went to see them on the Metallica tour just a week or so before the Monteal riot and they put on an awesome show, but what is about to come out is not G’n'R it’s the Axl Rose show. I’ve been hearing about Chinese Deomocracy so long it seems like more a myth than something that will actually ever come out. I say if you’re young enough to have no idea the dick that Axl Rose is then go buy the album but if you do remember then leave G’n'R as a good memory and don’t ruin it. And with that I leave you to make your own decision because this is just the opinion of some dude on the internet.

  • Clyde

    I’ve heard the leaked tracks and they SUCK MAJOR ASS. But how could they not after 17 fucking years. I encourage everyone to download the shit and listen before spending a red cent. It really does SUCK. And ‘Appetite’ is one of the greatest records of all time. This is a fucking sick joke.