Guns N’ Roses have released the trippy, AI-generated new video for ‘The General’, a track they released in December 2023.
Produced with creative director Dan Potter of the London-based studio Creative Works, the video combines live footage with animated sequences that were produced with artificial intelligence. According to Consequence, the band detailed the animated portions of the video in a press release.
“Between the concert footage, [the video] dives into the subconscious of a young boy who stares down the monsters of dark childhood memories, blurring worlds in the process,” it wrote. “The result is unlike anything the band has done before and continues a longstanding historic tradition of bold visuals from Guns N’ Roses.”
The “blurring [of] worlds” explained in the press release is portrayed in the video through the morphing of animation into live footage of the band, and vice versa. The live footage is itself occasionally superimposed with AI-generated augmentations, giving the band a futuristic, dystopian look.
Watch the video for ‘The General’ below.
‘The General’ was originally released as a b-side to their December 2023 single, ‘Perhaps’, which was released as a limited edition 7-inch vinyl record in October. The band first teased ‘The General’ by announcing it in August, before debuting it live in a concert in Los Angeles. Both ‘The General’ and ‘Perhaps’ were originally unreleased demos recorded during the ‘Chinese Democracy’ sessions.
The lead-up to the release of ‘Perhaps’ involved high anticipation from fans, starting in early 2023, when the band was heard rehearsing the track during a soundcheck before a concert in Tel Aviv. While the track was originally slated for a release in August, the track was leaked early that month, after being accidentally made available on TouchTunes digital jukebox machines in American bars. Thereafter, the track’s release was delayed to October.
The band spent much of 2023 undertaking a world tour which kept them on the road throughout the second half of the year. The tour, which included dates in the UK, Europe and North America, included a headlining slot at Glastonbury. NME awarded the band’s festival performance three stars, with Liberty Dunworth highlighting it as one of the band’s “strongest sets in recent years”, despite the crowd’s lukewarm reception.
“To any G’N’R fan, the Glasto set undoubtedly marks one of the strongest sets that the rock veterans have given in recent years — completely devoid of sound issues, Axl Roses’ vocals in pretty good form, Slash at the top of his game and, probably the second biggest shock of the night, the band beginning the performance bang on time,” wrote Dunworth.