I am so damn tempted to hit up those clips, but I've resolved to hear the whole thing front to back.  If it leaks in full, I may not be so righteous.

I have not heard them, don't care to (unless the album is in full, of course), but whoever uploaded to demonoid makes reference to the cleaned up aim links, because they point out how This I Love still sounds like shit.

I'm sold...Pretty bold declarations...Let's make it happen.

Right, argument never holds much water.  Can't have it both ways...He's too freaky for GNR, his style doesn't work, but he's trying to hard to replicate Slash.

I appreciate the response...I hear ya, I mean, yes, TWAT definitely sticks out in my mind as a blatant attempt to go for the grand, November Rain-esque, career defining solo, but I think that Buckethead does just enough of his own thing to prevent it from veering too far into the realm of parody.  The funny thing is, a lot of the solos tend to have a really lyrical quality to them.  In fact, I would say that MOST of the guitar playing in general is molded around Axl's vocal and melody; that seems to be the bedrock for most of these tunes.  The songs that tend to be a bit more atonal and "wanky" are just a byproduct of the styles of the people who wrote the tunes.  I haven't heard the final mixes yet, so we'll definitely get down to it and wax philosophical on the playing when the CD comes out.