Duff McKagan's Loaded - Sick Review

Former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, who now holds that position in Velvet Revolver, also maintains a lower-profile career with this Seattle-based band. "Sick" is McKagan and Loaded's first album in eight years, so introductions may be in order: The lineup includes drummer Geoff Reading from Green Apple Quickstep and Alien Crime Syndicate guitarist Mike Squires and bassist Jeff Rouse. McKagan succeeds as a singer on these songs with simple, straightforward, honest and infectious hooks. He understands what people want from these tunes, which are lyrics they can sing along with and bop their heads to. He's particularly effective on "Translucent," which will have you instantly singing the words that you never heard before. Rock warrior McKagan even sounds comfortable on "Mother's Day" which could be described as soft punk.—Patrea L. Patterson...full text Oh, how the once-mighty Guns N'Roses empire continues to splinter and break apart under its own weight. After too many years to count, Emperor Axl proved unable to bring the band back from the brink and reclaim its former globe-spanning glories. Velvet Revolver, the vehicle for ex-GNR guitarist and bassist Slash and Duff McKagan can't find a singer. Only adding to the confusion of GNR-related projects, McKagan's Loaded further drags the GNR legacy through the mud.

With McKagan dropping the bass in favor of the six-string, Sick catches the band doing just what you'd expect from a guy who made a living holding down the low end in Guns and Velvet Revolver. It rocks, plain and simple. Well, it rocks in the literal sense. The blend of '80s hard rock, slithery modern production and whiffs of punk energy is held together mostly by McKagan's big-balls guitars. He's neither a good enough guitarist or a focused enough songwriter to make those riffs strong enough to cement it all together....full text Guns N Roses just seems to be one of those bands that won’t go away. Not counting “Chinese Democracy,” the band hasn’t had any relevance in fifteen years, and yet the name just seems to keep popping up. Lately, the cast of this wayward soap opera has been prominently featured throwing mud to and at each other in an incessant cycle of “he said, he said.”

In the midst of all this, Duff McKagan has thrown his hat back into the solo project ring with his second album since 2001. Duff McKagan’s Loaded has been making the rounds, been interviewed by any number of radio jocks, put out a couple videos, supported or been featured by a small handful of tours, and have dropped an album called “Sick” on the world. With the way the hype machine has been banging away, you would think this would be the album to end all albums. In the end, “Sick” is…pretty solid. It’s not a knockout punch that’s going to change the world, but it does a fair number of things right, and has no serious failings....full text