Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on November 23, 2008, by Black Frog and Geffen Records.

[46] Billy Howerdel worked as a Pro Tools engineer during the album's early development, saying: "I came in, to start, making sounds for Robin Finck, and that kind of turned into this two-and-a-half-year gig with the band.

[48] In late November 1999, Rose played several tracks for Rolling Stone, who likened the new sound to "Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti remixed by Beck and Trent Reznor".

[60] The song features Rose, Tobias, Stinson, Reed, Pitman, Finck, and Freese, along with guitarists Dave Navarro (of Jane's Addiction) and Gary Sunshine.

[58] In February 2001, Jimmy Iovine, the head of Geffen Records, asked Tom Zutaut, whom the label had fired two years previously, to help Guns N' Roses complete Chinese Democracy.

"[118] For adding his contributions to the album, he said "I'd spend 14 hours each day hearing songs for the first time, and would experiment with different ideas and directions – fretless, fretted, wah, clean, heavy, bluesy, melody, rhythmic, technical.

[128][129] In an interview held during the launch party for Korn's 2006 tour, Rose told Rolling Stone that Chinese Democracy was a "complex record", with Queen-like arrangements, and that he expected some fans to complain about the new direction.

The fan and press backlash against the recent heavily compressed recordings finally set the context for someone to take a stand and return to putting music and dynamics above sheer level.

[166] Band managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould wrote in early November: "The release of Chinese Democracy marks a historic moment in rock 'n' roll.

[66] On March 26, 2008, media reported that soft drinks manufacturer Dr Pepper would offer a free can of its product to everyone in America—excluding former Guns N' Roses guitarists Buckethead and Slash—if the band released Chinese Democracy in 2008.

Their manager, Irving Azoff, said: "The snippets of 'ambient noise' in question were provided by a member of the album's production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately ...

[58][81][219][63][127] In August 2013, "Going Down", a song recorded during the sessions featuring Stinson on vocals, was leaked online, as well as several remixes by Brain and future Guns N' Roses keyboardist Melissa Reese.

"[242] "Shackler's Revenge" was written in reaction to "the insanity of senseless school shootings and also the media trying desperately to make more out of one shooter's preference for the Guns song Brownstone to no avail" according to Rose.

"[243] The song drew comparisons to the music of industrial and electronic artists such as Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Korn, and Rob Zombie from critics.

[150] "Better" is an electronic rock-influenced song that features Rose singing in falsetto at the beginning of the track "No one ever told me when / I was alone / They just thought I'd know better", over a "whining guitar line that bubbles and bursts".

[255] Ultimate Classic Rock said the song was "a mesmerizing cocktail of minimalist hip-hop beats, lush string arrangements, transcendent guitar solos and some of Rose's most ear-piercing, tortured screams—sometimes happening all at once.

[241] "Madagascar" has been described as having a "trip-hop pulse"; its bridge features interwoven samples of quotations from the movies Mississippi Burning, Casualties of War, Cool Hand Luke, Braveheart, and Seven,[268] and also contains several excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches "I Have a Dream" and "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool".

[270] Rose said of the quotes "Dr. King's words have been edited together from multiple speeches as to bring the sentiments of his messages into the context of this particular song and to present their importance as strongly as possible.

[281] The booklet also includes pictures of Rose, Buckethead, Stinson, Pitman, Finck, Fortus, Bumblefoot, Reed, Brain, and Ferrer alongside lyrics to the songs.

[284] Los Angeles Times writer Ann Powers called it "a test for contemporary ears" and "a cyborgian blend of pop expressiveness, traditional rock bravado and Brian Wilson-style beautiful weirdness".

[290] Jon Dolan from Blender found some of the music "ludicrous" and other parts "brilliant", writing that "these aren't songs, they're suites, energetic and skittering and unpredictable hard rock hydras cut with miasmic industrial grind, stadium rattling metal solos, electronic drift and hip-hop churn.

"[285] Writing for MSN Music, Robert Christgau said Rose succeeds on "his own totally irrelevant terms" and added, "Since he's no longer capable of leading young white males astray, this effort isn't just pleasurable artistically.

"[291] In a mixed review, Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot found Rose's production over-embellished, saying "[the songs] sound like the work of a fading rock star with far too much money and time on his hands".

[289] Kitty Empire, writing for The Observer, accused Rose of "cribbing" from the industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails, calling the album "a mish-mash of portentous digitals in search of a purpose.

"[228] The New York Times writer Jon Pareles described Chinese Democracy as "a transitional album", saying "By holding it back and tinkering with it for so long, Mr. Rose has pressured himself to make it epochal...

He compared Chinese Democracy to subsequent, successful comeback albums by acts including Daft Punk, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, and My Bloody Valentine, which were "more modest" and offered "well-trod musical territory associated with each artist".

[330][331] The New York Times saw the album as a "loud last gasp from the reign of the indulged pop star"; where Rose had once commanded "loyal audiences, bountiful royalties, escalating ambitions and dangerously open-ended deadlines", the music business in the early 21st century had become "leaner" and "leakier".

[293] Jim DeRogatis compared the album to the movie The Godfather Part III, claiming it was a "late-career installment in a beloved franchise that we never thought we'd see," but lamenting that it was "nowhere near enough to stand as an equal artistic accomplishment.

[323] In a 2018 look back, Billboard called the album a "sonic anomaly" of the time due to the mixing and lack of compression making it sound "vintage or alien to rock music fans".

[363] It was certified gold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, and Colombia.