Velvet Revolver

We know they're experienced -- between the five members and uber-producer Brendan O'Brien, Velvet Revolver have logged over a century in the biz. Thus, it's overcoming the STP meets GnR tag that is VR's greatest challenge, and they do a fine job with Libertad. Although each member gets his time to show off, the group sounds more comfortable binding together. Tightly composed, upbeat, carnal and suave with the huge riffs you'd expect, songs like "She Mine" and "Mary Mary" are fitting for a cruise down the Sunset Strip -- or at least for a quality session of air guitar.

Velvet Revolver are an impressive act of defiance: a band of old-school bad boys from
twentieth-century megagroups who make a rocket-guitar racket that is more compelling
than most current woe-is-me punk and emo. The blitz in "Let It Roll," "Get Out the Door" and
"Pills, Demons & Etc." may be second nature to guys who did time in Guns n' Roses and Stone
Temple Pilots, but there is plenty of thrill in the fuzz-lined hard-rubber bends of... More >