The world has moved on since the glory days of Guns N’ Roses, when the Terminator was hunting Axl Rose on MTV. Now, 15 years after their last album, Axl Rose is all that remains of the original lineup, although Use Your Illusion bit-player Dizzy Reed is credited with some contributions here.

Others have rightly commented that while the name is officially Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy is all about Axl Rose, who wrote all the lyrics and melodies, and shares credit for production, mixing, and editing. He even plays guitar on “Madagascar,” and provides the lion’s share of piano work.

If listeners are hoping for instantly accessible songs like “November Rain” or “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” they will be disappointed. That’s not to say the album lacks the nastiness and edge from the old lineup, as listeners will be reminded of “Anything Goes” and “Out Ta Get Me” when they hear tracks like “Scraped” and “Riad N the Bedouins” (which I suspect is an anagram). Rose goes further into his roots, channeling Freddie Mercury in his overtly personal “This I Love.”

Rose has also kept up with musical trends since the peak of Guns N’ Roses, as the influence of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Marilyn Manson are obvious in “Better” and “Shackler’s Revenge.” Rose thanks L.A. gunslinger Kid Rock in the liner notes, and the song “I.R.S.,” with its funky cowboy rhythm would be right at home on one of Kid Rock’s albums.

Many people wonder what Chinese Democracy would have sounded like had the original members of Guns N’ Roses been involved. That question is answered in the form of “Catcher in the Rye,” which sounds eerily similar to Velvet Revolver’s “Pieces.” (Velvet Revolver was formed by most of Rose’s old GnR band mates).

Rose dares the listener to criticize his work. The closing track “Prostitute” evokes the closing apology/explanation from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and one could just as easily hear him sing “To hell with the pressure” as “To hell with The Press, sure” on the sarcastically-titled “Sorry.” Fair enough, but a work like this is ripe for criticism.

Perhaps no album has been as widely anticipated, indifferently shrugged off during its tumultuous production, or finally regarded as an anachronistic curiosity than Chinese Democracy. All of the pathos we’ve come to expect from Axl Rose is here, as is the frenetic energy.

Rose has mellowed out, a bit, but the listener who knew Guns N’ Roses can still hear the old band somewhere in there. It sometimes gets obscured by the overbearing guitars (most of the tracks credit four different guitarists), but Rose’s style and production values are on full display.

Gone are the lyrical, spring reverb-drenched solos from Slash. They have been replaced with meticulously proficient, but ultimately forgettable substitutes from the lineup of guitarists. What remains from the old GnR is piano and orchestral motifs that made Rose’s previous epics so successful, but those are combined with the highly-edited, effects-drenched instruments and vocals that made listeners tilt their heads in confusion when they heard “My World” back in 1991.

Ultimately, the album comes extremely close to being a hit, but it sounds more like a freshman effort. This as a fresh start for a group that has been completely overhauled. I would love to see what a sophomore effort would bring, as there is enough to keep the listener interested in Chinese Democracy, but not enough to truly grab the attention of casual fans.

Geoff White is a musician and is Assistant Director for Student Media at Radford University.