Slash’s long awaiting solo album has been made available to stream online, though here in the UK we will have to wait till the 10th of May before you can buy it.

The album sees slash becoming the Jools Holland of rock in as much as he invites friends to provide vocals over his instrumentals  (for all Slash fans, I accept that this is as far as the analogy goes).  The big names featured is a compliment to Slash in itself – just have a look at the track listing:

“Ghost” (featuring Ian Astbury)
“Beautiful Dangerous” (featuring Fergie)
“Nothing To Say” (featuring M. Shadows)
“Crucify The Dead” (featuring Ozzy Osbourne)
“Promise” (featuring Chris Cornell)
“By The Sword” (featuring Andrew Stockdale)
“Doctor Alibi” (featuring Lemmy)
“Saint Is A Sinner Too” (featuring Rocco De Luca)
“Watch This” (featuring Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan)
“I Hold On” (featuring Kid Rock)
‘Gotten” (featuring Adam Levine)
‘We’re All Gonna Die” (featuring Iggy Pop)
‘Starlight” (featuring Myles Kennedy)
“Slash”

Hard rock can often equal loud, bad music; the tag of the genre being used to hide bad music while detractors are too easily labelled as being too ingrained with pop. I have always found the acid test for good rock is that people with an eclectic taste can listen to the music without having to get past an initial wince to try to tune into the style.

This is the case here. The music is so well arranged that you cannot help but feel the hand of an old master in play. Even when Fergie gets involved, I can look past  her affecting an almost completely new voice to the quality of the song.

On first listen it looks like it is set to become the hard rock album of the year. Here’s a taster:

Picture Courtesy of Slashworld.com