Outside of the mainstream of tribute records (indie rock, country, mainstream rock) there exists a seemingly never-ending stream of generic, faceless tribute records that are mostly released by Big Eye and Cleopatra. The music is made by studio-concocted bands that (usually) sound like they are one step above a frat bar cover band or by a studio engineer with lots of slick keyboard skills.
A Rock Tribute to Guns N' Roses is an exception to this facelessness but still manages to sound as generic as all the rest. What sets this apart is the participation of two actual members of
Guns N' Roses,
Tracii Guns and
Gilby Clarke. They obviously reaped none of the financial rewards of being in the band that
Axl Rose did. On the other hand, at least their disgrace will mostly go unnoticed, while
Rose's is trumpeted all across the globe. The record also features a raft of guest vocalists howling their way through classic
G N' R songs like "Paradise City" and "Welcome to the Jungle." Among them are metal D-listers
Kevin DuBrow of
Quiet Riot, Spike Gray of Quireboys,
Kory Clarke of
Warrior Soul, and
Joe Leste of
Bang Tango. It all sounds exactly like what you might imagine: a bunch of has-beens shrieking over slick, soulless, and boringly proficient metal approximations of some of the greatest hard rock songs ever. If that sounds like fun to you, you may need to reexamine your relationship to music. ~ Tim Sendra