As if to preemptively counteract the argument that his Playboy financial advice column has made him soft, Duff McKagan turns in his hardest record in recent memory with The Taking. Taking full advantage of Pantera/Slipknot producer Terry Date, The Taking rumbles with a bone-rattling low end, its guitars and bass hitting with an underhanded force. It’s visceral enough to excuse the under-formed songs and the vague feeling that this is the work of dyed-in-the-wool rockers railing against the dying of the light. Despite this lingering scent of stale nicotine, alcohol, and leather, The Taking does make a brute impression, McKagan’s Loaded playing with a vitality that almost compensates for how they fetishize the past.