By Raymond Tham • Urbanwire

The world could eventually be taken over by monkeys but a new Guns N’ Roses album would still not have been released. The situation has worsened with the latest news that Buckethead has become the latest member to quit the band. While we wait in vain for Axl Rose and his bunch of Marilyn Manson wannabes to produce a new album, something has risen from the ashes of one of the most popular rock bands of all-time.

Velvet Revolver is a “super” band whose members are legends in the rock music industry. Former Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist, Slash a.k.a. Saul Hudson, fronts the band together with the charismatic Scott Weiland, ex lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots. Other members of the band include Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, former bass guitarist and drummer of Guns N’ Roses respectively. Rhythm guitarist, Dave Kushner, is the only name that is not instantly recognisable, but he has a very respectable repertoire which includes being in ex-Wasted Youth and Electric Love Dogs among other bands.

"We're all looking for a rebirth here," said Scott Weiland in an interview with VH1. "We're looking to get back that same feeling we had when we all first started making music--the sense of doing it for the pure joy of making music. Along the way the whole idea that got us into this had been raped and sodomized. We were all in mourning of that and wondering if we could somehow get it back. As it turns out, the only way we could get it all back was to start it all new. Now we have that opportunity and it's amazing. This music is just vicious, very aggressive and it forces you to lace your boots up and sort of get ready for the fight."

Their first single, Slither, is an excellent example of this “vicious” and “aggressive” form of music. Fans of both Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N’ Roses will not be disappointed, with Scott’s vocals, still as haunting and ferocious as it has ever been, while Slash’s signature fast paced guitar solos have not slowed down with age.

In a world full of so-called rock “posers” such as Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and worst of all, Avril Lavigne, Velvet Revolver is almost like a Messiah drawing the line between what is truly rock and what is pop. No offences to Linkin Park, but while they used to have a mature audience listening to them during their underground days, their fan base at the moment consist mainly of teeny-boppers aged 16 and below. Even my 10-year-old cousin, who listens to the pop trash of Stacie Orrico and Blue, listens to Linkin Park.

While we could continue on bashing those pop-rock bands, it is more important to celebrate the arrival of what could be another legendary band.

As Slash puts it to VH1, “We set out to make music we enjoy and can feel proud of playing--music that people we like will want to listen to. As soon as you start thinking beyond that--about wanting to keep up with the Joneses or about fitting in with somebody else's format--that's when you lose the map. So we've just done what we do, and tried to have a cool time doing it.”

Velvet Revolver’s first album, Contraband, is now available at all good record stores.

Sidebar

Velvet Revolver is not the first band in recent times to have formed out of members of two bands.

Audioslave is essentially the band members of Rage against the Machine combining with Soundgarden’s lead vocalist, Chris Cornell. Rage’s lead singer, Zack de la Rocha, left the band in 2000 shortly after being humiliated by one of his own band members during the MTV Music Awards.

Rage against the Machine was one of the most influential rock bands of the 90s, with their lyrics based mainly on political issues. It was pure hardcore rock combined with the vicious rapping of de la Rocha blasting the government over various issues like the first war in Iraq, and America’s interest in the Middle East due to oil.

Chris Cornell on the other hand was considered to be one of the greatest lead vocalists of the 90s alongside other greats such as Kurt Cobain and Scott Weiland. Soundgarden was in fact considered by some critics to be a Led Zeppelin in the making.

Their self titled debut album was an instant hit as it saw a combination of growing maturity for the former Rage members without comprising on their usual hardcore rock ways. Tom Morello’s extraordinary guitar abilities shone through once again with readers of Guitarworld magazine voting him to be the third best rock guitarist of 2003, while the album itself was second only to How The West Was Won, a compilation of Led Zeppelin’s greatest hits performed live.