I know! My latest "most famous album I've never heard" tick. The king is dead! In my youth, carrying over into my adulthood, I have kind of just assumed this sucked, but I kept running across people acknowledging, if belatedly, its greatness. Maybe enough time has passed that I can see it for the music instead of what gnr represented to me when this came out (they always struck me as kinda douchey and attention hungry, as was the fashion thenabouts before grunge came along).
Fact is, this does kind of shred. It's overblown, ridiculous and unsubtle, but mostly just pulls it off. The pacing is mostly excellent, the production unstoppable, and the actual riffs, solos, and melodies about the best you'll find for the genre. Unless you've just steeled yourself against the possibility, heads will bob, toes will tap.
Rose's shrieking, crooning, and moaning is the real test here: his voice has its share of unique tricks and tics, and he can't be acused of phoning in a single sylable, but even my most heartfelt attempts to be open-minded weren't proof against the occasional cringe or eye roll.
For every track that doesn't quite get off the ground (the over-repetitive Out to Get Me or Anything Goes) there's two that legitimately tear off into the sky (especially Sweet Child of Mine, which is a much more complex song than I ever gave credit).
This isn't the kind of metal I have much patience for, but it does what it does solidly enough, with enough panache, that I was mostly won over. Probably not as classic as its made out to be, but given the era, the context, the style, and the how badly those things have tended to age, it holds up remarkably well 4/5
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