Its been 13 years in the making, through countless lineup changes and millions of dollars, but it seems the long awaited 'Chinese Democracy' album by veteran rock group Guns N' Roses will hit the world with a whimper.
American blog Antiquiet has leaked nine "mastered, finished" tracks supposedly from the album, onto file sharing sites and onto YouTube.
A poster from the blog, Skwerl made the songs available:
"I always said that the more that Axl and Geffen jerked around trying to figure out how to release this finally finished album that we've all been waiting over 13 years for, the greater the chances would be that it would slip out of a pressing plant or office somewhere and wind up in the hands of some asshole with a blog," the poster wrote. "So ... hey, I told you so."
Shortly after the tracks were posted they were removed, after "(getting) a call from Guns n' Roses)
Later, Antiquiet reportedly received a threatening letter from lawyers acting on behalf of GNR singer and front man Axl Rose - but by that time the tracks had spread through the internet like wildfire.
Chinese Democracy will mark the first recorded activity from the volatile group in nearly 14 years. Their last album, 1994's 'The Spaghetti Incident', was a collection of cover songs that paled in comparison to their 1991 smash hit double album 'Use Your Illusion 1 and 2'.
In 2008, Axl Rose is now the only original member of the group - and early leaks of new material have not been received well by fans.
