Use Your Illusion I

These remasters - Illusion I and ii have been very well done. The music sounds as if it was recorded last week. Unlike a lot of remasters where the bass or keyboards or lead guitar have been over emphasised, I think these have been done very carefully to ensure balance. For me, who bought the albums on their release in '91 it's great that they have retained the power and punch that the original albums had. Only downside is the packaging. Whilst probably as good as the original albums, it would have been good to have some information on the making of the albums and the relationships between band members that drove this creativity. All we get is a bunch of phot's, and at my age I'm just not that kind of fanboy.

As a lifelong Guns N Roses fan, and given I already own everything, the prospect of a remaster with a special CD full of extra stuff (that in fairness I likely already have but most people don't), I of course jumped straight on and got myself both Illusion I and II.Overall, this is a disappointing rerelease. The first thing I noted was the packaging was extremely poor. Love or hate digipak formats (I love the format), these are not quite digipaks. They are more akin to bits of card folded together so tightly, there is no choice but to damage it trying to get the CDs out. I got a tear in one of the card holders trying to get the CD out of it and I was really trying to be careful. Added to that, it's extremely poorly printed. There was one particular image of Slash's guitar that just looked like it was taken from a gif that might have been fine on a computer monitor in 1996 but when printed is grainier than innocent bystander footage during a UFO encounter. The poster of the band with DEAD written behind them is glossy on one part, matte on the other and you can see where the blend of the two finishes has reacted and is starting to peel. Extremely poor packaging overall.Now onto the CDs. One thing that always struck me about Guns' Illusion albums is how much care and attention to detail has been paid to the mixing and subsequent master. I too noticed back in 1992 when I bought them on record, I had to reach for the volume knob on the hifi as the master was quite low. But everything was there, everything was punchy and the dynamics - where the song is softer and quieter vs the loud and grandiose parts - were really pronounced and made for a beautiful listening experience.All of that has been utterly destroyed by these brick-walled remasters. This is a remaster disaster. All the dynamics, gone. The punchier parts, gone. The quiet parts, gone. This loss of dynamics really affects the album throughout. Don't Cry on both releases has just lost its delicacy, an even bigger casualty being the likes of Civil War and Estranged, the latter of which sounds utterly flat, uninteresting and is far from the emotional sonic journey as it appeared on the initial releases.Save yourself the bother. If you already have the extra material on the second CDs, take yourself off to Ebay and buy some used (original) copies. They sound better in every respect.Unless you are buying this to look pretty on a shelf of course then by all means, knock yourself out. If you are buying this to actually listen to, then give them a miss. What an utter shame.

Might be just me but the remaster isn't that spectacular.

This is a great cd with bonus live disc

Great 2disc revisit of the early 90s peak of Guns….

Me llego en perfectas condiciones

a great band, a great album. great live songs

Tudo perfeito

This is an amazing package in the city form is the way that I had purchased it and it came as advertised. It was packing very well and sounds incredible. Definitely recommend this album.!!

Die CD war für Fan tolles Geschenk