Use Your Illusion I / Use Your Illusion II

The zeitgeist had spoken. The world's biggest rock stars were dethroned by their opposition almost as quickly as they were crowned. Nirvana would soon deal with their own inner turmoil and angst, but Alternative Nation's regime change was irreversible, popularizing thrift store aesthetics and progressive attitudes that were a direct rejection of GnR's biker bar worldview. The band lay low, as much as any multi-platinum band could, and hit the water with their 1993 covers collection “The spaghetti incident?”but the days of moving the cultural needle were behind them. Once they reconvened to begin a new chapter the following year, Axl's creative whims – until then industrial and loop-based – would drastically alienate the rest of his bandmates. “He had a vision that GnR had to change,” he said Geffen A&R Tom Zutaut, “and Slash had an attitude like Guns N' Roses Guns N' Fucking Roses.” Unstoppable force meets immovable object, roll credits.

Over the next two decades, each went his own way. Slash toured alone, collected snakes and pinball machines, and served as the public face of “rock” while dropping licks at award shows. Duff wrote books and started a wealth management company for musicians. For a brief period, the two reunited with Sorum and former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland in the ill-fated supergroup. Plush revolverwhile Axl continued with a quixotic new 'Guns N' Roses' best remembered for the braids, Bucketheadand the multi-year vision quest that was Republic of Chinait is still the most expensive rock album ever recorded.

Then in 2016, with much fanfare but little explanation, Axl, Slash and Duff reunited to headline Coachella and kick off the Not In This Lifetime… tourrounding out the bills—complete with Adler's drum cameo—and breaking box office records as if nothing had ever changed. For now, the “classic” trio are still at it, selling out sports complexes around the world. Reviews may be mixed, but the crowds seem happy. Listening to 'Estranged' at full volume in a football stadium tends to have this effect.

That the deeply volatile Guns N' Roses just exist is perhaps the most surprising result possible. Their doubles stuffed Illusion both predated and anticipated the playlist era album)” class=”external-link” data-event-click=”{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_(album)"}” href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_(album)” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>album as a data dump; Even without new music, the band has 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify, more than Bon Jovi or Metallica (Nirvana has 31 million). by Eric Weisbard 33 1/3 book calls GnR's two LPs “our last big moment for tyrannosaurus rock,” which, chronologically, is fair. But in 2024, you can catch GnR babies at Target next to the neon It does not matter smiley t-shirts, both stripped of all meaning except 'shirt'.

On a long enough timeline, everything will petrify, and the T-rex leader saw it coming. “Time is short/Your life is your own/In the end we're just dust and bones/And that's okay.” Tastes change, perspectives evolve, but GnR's rebellious, fired-up identity still resonates. Use your illusion It's both a testament to the band's excesses and an attempt to exorcise the forces that brought them there. Its grandeur doesn't make its existential bent any less sincere, regardless of whether the band would rather hang out with Traci Lords than Tobi Vail. If you want to stare into the abyss with them – or just kick back for another primal, hypermelodic scream – these two volumes will have you covered throughout. It's always showtime somewhere.