I still wonder if they might not just release a Best Of with one or two new songs drawn from the Chinese Democracy material (maybe some new band remixes of the Chinese Democracy stuff they play on tour, too? GIVE ME THIS I LOVE). Crucially, stuff like Atlas Shrugged already has lyrics written and recorded. And didn't MSL claim that Slash and Duff had already recorded overdubs for that one?

That'd be a useful stop-gap while they crack on with another touring cycle and album, and it'd shut up the naysayers who claim that they're not doing anything new.

Oh, for fuck's sake, stop banging this drum. They have songs. Duff just said in an interview that he wrote 70 songs for Tenderness, and he only used 15 of them. Axl, Fortus, Dizzy and Frank have god knows how many songs stored up from the Chinese Democracy years. Slash is a riff machine. Melissa's an accomplished songwriter who's bound to have some ideas to bring to the table, to say nothing of the backroom team of GN'R family like Brain and Paul Huge, etc etc.

In every single interview they've said that there's an appetite to get down to business and record an album. And this is not like Bumblefoot and DJ Ashba trying to engage a demoralised, disinterested Axl, this is the record breaking NITL line-up with the bit between their teeth. This is not Axl trying to sell a disinterested record company on yet another new line-up, this is the three most recognisable members of the classic band, back together and coming off the back of a world-beating tour. They are popular again, they know it, and there is surely a desire to ensure that the last album in their discography isn't Chinese Democracy, however much that album has a cult following.

There is going to be a new album.

Stop pissing and moaning, for fuck's sake.

The thing is, he can spend 13 years slogging away on a GN'R album (which, to be fair, wasn't entirely his fault) and then turn around and rattle out some vocals for a Sebastian Bach album or a Looney Tunes cartoon, with no prior warning. So who knows?

I think it'd be absolutely hilarious if they just popped into a studio and rattled through the recording in a couple of weeks.

For all that I love Fortus' stage presence, I couldn't tell you what he played on CD. Finck, Bucket and Bumble all have solos and distinctive guitar tones/playing styles, but Fortus is relegated to rhythm parts and lost in the mix (plus IIRC he shares rhythm duties with Paul Huge, and Finck, and Bumble, and Bucket on some songs). If you're just belting out chords it's hard to tell what you're playing.

Hopefully the two-guitar setup of the NITL band will mean that we can actually pick him out, and get some dynamic, organic interplay between the rhythm and lead guitar lines like we did on AFD/UYI.