Slash

Slash is often considered one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time, and it goes without saying that during his time with Guns’n’roses, his style became renowned, helping to create some of the best known rock songs in history. Who doesn’t know the opening riff of ‘Sweet Child of Mine’? Likewise, his time with Velvet Revolver and Slash’s Snakepit showed that he could adapt himself, and be successful outside of Guns’n’roses, and the songs that had brought him to fame. His new album is his first ever ‘solo’ effort, and the premise of the album is that Slash has collaborated with thirteen different names in music to try something new.

The line up of names that Slash has collaborated with for the album is undeniably impressive; Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Dave Grohl, Ian Astbury and Lemmy of Motorhead are just a few of the most famous rock names to appear on the album. Yet, Slash clearly wanted to try out something new alongside that of the rock legends, as he also invited names who are more famous for their efforts in pop music, rather than rock, such as Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, and Adam Levine of Maroon 5. His rhythm section is also impressive, featuring the bassist Chris Chaney, who has played with Jane’s Addiction and Alanis Morisette, and drummer Josh Freese, who has played with Nine Inch Nails, The Vandals, and Guns’n’roses between 1998-2001.

However, despite the remarkable line up, I can’t help but feel that some of the tracks are a little bit weak, considering the calibre of those who contributed towards it. Without a doubt, the strongest track of the album is ‘Watch This’, the song featuring Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan, it has a punchy bass line and the fact that it is purely instrumental allows Slash to show off the skills that he’s famous for. ‘Ghost’, the track featuring Ian Astbury also works quite well, as it’s a catchy rock song with the kind of riff you would expect from Slash. The tracks featuring Andrew Stockdale (Wolfmother), Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) and Kid Rock also work quite well, as they are not too much of a departure from Slash’s style of playing, albeit being a bit bland.

Unfortunately, the weakest tracks are those with which Slash has taken the biggest risks in style. The tracks with Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and M.Shadows simply sound like a watered down version of the artists’ original work. The track with M.Shadows is especially weak, it sounds like a diluted version of an Avenged Sevenfold track with less complex guitar, and Avenged Sevenfold are hardly renowned for being the world’s best guitarists. Likewise, although I think it was brave of Slash to invite artists like Fergie and Adam Levine to feature on his album, as they are not renowned for having a rock star status, their tracks are fairly weak and uninteresting.

Overall, considering the famous names who contributed towards the album, and the fact that Slash is often esteemed to be one of the greatest guitarists of all time, I expected a more impressive album. I think it’s brave of Slash to have taken a risk, as rather than making some of the vocalists change to his style of music, he has tried to adapt to the vocalist’s genre of playing instead. Although this worked with some tracks, the overall album is somewhat uninspiring and uninteresting, and, in short, I doesn’t make for an inspiring record; an album unrepresentative of the man who almost single-handedly defned the ‘guitar hero’.