Guns N' Roses have released the video for their latest single The General. They'd been teasing a major news from their camp, and fans got their hopes up thinking a new album might be imminent... But in typical GN'R fashion, expectations were once again confounded.
This video Is the first one in which they use AI to generate images. The concert footage is real, but the trippy images that link the whole thing narratively have been done by a fucking robot. Forget You Could Be Mine, this is the real Terminator song right there.
I keep hearing that it is the future, and I'm willing to believe that in the right hands it can be a very potent creative tool, but when it's done in order to produce something quickly and cheaply, then it's just a lazy cop-out. Unfortunately, this video seems to fall in the second category.
I have to admit I'm not convinced by the song itself. If the track was stronger, then an underwhelming video wouldn't matter. But the fact is this is mediocre both in style and substance. As a big GN'R fan, I believe that the band can get down to business and recapture at least part of the spark that made their studio albums so successful, artistically and commercially. But as long as they keep rehashing old songs, they're going to keep tarnishing the legacy they've been working so hard to salvage and all the good will they've accumulated since getting back together in 2016.
You can watch the video in the embedded YouTube player below. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section, in our forums or at our social media pages.