As post-glam/metal moments of largesse go, Guns N' Roses' simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion I & II was perhaps as big as it gets. So it makes sense that a new box set collecting both albums is about as grandiose - and as messy.

On November 11, UMe will collect the band's 1991 studio albums in a new super deluxe box that spans seven CDs or 12 LPs and a Blu-ray. Both boxes include new remasters of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, plus two complete live sets, newly mixed from the original multi-track tapes: a "warm-up" gig at The Ritz in New York, some four months before the albums dropped, and a later show from the accompanying tour recorded in Las Vegas in January 1992. (By this point, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin had departed, and Gilby Clarke took his place.) The Ritz show, also captured on 35 millimeter film and recently digitized in 4K Ultra HD, will feature on the Blu-ray with stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos audio mix options. A folio of new and replica swag is also included, from photo prints to replicas of fan club newsletters, backstage passes and ticket stubs, as is a 100-page book of liner notes and memorabilia.

Now here's where some asterisks apply. Each album will also be reissued as a 2CD expanded edition with bonus discs of material from the accompanying tour. Sixteen of those tracks - eight on each reissue - do not appear on the super deluxe box. This includes audio from the band's Rock in Rio set in early 1991, plus European dates in London and Paris - the latter of which included guest appearances by Lenny Kravitz ("Always on the Run") and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry ("Mama Kin," "Train Kept A Rollin'"). So if you want it all, you've got at least three products to buy. (The new remasters of each album will also be available individually on CD and double 180-gram vinyl, or in a 4LP, limited and numbered color vinyl set with a zoetrope slipmat.) And on every format, Use Your Illusion I's epic "November Rain" is presented in a new mix by Steven Wilson, with a 50-piece orchestra under the direction of composer Christopher Lennertz replacing the synth orchestra patches of the original track.

It's all par for the course for GN'R's most sprawling sessions ever, barely contained across two 76-minute CDs. With producer Mike Clink, who helmed the group's breakthrough debut Appetite for Destruction (1987),an increasingly fractious band - frontman W. Axl Rose, guitarists Slash and Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, new keyboardist Dizzy Reed and drummer Matt Sorum (replacing original percussionist Steven Adler, who partook in some of the sessions before being ejected for drug abuse) - threw all sorts of styles at the wall and saw what stuck.

The songs were longer, the hooks were both hard-edged and tender, and the lyrics were more acidic than ever. Axl ground axes against neighbors ("Right Next Door to Hell"), exes ("Back Off Bitch") and journalists ("Get in the Ring") while inviting everyone from Alice Cooper to Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon to participate in the sessions. (Hoon can be heard on two tracks from the New York live show.) They covered Paul McCartney ("Live and Let Die") and Bob Dylan ("Knockin' on Heaven's Door") and, when they couldn't decide on which lyrics they liked better for the Top 10 single "Don't Cry," they just used both.

The accompanying videos had unbelievable budgets: lead single "You Could Be Mine" was featured in the blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day and featured Arnold Schwarzenegger's unstoppable cyborg in the MTV clip. "November Rain," a nine-minute piano-driven ballad that peaked at an extraordinary No. 3, was accompanied by a video that formed a trilogy with clips for "Don't Cry" and "Estranged." Together, they featured love and loss, epic helicopter shots, a long-haired guy diving through a wedding cake, and Rose attaining peace by swimming with dolphins.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Use Your Illusion albums debuted atop the Billboard 200 after a week of release. (The second outsold the first.) One week later, Nirvana released Nevermind, and the rock landscape would shift over the next two years. The ensuing Use Your Illusion Tour stretched for 28 months and saw riots break out (some involving Rose) during some dates. Stradlin quit in frustration and was replaced by Clarke. The band experimented with reggae. Nirvana declined an opening slot; Metallica would sign up for a joint headline tour, marked by a pyrotechnic incident that saw frontman James Hetfield get burned in a pyrotechnic accident, GN'R cutting their late set off after mere minutes, and more riots ensuing as a result.

Sorum, Clarke, Slash and McKagan would all leave the band before the end of the decade, after contributing to a disjointed 1993 covers album called "The Spaghetti Incident?"; Rose would work on the band's next, near-mythic album of original material, Chinese Democracy, until its release in 2008; in 2016, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group shocked fans by unveiling a seven-member line-up that reunited Rose, Slash, McKagan and Reed. They released two studio tracks in 2021 and supported a deluxe edition of Appetite for Destruction as well.

Amazon links are now live, and you can dive into the various formats of Use Your Illusion below. And don't you cry tonight - there's a heaven above you.

Use Your Illusion I & II (Super Deluxe Edition) (Geffen/UMe, 2022)

7CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
12LP/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP 1-2: Use Your Illusion remastered (released as Geffen/Uzi Suicide GEFD-24415, 1991)

1. Right Next Door to Hell
2. Dust N' Bones
3. Live and Let Die
4. Don't Cry (Original)
5. Perfect Crime
6. You Ain't the First
7. Bad Obsession
8. Back Off Bitch
9. Double Talkin' Jive
10. November Rain +
11. The Garden
12. Garden of Eden
13. Don't Damn Me
14. Bad Apples
15. Dead Horse
16. Coma

+ newly remixed by Steven Wilson - new orchestration replacing the original synthesizer parts

CD 2/LP 3-4: Use Your Illusion II remastered (released as Geffen/Uzi Suicide GEFD-24420, 1991)

1. Civil War
2. 14 Years
3. Yesterdays
4. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
5. Get in the Ring
6. Shotgun Blues
7. Breakdown
8. Pretty Tied Up
9. Locomotive
10. So Fine
11. Estranged
12. You Could Be Mine
13. Don't Cry (Alt. Lyrics)
14. My World

CD 3-4/LP 5-8: Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991 (previously unreleased except where noted)

1. Pretty Tied Up
2. Bad Obsession
3. Right Next Door to Hell
4. Mr. Brownstone
5. Dust N' Bones
6. Live and Let Die
7. Paradise City
8. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)/Civil War
9. Drum Solo
10. Slash Solo
11. You Could Be Mine

1. I Was Only Joking/Patience
2. Only Women Bleed/Knockin' on Heaven's Door
3. Don't Cry (Original) (feat. Shannon Hoon)
4. You Ain't the First (feat. Shannon Hoon)
5. My Michelle
6. Estranged
7. Double Talkin' Jive
8. Sweet Child O' Mine
9. Welcome to the Jungle

CD 5-7/LP 9-12: Live at Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV - 1/25/1992 (previously unreleased except where noted)

1. Nightrain
2. Mr. Brownstone
3. Live and Let Die
4. Attitude
5. It's So Easy
6. Bad Obsession
7. Welcome to the Jungle
8. Double Talkin' Jive
9. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)/Civil War

1. Don't Cry (Original)
2. Wild Horses
3. Patience
4. You Could Be Mine
5. So Fine
6. November Rain
7. Intros/Drum Solo
8. Slash Solo
9. Speak Softly, Love (Love Theme from The Godfather)
10. Rocket Queen

1. Sail Away Sweet Sister
2. Sweet Child O' Mine
3. Move to the City
4. Hotel California/Only Women Bleed/Knockin' on Heaven's Door
5. Yesterdays
6. My Michelle
7. Estranged
8. Mother/Paradise City

CD 3, Track 5; CD 5, Track 1; CD 6, Track 10 and CD 7, Tracks 5 and 8(b) released on Live Era '87-'93 - Geffen 069 490 514-2, 1999

Blu-ray Disc (All-Regions): Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991 (same track list as CDs 3-4)

Concert: 1.44:1 Pillarbox/1080p/24fps
Audio: Dolby Atmos 48kHz 24-bit/Dolby TrueHD 5.1 96kHz 24-bit/PCM Stereo 48kHz 24-bit

Use Your Illusion I (Deluxe Edition) (Geffen/UMe, 2022) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Original album remastered

CD 2: Use Your Illusion 1991/1992 Tour (* not included on super deluxe edition)

1. Perfect Crime (Live at Wembley Stadium, London, England - 8/31/1991) *
2. Bad Obsession (Live at Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV - 1/25/1992)
3. Right Next Door to Hell (Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991)
4. Always on the Run (with Lenny Kravitz) (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
5. Dust N' Bones (Live at Wembley Stadium, London, England - 8/31/1991) *
6. Live and Let Die (Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991)
7. Attitude (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
8. Double Talkin' Jive (Live at Wembley Stadium, London, England - 8/31/1991) *
9. Don't Cry (Original) (Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991)
10. You Ain't the First (Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991)
11. It's Alright / November Rain (Live at Hippodrome de Vincennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
12. Bad Apples (Live at Rock in Rio, Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 1/23/1991) *
13. Wild Horses (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *

Use Your Illusion II (Deluxe Edition) (Geffen/UMe, 2022) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Original album remastered

CD 2: Use Your Illusion 1991/1992 Tour (* not included on super deluxe edition)

1. Pretty Tied Up (Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991)
2. 14 Years (Live at Wembley Stadium, London, England - 8/31/1991) *
3. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)/Civil War (Live at Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV - 1/25/1992)
4. You Could Be Mine (Live at The Ritz, New York, NY - 5/16/1991)
5. Drum Solo (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
6. Slash Solo (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
7. Speak Softly, Love (Love Theme from The Godfather) (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
8. Sail Away Sweet Sister (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
9. So Fine (Live at Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV - 1/25/1992)
10. Only Women Bleed/Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Live at Rock in Rio, Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 1/23/1991) *
11. Mama Kin (featuring Steven Tyler & Joe Perry) (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
12. Train Kept A Rollin' (featuring Steven Tyler & Joe Perry) (Live at Hippodrome de Vicennes, Paris, France - 6/6/1992) *
13. Estranged (Live at Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV - 1/25/1992)

Use Your Illusion I & II (Remastered Editions) (Geffen/UMe, 2022)

4LP colored vinyl with slipmat: Official Store
UYI I 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
UYI I 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
UYI II 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
UYI II 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada