The actual substance of the album is pretty good i.e the lyrics, the melodies. But the production and timbres of the instruments completely ruin it. Axl's voice sounds like its been filtered through windows '95 and the widdly-woo guitar tone on most of the solos is headache inducing. It's a breath of relief any time a piano breaks through the hundreds of layered tracks. What made Appetite (and other bands like Oasis when they first came out) so refreshing was how unashamedly traditional rock n' roll they were. Chinese Democracy is Axl trying to fit the GNR sound through a dozen subgenres that were all long done with by the time the album came out.
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