How do we like The General & Monsters back to back today

[GNRmello77]

Feels like it's been ages since it leaked. I was wondering how everyone values both songs back to back as by now, leaving the General official release out of discussion. 

I listen to it sometimes when I take a long bath, but today I cycled to work for 35 minutes and played it like 3/4 times in a row on earphones. I must say it really grasped me again, I enjoy the hell out of it. Those 2 songs back to back make for such s good and deep heartfelt story and the vibe it gives you, oh wow! It's so dark and real, and the vocals are still giving me chills in a good way! Let me know how often you listen to it and what it brings you when you revisit the 'song' as a whole.

Edited July 20 by GNRmello77
Typo

[Gordon Comstock]

The version I've still got is called The General & Monsters V3... it's stitched together using the orchestral parts from soundboard recordings. The General works in that context as an album track, but it was never really a big gun. It's kind of amazing that The General ended up being even more underwhelming than Atlas.

Monsters is so good that it could be the closing track on their last album. Most GNR albums have great closers, and Monsters is at that level. By far the best song we've heard from this lineup.

[DoMw94]

I still struggle to listen to one without the other.

It works really well as one long piece and it seems to tie together as one story: part one the character is being tormented by 'daddy' (or whoever it is), then part two he's standing up to him and there's the relief that it (whatever 'it' is) is 'over now'.

[Chuerta86]

I haven't heard it since release, so I would say forgettable for me. Might pop it in while on the gym run today.

I recall liking monsters more than the general, but they work better as a back to back song.

Haven't listened to the mix with the orchestral integrated just the single tracks and the version that goes stitches the general and monsters.

Edited July 21 by Chuerta86

[megaguns1982]

I still think they’re both very cheesy, both reek of early 2000s trends that didn’t age well at all…

[rocknroll41]

I like both songs, Monsters obviously more so.

[Uncle Bob]

Who would do this? To you?

[Tom2112]

Honestly I don't care for either really, but if I  had to choose Monsters is the better song.

[ZoSoRose]

General bad Monsters good

[jamillos]

The General definitely benefits from being patched together with Monsters, since it's quite meh, while the latter is clearly a big gun. 

[El Guapo]

The General is unlistenable garbage to my ears and nothing can save it.

Monsters is ok but overrated, it just shines in comparison to The General, really.

[jamillos]

I miss the Evader remix or whatever it was called, with that weird other-wordly part ('who would do that... tooo youuu'). 

[lunastar]

Am I the only one who thinks that Monsters and Unholy have a lot in common? The rhythm, melody, theme, and small vocal chorus are generally almost identical... It seems to me, Monsters, these are category B songs rejected by Slash and Miles and not included in the album The World is on Fire, leftovers lol

[SoulMonster]

I listen to The General now and then. It's good. Monsters not so much since it isn't on Spotify. 

[jacdaniel]

The General is absolute garbage. 

Monsters is ok though. 

[allwaystired]

I listen to Monsters sometimes, but never The General really. 

I'm an album guy though, so very rarely put on individual songs. 

[Dean]

I rank Monsters as being among the best GNR songs. Axl's vox are everything I could have hoped they would be. The General I haven't really had on much. It's better that they release music than not, so it's a win in my book despite the flaws of the mastering.

[gavgnr]

My last Holy Grail with this band is to hear Monsters with Bucket and Finck

[DTV88]

I still listen to Monsters every few days or so. The General isn’t worth my time 

[ShadowOfTheWave]

12 hours ago, lunastar said:

Am I the only one who thinks that Monsters and Unholy have a lot in common? The rhythm, melody, theme, and small vocal chorus are generally almost identical... It seems to me, Monsters, these are category B songs rejected by Slash and Miles and not included in the album The World is on Fire, leftovers lol

Monsters and Unholy don't have the same theme.

[Gunner55]

11 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

I listen to The General now and then. It's good. Monsters not so much since it isn't on Spotify. 

Integrate local files into your Spotify playlists. I did that and it's nice to have Monsters randomly put in like that. 

[janrichmond]

I don't listen to either

[BluegrassBlues]

I absolutely love Monsters, maybe I am just being too hopeful but if/when it gets official released, I think it would get a lot of positive feedback. The General was a little underwhelming, but as it's a deep and personal song for Axl I am not going to judge it too hard, I mostly just wish the mix would have been better. 

[Sweersa]

I still listen to them regularly. Monsters is amazing, and The General is ok, at best. They do flow well going from The General to Monsters. The guitars are great, but the horrible production (mostly on The General, but also Monsters to a lesser extent IMO) takes both songs down a few notches from what they should be, had they had qualified professionals mix and master them. 

I too, like many others here, wonder what the CD-era of these songs sounded like. We have bits of Monsters or Soul Monster from that party. Hopefully one day, we can hear the older Bucket/Finck mixes to compare them like we can with Silkworms, Perhaps, and Hard Skool, the latter of which I believed suffered most with the NITL mix, though I do like a few things about the 2021 version more, but not enough to hold it even close to the 2000 rough mix we heard overall. 

4 hours ago, Gunner55 said:

Integrate local files into your Spotify playlists. I did that and it's nice to have Monsters randomly put in like that. 

So it's you causing all the chaos with the Spotify search results  

[Spoon87]

Haven't to listen to them in ages, although I got The General on vinyl, but the sound quality (and artistic choice of distorted vocals) is so laughable that I really didn't enjoy listening to it. I do remember that I thought that there were some quality melodies buried beneath all this mess.

Haven't listened to Monsters in even longer as I really wouldn't know where to look for it (and wouldn't go out of my way for it either) but that was a killer song. Absolutely unbelievable that they fucked up that release, but hey, that's GNR!