You’ve got to feel sorry for Axl Rose. There he was, sitting in his megalomaniac rock star lair, plotting to take over the world with his new look Guns N’ Roses, braiding his hair and tantalizing us with annual reports that the new "Chinese Democracy" album was almost finished, he’d just got to write the words. And for a split second, the world cared.
Unfortunately for Axl, the world wasn’t so much after G'N’R as the return of the freewheeling, sun-bleached, Jack Daniels and Marlboro LA rock they embodied, and his old mates, Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum have beaten him to it. Worse still, for Axl at least, with his place on the team sheet being filled by ex-Stone Temple Pilot singer and fellow hard drug devotee Scott Weiland, Velvet Revolver’s debut crashes through stadium excess with all the hard living, feral fury anyone could have hope for from G’N’R mark II.
"Contraband" is "Appetite For Destruction" for grown-ups. Far from the feared half hearted super group hobby project, the snarling "Do It For The Kids" and "Big Machine" hurtle with the teeth bared, crash and burn hunger of old hands high on their second wind.
And while the police sirens and relentless Slash & Duff chug of "Sucker Train Blues" may be a clear nod to Velvet Revolver’s G’N’R heritage, there’s a hard-bitten intensity that wasn’t there when they last used them on "Night Train". First time round they were wild and reckless. Now they sound like they’ve got more than rebellion for the sake of it on their minds. The jaded, life worn wisdom of Weiland’s words and the flag waving choruses of "Illegal I Song" and "Headspace" further instill the image of a band who’ve had it all, lost most of it and don’t intend to make the same mistake twice.
With the comedown introspection of "Fall To Pieces" assuring they’ve got the whole LA rock revival sown up, they’ve well and truly stolen Axl’s thunder and what’s more there’s not a chance in hell they’re letting him have it back.
