Use Your Illusion II - Guns N' Roses

Use Your Illusion II is the companion to Use Your Illusion I, released on the same day — September 17, 1991 — on Geffen Records. This volume debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, one spot ahead of its counterpart. Slash's guitar solos are featured prominently throughout, from the protest anthem "Civil War" — which opens with a sample of the film Cool Hand Luke — to the epic, multi-section "Estranged" and the driving "You Could Be Mine," which was used in the Terminator 2: Judgment Day soundtrack. The band's cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" became one of their most popular live songs, featuring Slash's wah-wah pedal solo. Izzy Stradlin sings lead on "14 Years" and the punk-influenced "So Fine," offering a looser, Keith Richards-influenced counterpoint to Axl Rose's more theatrical vocals. At fourteen tracks, the album mirrors the first volume's ambitious scope, incorporating ballads, hard rock, spoken-word segments, and studio experiments. The Use Your Illusion albums were the last recordings by the classic Guns N' Roses lineup — Stradlin left the band during the supporting tour, and the group's personnel would continue to shift throughout the decade.