1998.09.03 - Muzic.com - Guns N' Roses Recording: A Killing Joke?

Guns N' Roses Recording - A Killing Joke?

Despite what you may have heard elsewhere, Guns N' Roses have not yet begun recording their much-rumored comeback album. Axl Rose and associates are scheduled to go into a Los Angeles studio later this month to begin tracking the album with one-named producer Youth at the helm. Many of you will remember the knob-turner as Martin Glover Youth, who cut his teeth in the gone-but-not-forgotten UK punk band Rage before being drafted into service as Killing Joke's bassist. For those of you who don't remember this post-punk band, Killing Joke made three ultra-menacing albums before disbanding. Lead singer Jaz Coleman's fascination with the occult led him to the conclusion that the apocalypse was imminent, and he fled to Iceland in an attempt to escape it, followed soon after by Youth, and drummer Paul Ferguson. (Fifteen years later, Blur's Damon Albarn made his own pilgrimmage.). Eventually the three of them staggered back, and resurrected Killing Joke twice in the early nineties before it actually took. The return trip from Iceland may have ridded them of their fears of the end-of-the world, but did nothing to abate their fascination with the esoteric, and in 1994, they recorded one of their better albums, Pandemonium, in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid in Cairo.

Metallica, the Cult, Ministry, Soundgarden, and Skinny Puppy have all tipped their hat to this seminal band, while many claim that Nirvana's "Come As You Are," is a direct cop of Joke's "Eighties." Beyond anyone's wildest dreams, the band still is hanging together, releasing Courtauld Talks in 1997 and following up this September 22, with Extremities Dort on F.A.D.Records.

In Spite of Youth's crowded schedule, Axl Rose convinced the bassist to free his calendar and come to beautiful California to oversee Guns N' Roses own resurrection. As it stands, Rose--who's really doesn't have a relationship with the occult, but has been known to consult a psychic from time to time --has resinged back GNR's once and future keyboardist Dizzy Reed to fill out the line-up, which also includes Perfect's perfectly beautiful Tommy Stinston on bass, the Vandals' Josh Freese on drums, and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck. Some of us surmised the reason Rose picked Finck was because the two bonded when NIN opened for Guns N' Roses in Europe back in 1991--but pals of Rose say that Finck was a new find for the singer. It's not clear what involvement Rose's longtime friend Paul Huge will play in the project. The guitarist remains one of Rose's closest confidence and is indispensable to the singer by allowing him to bounce ideas off of him--but we could not get confirmation at press time whether he would appear on the record.

Contrary to other reports, Slash will not appear on the forthcoming album. There was a scuttlebutt that the guitarist was coming in at night to record guitar parts for the disc--in an effort to avoid his old compatriot/nemesis Axl Rose, but Geffen Records told us that was patently untrue. There is currently no release date scheduled for the record.

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Source:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/news/shownews.php?newsid=59