Loaded

Stop trying to decipher the ins and outs of Chinese Democracy. Quell that hankering for a renewed Appetite for Destruction. Check your expectations about what Duff McKagan's Loaded will be like at the door. Longtime Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan stands front and center with Loaded, a project the lanky rock star has been working on for several years. McKagan’s bass is in storage when it comes to Loaded; he’s both vocalist and guitarist on this punk-influenced, dirty rock project who just issued Sick.

As a vocalist, McKagan appears to have learned from example. His adenoidal wail is incredibly similar to that of W. Axl Rose and that shouldn’t surprise anyone, given the fact that the pair made some of the most important, memorable and enduring music of the past three decades together. “Sick” and “Sleaze Factory” blend Los Angeles glitz, Sunset glam and grunge, Seattle-inspired guitars, all of which are kicked up by the punk rock intensity. It would be easy to write Loaded off as a vanity side project from an artist who has been fortunate to be gifted with tremendous, off-the-charts success in his other projects. It would simple to accuse McKagan of self-indulgence and “trying to get back to” the music he evolved away from as his career skyrocketed. But that’s not the case.

Sick isn’t far removed from GN’R’s legacy, but McKagan has packed the album with a snottier, grittier, punk rock aesthetic. Bits of ‘80s hair metal also dot the album’s landscape, most noticeably on “Flatline.” McKagan penned an “aw how sweet” ode to his wife with “IOU,” which proves the record has heart and is more thoughtful than many other rock records in today’s marketplace. “The Slide” is a three-chord all-out punk rock anthem. Clearly, the record experiments with plenty of flavors and seasonings. It’s no Guns N’ Roses, but it’s no throwaway side deal either.

— Amy Sciarretto
04.27.09

Duff McKagan has been fronting Loaded since 1999 -- long after Guns N' Roses stopped as an active concern and long before Velvet Revolver came to be. It's what Duff did when he didn't have anything else to do, as he didn't after Weiland ditched VR for a reunited Stone Temple Pilots and Slash worked on a solo album. And so, Duff turned to Loaded again, releasing their third album, Sick, in the spring of 2009. Not quite a busman's holiday, Loaded is the sound of a working band working and an old rocker staying sober, kicking out some lead-heavy grooves and sculptured pieces of sleaze. This doesn't necessarily rock with abandon -- it's a bit too precise, a bit too clean for that -- but it does have a kick and spirit, enough energy to power through the somewhat pedestrian songwriting. But songs, or even sounds, aren't the point of Sick -- simply playing some good clean hard rock is, and if you get on the same wavelength as Loaded, it can be enjoyable enough. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi