July of 2005 should see Caram Costanzo and Merck Mercuriadis meet up to decide the final credits on the completed 'Chinese Democracy' album. And because the album was mostly recorded over the past two to three years, it does look as though that many producers and musicians alike will miss out despite devoting much time to the new Guns album. It is said though that a small amount of 'old' work does still remain on 'Chinese Democracy'. So musicians such as Brian May could still feature on CD, even though the chances are slim.

Brain Mantia, the drummer of Guns n'roses, is extremely confident that he will feature on all of the tracks on the new Guns n'roses album and gives us an idea as to what tracks will feature on the album.

'Prostitute' is likely to feature as one of the strongest tracks on the new Guns n'roses album. Although the roots of the song go back to the late 1990's, the meat of the song was actually only recorded in the last two-three years. Paul Buckmaster who did orchestration for the song told us "Prostitute is a mid-up, kind of biting, aggressive rhythm section; the way I wrote for the string section (32-piece, consisting of ten 1st Violins, eight 2nd Violins, six violas, and eight cellos) gives the song another dimension of, ice and fire, kind of powerful". Buckmaster also told us that 'Prostitute' was a 3-5 minute song

Already aired tracks 'Madagascar' and 'The Blues' will also feature on the new album, according to members of Guns n'roses, as will the title track 'Chinese Democracy'. Members were not so sure about 'Rhiad and the Bedouins' though. However, Splat understands that the song has been A-listed and is therefore a strong candidate for the new album.

Leaked track, 'IRS', is also a definite for the new album, although Merck Mercuriadis has stated that there are at least ten tracks on the new album which he considers stronger tracks than IRS.

'TWAT' and 'Catcher in the Rye' are also expected to strongly feature on the new album. 'TWAT', an acronym for 'There Was a Time', was not regarded as a memorable song by Paul Buckmaster, but it is a song that is personal to Axl, so is likely to feature on the new album. The song itself features orchestration by Paul Buckmaster. 'Catcher in the Rye' has long been regarded as one of the 'big guns' on the new album, and Axl is alleged to have bigged up the song quite a few times to fans and friends alike. Dizzy Reed describes both songs as 'good rock songs'.

'Leave Me Alone', 'Seven', and 'The General' could also feature on the new album. These three A listed songs were worked on by Marco Beltrami, especially 'Seven', which Marco deems as the best of the three songs. It has also been reported that Marco worked on a fourth track, 'Thyme'. However, this song was not worked on subsequent to Marco's work in October 2002.

'This I Love', a song originally destined for the soundtrack of 'What Dreams May Come', is also likely to feature on the new album, and is regarded as another of Axl's personal favourites. The piano-led ballad Axl has historically been described by Axl as the heaviest song he has ever written (emotionally speaking). The song, which was originally penned during the 1990's, is described by Dave Dominguez as a "very heartfelt' love song of about 5 minutes or more in length.

Other weak contenders for the new Guns n'roses album are 'Quick Song', a rock song with a riff reminiscent of Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Zodiac', an electronic industrial song and Atlas Shrugged, which is somewhere between 70's glam rock and 'November Rain'. As these three songs date back to 2000, some of the titles may have changed.

All other rumoured titles that have circulated the airwaves over recent years are very unlikely to appear on Chinese Democracy, and it will probably be the case that a few new unheard of tracks could find their way onto the new album. Dizzy Reed has told Splat though that no cover songs will feature on the new Guns n'roses album, which will be good news to some fans.

As of today, Splat understands that band members will find out at the end of August/start of September whether they can continue their solo exploits until the end of the year, so it will be at this point when we, the fans, find out whether Chinese Democracy will see a 2005 release. So until then, let's keep our fingers crossed.

Please note we have posted this to our Gossip section due to the nature of some of the information

Posting this to other sites should be fine though, as long as it is reported correctly (i.e. Gossip).