Guns N’ Roses

Mike Clink spent weeks in Rumbo Recorders just trying to capture a clean take of Steven Adler’s drumming because the band was too wired to sit still. They weren't a metal band and they weren't hair spray posers; they were a bunch of junkies who worshiped the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith but played with the desperation of a street fight. Appetite for Destruction didn't happen because of a big budget. It happened because they were living in a literal hole on Sunset Boulevard and hated everything about the polished 1987 radio dial. By the time they hit the Use Your Illusion sessions, the scrappy club vibe was dead. They brought in thirty-six different tracks for 'Coma' and let Axl spend years micromanaging every orchestral swell and sound effect. It turned into a massive, bloated, ego-driven circus that somehow still produced some of the most ambitious hard rock ever cut to tape. It’s the sound of a band burning through their own myth in real time, jumping from punk-rock filth to Elton John-style piano ballads because they finally had the money to hire a full horn section.

Around the web

• SoundCloud
• YouTube
• X / Twitter
• AllMusic
• MusicBrainz
• Discogs