It's one of L.A. rock's dirty little secrets: The big-haired, neo-glam '80s metal revival that culminated in Guns N' Roses briefly taking over the world was also--with apologies to the "Silverlake scene"--arguably the city's last truly thriving grassroots club movement. This collection of demos by early Hollywood metal scene fixture Hollywood Rose revolves around the presence of two ambitious, recently transplanted Hoosiers--guitarist Jeff Isabelle and vocalist William Bailey, soon to be better known as GNR's Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose, respectively. Fans of the star-crossed metal superstars will welcome a raw early version of Appetite for Destruction's "Anything Goes," a chance to hear Axl's distinctive shriek in mid-evolution, and Izzy's churning, bluesy riffing, even if HR's energized punk-metal merely toys with the decadence and insanity that would eventually swallow GNR whole. Original GNR manager Vicki Hamilton offers up some personal insights, too. But there's also a downside: The disc only contains five 16-track demos, padded out by lovably executed, if largely disposable, remixes by latter-day Gunner Gilbey Clarke and Cinderella's Fred Coury, featuring a few new overdubs by fellow Hollywood glam-metal fixture Tracii Guns. --Jerry McCulley