Slash By Slash

In theory, Slash’s new self-titled album is fantastic – it’s a fourteen track collection featuring sterling collaborations of Slash playing guitar and big-name singers like Fergie, Ozzy Osbourne, Kid Rock and Dave Grohl lending him their vocals. However, when it comes down to listening the album kind of hurts. There’s no continuity or coherence and the power of some of the songs gets lost amongst the many guest spots and collaborations.

It is, in fact, nearly impossible to view this CD as a normal record because it sounds more like a compilation. But even then, when Adam Levine’s alto tones are put next to Lemmy from Motorhead’s gruff growl, it’s still hard to stomach it all.

All this being said, the standout tracks still include “Beautiful Dangerous” featuring Fergie – Slash turns the hip-hop star into an angry rocker and it sounds great! “Promise” featuring Chris Cornell – if you put someone voted the greatest voice in modern rock with one of modern rock’s greatest guitar players, it’s a sure winner. There’s nothing new from Cornell vocal-wise like with Fergie, but his voice mixes so well with Slash’s guitar that there’s no need to change it.

Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy is the only singer to make more than one appearance on the record and his collaborations with Slash take the music to a level that Alter Bridge never could on “Back From Cali” and “Starlight.”

But the star attraction of the record is obviously Slash himself and his incendiary guitar playing. It never falters. There are no points when he overshadows his singers or solos on for too long. He quickly achieves an effective back-and-forth exchange between his six-string and the singers. After listening to the whole album, you might be somewhat overloaded with too many guitar wails, but Slash still doesn’t set a foot wrong and his status as the best of the modern best is confirmed with this release.