Metal Sludge Gossip Board

What do you like better?

Aside from "Better" I found ChinDem pretty much unlistenable, VR - Contraband at least had a couple solid singles and some decent album tracks.

Chinese Democracy easily.

For me Chinese Democracy and it’s not even close. If CD is a sphere, Contraband feels like a straight line by comparison. It’s like comparing November Rain to Anything Goes or something. Different strokes.

VR 2/10
CD 8/10

I'm going with Waxl...I never liked that stupid STP druggy dude. And velvet revolver is just a rip off of roses and guns name when you think about it!

Contraband had one hit song.

Chinese Democracy had no hit songs.

Both weak efforts.

Pretty funny we have nothing to compare VR's Libertab against - despite it coming out 18 years ago.

Wild Obsession wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:07 am Aside from "Better" I found ChinDem pretty much unlistenable, VR - Contraband at least had a couple solid singles and some decent album tracks.

This all day. The only people who pretend to "like" CD are the ones stupid enough to have bought it.

Chinese Democracy got me a free Dr. Pepper, as I was not and am not Slash.

Advantage Chi Dem in ranked choice voting.

Wild Obsession wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:07 am Aside from "Better" I found ChinDem pretty much unlistenable, VR - Contraband at least had a couple solid singles and some decent album tracks.

This. I tried listening to CD a year or so ago and couldn't even finish it. Total dreck.

Bono Nettencourt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 2:58 pm

Wild Obsession wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:07 am Aside from "Better" I found ChinDem pretty much unlistenable, VR - Contraband at least had a couple solid singles and some decent album tracks.

This all day. The only people who pretend to "like" CD are the ones stupid enough to have bought it.

This all day, all week.

Indy_Rob wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 5:31 pm

Wild Obsession wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:07 am Aside from "Better" I found ChinDem pretty much unlistenable, VR - Contraband at least had a couple solid singles and some decent album tracks.

This. I tried listening to CD a year or so ago and couldn't even finish it. Total dreck.

Same. I tried a couple months ago. It's just a mess now. Too much is going on in every song.
https://forums.metalsludge.tv/forums/vi ... 9#p7831929

As a genuine fan of the Post-2000 circus that was Nu-GNR, following Axl and all the leak drama on the forums for those few years, I have to say…

Contraband.

CD got neutered way early on. It could have been good once upon a time. By the time it came out in 2008 - forget it. We all know why.

Contraband isn’t perfect but it’s an honest record at least, captured in time. And you don’t fk with Slither.

I absolutely love both albums

Chinese Democracy

Prostitute is best NU GNR song ever
Slash solo or VR never did anything this close
Seeing Axl do this during Vegas shows was always spectacular- I believe he did this all 3 shows I saw at The Joint era

I saw VR -at The Wiltern and Honda Center(maybe half full) both “mid”..seeing Slash and Duff were fun

'The Blues' is a great fucking song, surprised it never broke through.

I am both surprised and proud of this polls results.

I'll go with Chinese Democracy. I'm not an audiophile by any means, nor should anyone here who believes Poison's 80's output is amazing, but to me Contraband seemed like a wall of guitar to me. Not all the songs or all the parts, but it was to "filled out" and there was no space for the two guitars to do two things separately (and yet together) as Izzy/Slash may have done or Keith and ______.

I'm sure people will pick apart Chinese Democracy from a sonic standpoint, but again, I'm no audiophile. I can get past meh production if the songs are there. Chinese Democracy's weakest moments were when Mickey Axl made an appearance. Even that I can let slide... when Mickey Axl comes storming out to the classics, that's another story.

Contraband, easily. It's got more memorable tunes and a way better sense of groove. Sorum is better here than on Use Your Illusion.

What it doesn't have, however, is any single tune as great as Chinese Democracy's best moment, "Riad 'n the Bedouins." That would go on any best of GNR compilation for me.

Contraband. I was never the biggest Scott Weiland fan but he is like Ian Hunter or Bowie compared to what Axl was or wasn’t doing at the time. Axl lost the plot. I would have preferred VR gone with a different singer, second guitarist and I would’ve preferred Adler on drums but they were better than anything Axl did.

Slash’s Snakepit was better than anything Axl did during that time and Slash was a hot mess during that period.

Contraband. That at least felt like a band effort that didn't take a decade to make.

Chinese Democracy, not even close

Adrenalize better than Hysteria and CD better than Contraband. Only on Sludge.

Ignore the bleaters and focus on the poll results.

pieceofme wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:12 am Chinese Democracy easily.

Facts. Anyone that says otherwise has bad ears

SterileEyes1 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:35 am For me Chinese Democracy and it’s not even close. If CD is a sphere, Contraband feels like a straight line by comparison. It’s like comparing November Rain to Anything Goes or something. Different strokes.

Exactly, no comparison whatsoever. I love Chinese democracy