Reflecting upon the days when Guns N Roses was verile and full of power is kind of like remembering a friend who used to do crazy things while intoxicated but has since gone straight. It's sad. After "Appetite" and the Illusions offerings, we got our ears full of Axl's incessant 3 year old like behavior, and apparently so did the real essence behind Guns N Roses: Slash and Duff McKagan. When you think about it, in perspective, the music of Guns N Roses was always something to behold: powerful, driven, beautiful, and sleazy sounding all in the same hungry riff. Then, it seems, the spectacle of money and fame choked the fierce passion that was heard on "Appetite" (as well as earlier "Lies" and "Hollywood Rose") out of the veins of Axl. But the music survived, and from the ashes of Guns N Roses, which made an "appearance" at the 2002 VMA's under a completely different and absurd facade (Buckethead nonwithstanding), comes Velvet Revolver. One has to question the ultimate motive behind such a move to combine two strangely different and yet very similar elements in one single cell. The product is astounding. The lucid, drugged voice of Weiland over the throbbing music of Slash and Duff bring forth a musical union that cannot be denied in its greatness. The down side is this album will probably be the last from Velvet Revolver, because it seems too good to be true. Also, taking in account the personal lives of the members, which is anything but healthy, it is a runway train on a icy lake with the heat rising. Oh well. Perhaps Axl can make an album with the previous members of Stone Temple Pilots. No one remembers their names anyway.