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Velvet Revolver Contraband Released in 2004 1.7/10 Styles Hard Rock Song Highlights Nothing worth mentioning... |
From the ashes of Stone Temple Pilots and Guns 'N' Roses rises Velvet Revolver. So, what do you get when you cross a band who're past their prime, with a band who're way past their prime? Let's be honest here. Stone Temple Pilots haven't been particularly good since Scott Weiland got a little too keen on the white stuff, and Guns 'N' Roses have been nothing but a bad joke since the late eighties. What could Velvet Revolver possibly have to offer? The answer, unsuprisingly, is not very much. Contraband is downright boring. Every song follows the generic hard-rock blueprint to the letter - noisy jackhammer strumming, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-guitar solo-chorus, and remember to say "fuck" occasionally. It's been done before, and it's been done far better. I'm amazed that such a dubious "supergroup" has recieved so much attention from the music press - no one thought these guys would be any good, did they? To be fair, Weiland does still possess one of hard-rock's most identifiable voices. A little like Eddie Vedder, only more gravelly and less blatantly I-wish-I-was-Jim-Morrison. It's proabably the only upside to Velvet Revolver, but without the joyfully overblown arena-rock backing of STP to guide him, he sounds a little lost in this sea of supposed badassness. Velvet Revolver are not about music, they're about image and marketing. Contraband's cover art is so full of "attitude" I almost cried from laughing so hard. To top things off, nearly every promotional poster of the group stresses, in big letters, the members' previous bands, as though they already suspected that Velvet Revolver could never cut it on their own. They were absolutely right. Contraband is rubbish. Avoid. |