Slash – World on Fire

Introducing Slash feels a bit pointless.  If you don’t know who the top hat wearing guitarist is, then you are probably on the wrong blog.  He’s recently released his third solo album, at least his third solo album that just goes under the name, Slash, once again teaming up with Myles Kennedy and  The Conspirators, to give us, World on Fire.

Now lets get the obvious out of the way early, Slash is really good at guitar.  I don’t think that really needs to be  elaborated on.  This album is full of great rock and roll riffs that hit the sweet spot more often than not.  Whether it’s the sexy Guns ‘N’ Roses esque “Automatic Overdrive” or the swagger of “Dirty Girl”, Slash can play and that is shown time after time on this album. Obvious point number 2, Myles Kennedy is really good at singing.  I don’t think there is a better straight up rock and roll vocalist out there at the moment, although I’m probably forgetting someone, and Myles hits all the right notes on this album.  He’s Axl Rose without the danger and quite frankly, I’m sure that is a lot more enjoyable for the rest of the band.

Now we’ve got that over and done with, let us move to the other aspects of this album.  Firstly, there are albums that should be over an hour long.  Bands like Opeth are entitled to do that.  I’m sorry to say, I don’t think Slash is in that category.  17 tracks is far too many and it is an album that begins to wear.  I take notes when listening to albums I’m planning on reviewing and I got tired of writing the same thing about tracks on this album.  There is nothing I would point to as being strictly bad, but there is a lot of stuff we have heard before.  The difference between tracks like “Wicked Stone” and “Battleground” is minimal and as you listen to this album, you can’t help wishing they’d trimmed it down to the best ten songs.

This sense of having heard it all before is also an issue.  If you own Apocalyptic Love and have heard Slash and Myles do their thing, then you know what to expect here.  Now for some people, that’s great.  Personally, the more Slash I have in my life the better.  However, a lot of people just won’t find anything new for them in this album.  It’s not going to excite them and I can get that.  This is Slash doing Slash and while that is enjoyable, there is a lot of Slash out there already.

World on Fire is the classic good, but not great album.  A solid 7 out of 10, with nothing to make it truly special.  In many ways that is great, it hits that spot that you expect it too and you go home happy.  However, if Slash wants to continue down this solo route and not reform any of his rather famous bands, then you can’t help thinking a shake up is needed, it’s time to see Slash step outside of his comfort zone and see if the top hatted wonder can still rewrite the rule book.