Various Artists - Guns and Roses Tribute

Tribute albums are a tricky thing to get right. You can stick straight to the songs or attempt to make them your own. You can opt to do nothing but the bands hits, or go for more obscure and personal songs. One thing remains crucial though, you must keep the spirit of the band alive in your version of the song. Although their heart is probably in the right place, the collective of bands on this tribute don’t reach the bar on this jump. Bring You To Your Knees, put out by Law Of Inertia records mainly consists of near death metal sounding bands running through an array of Guns & Roses hits. Some are brutal, some are admirable, most are par at best. The opening riff of “Welcome To The Jungle” gets you excited until the growling metal vocals come in, and the song turns into mush. “14 Years” is the first track that starts to get close to what a cover should be, but the performance and production leave a little to be desired. “It’s So Easy” continues the string of admirable efforts but starts to fall right back into crapsville. “Nightrain” and “Anything Goes” have the right idea and are pulled off well, but not enough to rival original versions in any vein. “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” arguably Guns & Roses most popularly familiar song, is mixed up with a nice piano riff intro and solo, but growling vocals kill it, and the tempo sounds a bit too fast. “November Rain” is almost unrecognizable on first listen, but grows on you. Unfortunately it loses its soul with the absence of the guitar solos of the original masterpiece. The rest of the album is fair but just not near what you would want for a fitting tribute. What made Guns & Roses special was Axl’s unique voice and Slash’s amazing guitar work, and the failure to stick to those aspects of the band is ultimately where this album fails. The vocals from track to track sound very similar (growling along), and in most cases the solos are shelved in favor of metal guitar “chuck-a-chuck” strumming. If you happen to be a fan of some of the bands on the album it might be worth a listen, but most people would be wise to just pop in Appetite For Destruction, listen to what the songs were meant to sound like, and forget this ever came out. [www.lawofinertia.com]