GUNS N’ ROSES N’ ROCK BAND EXTRACT “SHACKLER’S REVENGE”

So last week a few of you e-mailed us with rumors that a new Guns N’ Roses song, “Shackler’s Revenge,” would be on the forthcoming Rock Band 2 video game. Diligent reporters that we are, we completely ignored these e-mails. I mean, can you blame us? There’s a crazy Guns N’ Roses rumor every week, most of them amounting to nothing; with no one from team GN’R making any official announcements, it seemed kinda silly to report on crazy rumors.

Well, don’t we feel silly. ‘Cause the rumors were apparently true.

The New York Times reports:

A decade and a half after releasing its previous album, Guns N’ Roses plans to put out a new song in September — on the video game Rock Band 2. MTV expects to announce on Monday that the sequel to its popular Rock Band game will include ‘Shackler’s Revenge,’ a track from the Guns N’ Roses album that has been in the works for more than a decade, said people familiar with the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the arrangement has yet to be announced.

The inclusion of the song on a game suggests that the Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy will come out this fall, after years of delays. Axl Rose, who has selected replacements for the other original members, has said that the album is finished, but a release date has not been announced.

Assuming that The Paper of Record isn’t just printing bullshit lies from a terrible source, this would mark the first time GN’R have officially released any new music since “Oh My God” appeared on the End of Days soundtrack in 1999.

That being said, to say that the release of the song is a) definite based solely on someone on the inside saying so and b) it means that Chinese Democracy will finally see the light of day this fall would be to jump the gun (No Pun intended. Okay, maybe intended a little.).

For one thing, “Oh My God”‘s release led to nothing except some scattered concert appearances by Axl’s revamped GN’R, and those concert appearances, in turn, led to more nothing; for another thing, in 2006 Harley Davidson signed a deal to include “Better,” then thought to be the first single off of Chinese Democracy, in an ad campaign, and went so far as to send out a press release announcing the song’s inclusion in the spots; but the commercial with the track was posted on the Harley website for all of an hour before it was pulled and replaced with a version that used “Paradise City” instead.

But assuming for a moment that it is true, I guess it’s not the worst marketing plan ever… so long as the song gets its own release and I don’t have to buy the stupid video game to hear the song (and the web being what it is these days, I’m sure I won’t). I mean, I’m aware that I’ve criticized other bands for using the same marketing scheme, but I’m an adult. I can admit when I made a mistake.

Meanwhile, Mirriam-Webster defines the word “shackler” as “to deprive of freedom especially of action by means of restrictions or handicaps.” Why such a person would need revenge is beyond me, but, hey, if Kalmah can write about fish vengeance, I guess Axl Rose can do whatever the fuck he wants.

-AR