Contraband [PA] (CD - 2004)

Velvet Revolver: Scott Weiland (vocals); Slash (guitar, background vocals); Dave Kushner (guitar); Duff (bass guitar, background vocals); Matt Sorum (drums, background vocals).

Contraband features Slash, Duff, and Matt Sorum (as well as additional guitarist Dave Kushner) cranking out an updated version of Guns N' Roses swagger behind Scott Weiland's glammy, elastic vocals. With STP's vocalist and such a high percentage of ex-Gunners, Velvet Revolver really is a supergroup. "Went too fast I'm out of luck and I don't even give a f*ck," Weiland spits on "Do It for the Kids," and a peel from Slash's arsenal backs him up. Maturity has clearly come at a price for both parties. Weiland still mugs and sings like a florescent lizard king. But his appetite for the spotlight has somehow become more voracious even as he fights cynically against it, and longs for an escape. For their part, Slash, Duff, and Co. like stirring up their old demons -- check the explosive entrance on "Set Me Free" to get things a-tingling like the old days. But they're not running a nostalgia show, so there are new tricks and sounds, too, and plenty of choruses that shift into STP-style layering and vocal phrasing. The bass-heavy throb of "Big Machine"'s verses surges into a hard-charging '90s alt. rock chorus; "Headspace" alternates representative chunks of both bands' sounds with veteran skill; and "Superhuman" rants about illegal substances in language everyone can understand. Overall, Contraband sounds pretty much like you'd expect of such a collaboration. Lead single "Slither" is an immediate highlight, its gasoline-drinking cocaine strut staining it as the offspring of "Big Bang Baby" and "Nightrain", while the album's detours -- "Fall to Pieces", the gorgeous "Loving the Alien" -- are painted in dusty reds and browns, like idealized fever dreams of escaping to the desert with the one you love. These mediations point to the pain behind Weiland's cynical veneer, and perhaps the entire band's veteran hope for a head-clearing open space. Remember, between them they've probably seen it all. With Contraband, Velvet Revolver pull off something tidy - their music manages both hedonism and maturity. ~ Johnny Loftus

Timing your gigs and recording sessions around an unpredictable (and occasionally incarcerated) new lead singer might not seem the most auspicious start for a band. But when the singer is former Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland and the other musicians include Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum--all veterans of Guns N' Roses--it's just business as usual. And these circumstances don't seem to have affected the supergroup's performance any, as evidenced by the outfit's raucous debut, CONTRABAND.

"Sucker Train Blues" roars out of the starting block, rocking like there's no tomorrow, with Weiland's seething vocals riding the six-string whirlwind generated by guitar supremo Slash and his new sidekick Dave Kushner. "Big Machine," with its doubtlessly autobiographical storyline about the pitfalls of stardom, melds the ring of truth with the voice of experience. The anthemic "Fall to Pieces" has echoes of vintage GNR, and Slash's "Sweet Child o' Mine"-like guitar intro to "Superhuman" similarly rolls back the years to his former band's late-1980s heyday. Far from being '80s-metal retreads in search of a new niche, though, the reenergized members of Velvet Revolver wipe the slate clean and rededicate themselves to take-no-prisoners rock & roll with CONTRABAND. minimize