Do you really think magazines are going to push an unpromoted album when everyone else is yapping their heads off?

It's all in the promotion. Done properly, anyone is a big selling band. There was none. If the managers and band don't care, why should the magazines?

If anything, Axl created his own American Pie with this one, the lyrics could literally mean anything and are perfectly fitting for all subjects at hand.

I give Axl a hard time and Slash a lesser one, having read Slash's book he portrayed himself way too squeaky clean for my liking. I still think Slash is the lesser of the evils, but I think he downplayed the long term effects that Axl would have to endure if the band continued their excesses. I remember Axl commenting on internet fans wanting them to play Estranged (and being pro-Slash) or maybe it was November Rain in a concert rant that went something like "do you have any idea the kind of shit I went through to get those guys to fucking play those songs?" (if anyone has the video, please link me up!), and I think that's especially valid. Slash is the greatest emotional guitar player to me, even better than he is at rocking. Without Axl, does he ever even display this gift? There are HUGE rifts in the quasi-logic that is GNR and it's fine to decipher through them all. No other band was this interesting/good/fucked up.

Anyone know if Sorry was written post-Slash rant in the media with VR? I figured maybe that'd be a catalyst.

Where is the demonic voice in TWAT?

I admit the album is busy, but it doesn't really bother me. When it doesn't take away from the vocals or mashes everything to where it drowns things way too far out, it's really cool. I mean, how many films have people seen where they pick up on little things each time they watch it because the film was full of art and subtleties?