Velvet Revolver -Contraband

Tue 20th Jul, 2004 in Music Reviews

Velvet Revolver’s debut album, Contraband is slab upon slab of good rock’n’roll. From start to finish, it’s one of those ‘whole albums’ that you put on and leave on. The band brings together three former members of Guns N’ Roses — guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum — together with one of rock’s most intriguing frontmen Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, and guitarist Dave Kushner, ex-Wasted Youth, Electric Love Hogs and Dave Navarro’s [Jane’s Addiction] band. It’s a five headed beast.

From the get go track, Sucker Train Blues, Velvet Revolver gets straight down to business. Not many bands can pull off starting their album with a siren, but these guys do. Think muddy guitars – wall of sound style – and snarling lyrics all wrapped up tight with big drums. These musicians more than know what they are doing and tend to play around with the format and pace of each song – starting out fast, breaking in the middle for melodies and solos and then ramping back up. In fact if you were at a concert watching them from the floor each song structure would go: most mosh rest watch mosh.

Characterised by heavy and layered sound production, the album has several key moments when the sound strips back and opens up for Slash on lead guitar. He doesn’t disappoint. Slash is real life octopus-snake man. Technically his skills are as good, if not better, than ever. He’s all over the guitar, wrestling the wail, the wah and the pounding riff in all its’ glory. If you’re not the biggest hard rock fan, Slash’s guitar playing will at the very least make you smile and wonder ‘how does he do that with just two hands?’ For air guitar slaves, you’ll be in seventh heaven. Slither, Do it for the kids, Big Machine and Loving the Alien (sometimes) are where Slash’s magic really happens on this album.

On an individual level they’re a more sober bunch having chosen to steer clear of their many original indulgences – all bar one – the music. Big, bad, commercial and loud. The Contraband album is just as the name implies, although that’s not to say they are one of those awful supergroups. They’re not. They are giving you the music they love, and in return you are giving them a reason to make it. At best it is 80s metal mashed into 90s hard rock with sound production that growls at you. At worst they are old guys playing a mish mash of their combined musical experiences, and you could try and hate them for it, but you’d be a fool. This music is upwards and onwards and they’re ‘the’ band that our current generation of 13 year olds will hear on MTV and be influenced by. Remember the first time you heard Gunners or AC/DC?

In fact, alot of what has been written about Velvet Revolver to date focusses on their past. You could easily spend a day deliberating which parts of Velvet Revolver sound like Guns N’ Roses and which parts sound like Stone Temple Pilots. So much so that it’d be a royal waste of time to write about it. It’s pretty obvious what comes from where and it’s part of the fun that accompanies this album, but when you get down to it, music isn’t about knowing your rock history. It’s about noise and sound and Contraband brings lashings of both to the party. Start your Velvet Revolver addiction like you would a new love affair – no questions asked – just get it on, turn it up and enjoy.

Another gem on Contraband is Dirty Little Thing and ten listens on, it still feels like a sexy date at the motor-dome that gets out of hand. Fast and breathless, they combine ‘Goodness gracious great balls of fire’ hammering keyboards under sludgy rhythmic bass and power drums. And, boy, do the vocals sound mean.

The second road to this album is Weiland’s deeply personal lyrics that take the album just that notch higher. Having recently conquered a drug problem and a divorce, Weiland writes what he knows and its often dark. In the band’s bio, Weiland describes joining the band and the experience of putting the Contraband album together as a kind of ‘rebirth’ for all involved. And it’s this sense of renewal and energy that gives Contraband a point of difference. I guess you’d say, something real. There’s a bit of everything lurking in this album: ghosts of the past, exploding straight edge anger, bad experiences thrown to the wind, hope for the future, the ache to just get on stage and play and have some fun. But what makes this album good, what makes it interesting is that Weiland has something to say, there’s something ‘fuck you’ but fun about the delivery and just when you least expect he’ll say something that stays with you.

In the tear jerker ballad, Fall to Pieces, Weiland dives into a toxic relationship and talks about love lost and loneliness. Maybe it’s his sweet dark voice, but Weiland has got the charisma or deeply felt vocal quality down pat – for want of a better phrase. Maybe it’s the charm of a once bad boy trying to be good?  Whatever it is his ballads like You Got No Right aren’t your typical soppy numbers that get you reaching for the skip button. They’re damn catchy. Commercially so. But with a gritty edge and you get the feeling that music bucks were the last thing on Weiland’s mind when he penned the bleak lyrics about his fractured past. These guys are quite simply making music that they enjoy. Or more to the point, to enjoy they must make music. When messed up once young super rockers hit their mid plus thirties they become Rock Lords. And Contraband trades in the past for a more cleaner and demon exorcising future.

If there was one thing to change on this album, it would be the sound production. At times, it’s overtly large and clouds the desire to hear each of these legendary musicians on a more individual level. But perhaps the sound production is just the wall between a great album and what is hopefully a to-die-for live band.

Start hoping for a summer Aussie tour. Velvet Revolver are the only band you should want to see at the Big Day Out.