Slash Kills Axl Dead!

What do you call a rock album that starts with the lyrics "Kill the ghost, that hides in your soul" and ends with the lyrics "I'm gonna pee on the ground, then I'm gonna jump around."You call that album Slash.

Since 1994, after Guns N' Roses disbanded acrimoniously, Slash has released two solo albums, two Velvet Revolver albums, and guested on multiple artist's albums. During that same time, Axl built an underground lair, played hopscotch with imaginary circus midgets, invested in ginger colored dreadlocks, and spent $15 million on a failed attempt at another Guns N' Roses album.

While none of Slash's efforts have matched up to the songwriting genius of Appetite and Illusion, they have all had some great jams, riffs, and solos. Bands are always the sum of their parts, and Slash was always the soul of G'nR. That being said, Slash's 2010 self titled collaboration with 12 different singers Kills Axl Dead and will absolutely outsell Chinese Democracy.

At first look, setting up this guest singer extravaganza seems like an evil idea from a label executive to duplicate the sales success of Santana. And you know what? It probably was. This helps explains why Fergie is on the album. Is it Guns N' Roses? Hell no. But by Slash co-writing with various artists, he has made his most consistent post-G'nR album with just as much focus put into the actual songwriting as the guitars and the production is nearly identical to Appetite and Illusion. Here's the breakdown.

Ghost- Ian Astbury: The lead singer of the Cult sings, as previously mentioned, -"Kill the ghost, that hides in your soul - Rock and Roll." I can understand why you would kill the ghosts in Poltergeist - and Casper for just being fucking annoying- but a ghost named Rock and Roll? That just sounds like a dude I would sit down with and share a pint. Regardless of Ian's misplaced aggression, the songs riff is instantly memorable and it's a great opening track.

Crucify the Dead - Ozzy: The first couple times I heard this slow burner, I thought that Ozzy was mumbling about corpses, trains, black magic, or fantasizing about killing Sharon. You know, the usual topics. Then I heard the line "a loaded gun jammed by a rose." I pulled up the lyrics online and discovered that this is Slash's love letter to Axl delivered by non other than the godfather of metal.

The thorns are not around your head
Your ego cursed you till you bled
You cannot crucify the dead
To me you're dead, yeah

Yes, Slash is rock's Tony Soprano. "Axl? He's dead to me. "

Dangerous Beautiful - Fergie: This is an obvious attempt to grab a younger demographic, known in the industry as "teenage chicks who listen to Black Eyed Peas." Since BEP have sold more than 25 million albums, this is an attractive niche market. I have no problem with Fergie on this record if it pulls a new audience to discover Slash and get into this style of rock in general. Plus, she pulls off a pretty damn good kilt-wearing redhaired stepchild impression. With it's staccato vocals and "You Could Be Mine"-ish pre-chorus, this turns out to be a much better idea than Slash and Fergie covering "My Humps", "Let's Get Retarded," or updating "Paradise City" with Sen Dog from Cypress Hill on backup vocals. That last idea would be preposterous.

Back From Cali- Myles Kennedy: When I first glanced at this title I thought this was going to be a cover of LL Cool J's "Goin' Back To Cali" and I imagined what Slash would look like wearing a Kangol. It's actually an original song, one of the best on the album, and sung by someone I've never heard of. Slash picked Myles Kennedy (lead singer of Alterbridge) as his touring vocalist and I can see why. His voice has the roughness of Josh Todd of Buckcherry and he can hit the high notes to cover GNR classics.

Promise- Chris Cornell: It wasn't too long ago that Mr. Soundgarden thought it would be a splendid idea to collaborate with hip-hop producer Timbaland and released the worst CD in the history of recorded music .... or the greatest comedy album of all time. It sold 17 copies, all used as gag gifts. It was called Scream which was exactly what everyone did when they listened to 30 second samples on iTunes. While the song "Promise" is a return to form, I would still like a legal document from Mr. Cornell with a promise to stay at least 300 yards away from Timbaland.

By The Sword-Andrew Stockdale: This was the first single, features one of Slash's best solos, the lyrics are nonsensical babble ( about swords, I think), and sounds like everything on Wolfmother's latest solid release Cosmic Egg. In other words it sounds exactly like White Stripes, Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath.

Gotten-Adam Levine: The lead crooner of Maroon 5 stops by to offer a grammatically challenged ballad with the lyrics "You've got me like I've never been gotten before." According to WikiAnswers "The British stopped using the past participle "gotten" about three hundred years ago, the American colonists and their descendants--especially in New England--still tend to use it even though many English teachers have tried to ban it's usage. "

Either Adam is a rebel who enjoys face raping the English language or he has just watched Bring It On too many times ("Bring It? It's been broughten.")

Doctor Alibi - Lemmy: If anyone needs medical attention it's Lemmy. This is a man whose face looks like the surface of the moon and has conducted a 30 year case study on what smoking 17 packs of Marlboro Reds and having a quart of Jim Beam for breakfast on a daily basis does to the human body. He also has a voice that makes AC/DC's Brian Johnson sound like Placido Domingo. He is told by a doctor - that apparently enjoys malpractice lawsuits- "You'll be alright, just keep doing what you love, every single night." What's more shocking than this advice is that it's one of my favorite tracks.

We're all going to die-Iggy Pop: I don't know that much about Iggy except that he really enjoys starvation, leather pants, and doesn't own a shirt. "Hey, I really like you're tits, I'll say anything that fits." This poetry, rivaling the work of Henry David Thoreau, leads to Iggy singing about pissing on the lawn, dancing a jig, and opting to not pay his bills. This and Lemmy's track are the sleaziest and most G'nR-sounding on the album.

M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold and Kid Rock are also along for the ride. And their songs are pretty great, but they might as well be from their respective bands.

Nothing to Say - M. Shadows sounds like a standard fast rocker from Avenged Sevenfold. Not a bad thing by any means, but there is a very little "Slash" sound in this one. Same with the Kid Rock song I Hold On. It's a great song, but if you heard it on the radio you really wouldn't have known this was from an album attributed to Slash.

And that is really the only issue that I have with this album. It's well produced, the songs are all good, but there are very few tracks that just scream that they came from Slash with the exception of the before mentioned tracks and Watch This featuring former Gunner Duff McKagan and Dave Grohl on drums . It's a jam session between the 3 heavyweights and really puts the focus on Slash's guitar playing, sounding very much like an extended solo from a long lost G'nR song.

Bottom line is this is a great rock album. Pick it up and be very happy with some straight out R n f'n R.