Another New GN’R Track!

Fanmade artwork (?) found attached to the leaked song

So, our review of Chinese Democracy a few days ago was apparently an eerie foreshadowing of what was soon to come: yesterday morning, another new Guns N’ Roses track leaked. Presumably titled “Shackler’s Revenge” (the forthcoming single to be included with copies of Rock Band 2 in September), this one was leaked by Mister Saint Laurent, the wrestler (no, this couldn’t get any weirder if we wanted it to) who leaked three tracks in January 2007.

Laurent, a self-admitted manic depressive, spent grueling hours/days/weeks/months tracking down this song at the risk of severe depression and bad health. He is now basking in the publicity, having done interviews with GN’R fansites and Rolling Stone Magazine (yeah, that Rolling Stone).

The track is getting pulled from YouTube every time someone uploads it, so I’m not going to bother linking to it here (and there’s no way in hell I’m hosting it either), but if you look around some music sites it’s fairly easy to find. My thoughts? It has a pretty heavy sound to it. The production is better — or, at least, louder — than the other leaks. Apart from the album’s title track, nothing else leaked so far has really sounded “finished” — but this one does. There are about a million different vocal layers going on at the same time, which at first gave me Pretty Tied Up flashbacks, but it sounds cool regardless. My first thought was that it was Buckethead on the solo (especially since it was inspired by a song he did years ago called Shackler), but I think there’s a chance about halfway through it morphs into Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal’s endless shredding, because the second half lacks all melody and cohesion and sounds like a total wankfest (I’m not digging the R2-D2 bleeping sound effects). If it’s Buckethead, I’m a bit disappointed. If it’s Ron, I’m not surprised.

The beginning sounds a little bit goofy — Axl’s using his low, low, low vocals with some crazy shit going on in the background, but once the subsequent verses and choruses kick in, the song picks up a lot of speed. It does sound messy and overproduced — just like the other tracks — but it kind of fits the style of the song. It sounds a lot like Oh My God, which you may remember as having been the first “new” new GN’R track ever debuted (way back in 1999). Axl said a retooled version of that song was slated for one of the Chinese Democracy albums (he has three in the works, apparently) so it wouldn’t surprise me if it was the launching pad for Shackler’s. The aggressive guitars and interesting disco-metal vibes (no, seriously) are highly reminiscent of that song; it’s like Rob Zombie, only not as insufferable — mainly because Axl sounds so much better than Zombie, even on a bad day.

It’s a short, straightforward, unpretentious track – probably a good choice of first single for the album, although Better is just as direct and in my opinion a superior song. Shackler’s Revenge is fun, different, aggressive and catchy — and it’s kind of perfect for a game like Rock Band — but I’m not sure it’s quite the best or most accessible song we’ve heard yet. It may attract a lot of heavy metal fans or guitar aficionados, but I still think the best thing they could do to promote the actual album in the future — at least based on what I’ve heard so far — is release Better, Prostitute and a retooled Blues (minus the shlocky acoustics) as the three main singles. Better will capture everybody’s interest (pop, rock and metal fans), Prostitute will serve as the band’s I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, and The Blues will capture the soccer mom Bon Jovi loving demographic (hopefully erasing memories of I Want to Make a Memory).

As indifferent as I may sound toward Shackler’s, the first time I heard it, I was really impressed — mainly because this is one of the heaviest songs Axl/GN’R has ever produced. I wasn’t expecting such a full-on assault of the senses. With lyrics like “I’ve got an itchy finger / And there’ll be hell to pay / I’m gonna pull the trigger / And blow them all away” – well, the song speaks for itself. Axl sounds as pissed off as ever, and if this is indeed the song he has chosen to reintroduce his new band to the world (finally), he certainly could have done worse.