We hope you've been practising your air guitar and hard-rock yowls - the age of Chinese Democracy may at last be upon us. An American blog has leaked nine purported "mastered, finished" tracks from Guns N' Roses long, long, long, long-awaited album, and as these songs swirl through the internet, it's hard to imagine that a release could be very far off.
The leak comes via www.Antiquiet.com, a little-known American rock website. A poster named "Skwerl" made nine songs available on Wednesday, without explaining their source. "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," Skwerl wrote. "So ... Hey, I told you so."
The songs were removed several hours later, with a note that, "WE GOT A CALL FROM GUNS N' ROSES". Billboard reported that Antiquiet received a cease-and-desist letter from Axl Rose's lawyers. The internet being what it is, however, the songs had more than enough time to make it on to filesharing and torrent sites, as well as YouTube.
Of the nine songs, only three - Rhiad and the Bedouins, If the World, and a track with an unknown title - had not previously leaked in one form or another. But all of these recordings appear more polished, with organ, tambourine or strings alongside screaming electric guitar and flourishes of electronics.
If the World is particularly indicative of the almost 14 years that Chinese Democracy has been in development. Many musical trends have born and died since 1994, and we get to hear a number of these alongside Axl Rose's familiar shriek. There's a vague industrial chug, ambient electronics, and a bass line that recalls Red Hot Chili Peppers - but more cringeworthy is the song's recurrent flamenco guitar, like a nightingale trapped in a studded leather bag.
Rhiad and the Bedouins is at least more conventional, rushing furiously through its short running-length and rejoicing in a stuttering guitar solo. But the final new track, unnamed in this leak, returns to the unexpected. It begins as a bona fide piano ballad, Axl Rose sounding almost destitute - but still, er, yowling. The electric guitars appear before long, rest assured, and a boatload of gratuitous violins, but overall you could almost imagine it as a collaboration between Aerosmith and Coldplay. Which should not be interpreted as a recommendation.
Guns N' Roses' last studio release was 1991's Use Your Illusion. Since 1994, Axl Rose has burned through an alleged $13m (£6.5m) in recording costs and alienated every other member of the group. $13m and an estranged band mean that there are an awful lot of people who could have been responsible for leaking these tracks. And yet we're still happiest with a dream of Slash, guitar slung over his back, booting BitTorrent on his MacBook and tossing these mp3s up into the ether. How else is he to spend his Tuesday nights now that Velvet Revolver have lost their singer?