Chinese Democracy Tour Europe, Asia and North America consisted of: After the 2002 tour was cancelled the band went into hiatus until they were scheduled to play at Rock in Rio Lisboa 1 in May 2004. However lead guitarist Buckethead left the band in March 2004 and their appearance was cancelled and Axl Rose made the following statement: Buckethead left Guns N' Roses, according to his manager, due to "Guns' inability to complete an album or tour". The Chinese Democracy Tour 2006 was a concert tour by Guns N' Roses promoting their upcoming album "Chinese Democracy". It started in May 2006 when the
Chinese Democracy and a reference to Falun Gong. The Communist Party of China said through media that it "turns its spear point on China". "Chinese Democracy" was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 28 reviews. "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". Chuck Klosterman, writing for "The A.V. Club", praised the vocals and guitar parts but criticized