Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: L.A. Guns
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Duration: 51:29
Rating: 4/5
A new L.A. Guns album. No, not that one. This is actually the real L.A. Guns album, and the first in 15 years, since »Waking the Dead« (2002), with founding member and guitarist Tracii Guns and the band’s famous golden-voiced singer Phil Lewis finally joining forces again.
»The Missing Peace« instantly confirms that the real L.A. Guns apparently only run at full power when the right, healthy chemistry kicks in within the lineup. In this case, the chemistry that exists only between Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns. The cover hints at it: a logo made of two halves that spent 15 years searching for each other. »The Missing Peace« is an incredibly convincing, high-quality, thoroughly confident and tight album of twelve new tracks, bringing back in full the magic that fans of the band have been missing all along. So even though Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis each devoted the time in between to their own version of L.A. Guns, and Tracii racked up some seriously good collaborations in other projects, »The Missing Peace« is finally the proof that the real L.A. Guns are only born from the rock-solid Guns-Lewis bond. In songwriting and in performance alike.
»The Missing Peace« is a solid, mature follow-up to the hell-raising days of the golden era at the turn of the eighties into the nineties, which put the name L.A. Guns on the world rock’n’roll map for good. There are quite a few moments comparable to the band’s first era, with associations reaching all the way back to the self-titled studio debut. Just the brazenly cheeky, sneering album opener, a punk rock’n’roll stampede propped up by a distinctly dirty, piercing riff in It’s All the Same To Me, reminds you of the fateful “birth” connection between L.A Guns and Guns N’ Roses. Of course, there’s got to be a ballad! This time it’s Christine, which tugs at the heartstrings straight toward Crystal Eyes. You can also squeeze a few more aesthetic parallels with »Hollywood Vampires« out of the new tracks, like in the excellent Kill Or Die (Some Lie 4 Love), or the title track, which evokes Over the Edge. Energy, vibe, bonds. All of that stays in the essence of the creators, the makers of the music, in this case Tracii Guns. It just carries across time and shows up in different ways, without ever straying from its core. The album’s closing stretch is especially strong: after the excellent title track comes Gave It All Away, where Tracii Guns once again shows off his mastery of six-string theory and Phil Lewis, with his unmistakable character, reminds us once more why he works so well in dialogue with Guns. A brilliant track to wrap up the album!
Even though the album sounds like it was knocked out and recorded in a flash, it works fantastically from the first track to the last, and you can’t accuse it of any creative misfires. It keeps the rawness, the rowdiness, the hell-raiser spirit. It feels live, dirty, organic! It revives all the essential energetic traits of that real, expressive rock punch, with which the band effectively brings the character of its golden era back to life in new times, or rather carries it over into the essence of the new times.
An album firing on all cylinders. Yet, despite everything, an album that creeps under your skin just a touch slower than a fan of this band would expect “right off the bat”. Times are different and the guys are much more mature, and so even more decisive, deliberate and focused in what they do. In other words, even better and more experienced. Let’s hope this won’t stay a one-off and that Lewis and Guns will hang together for another one or two. With this enviable creative inspiration, it pays for them to stick together.
By the way, don’t miss them live tonight in Velden, Carinthia!
L.A. Guns – Speed (official video):
Lineup
Phil Lewis – vocals
Tracii Guns – guitar
Johnny Martin – bass
Michael Grant – guitar
Shane Fitzgibbon – drums
Production
Tracii Guns
Tracklist
1. It’s All The Same To Me
2. Speed
3. A Drop Of Bleach
4. Sticky Fingers
5. Christine
6. Baby Gotta Fever
7. Kill It Or Die
8. Don’t Bring A Knife To A Gunfight
9. The Flood’s The Fault Of The Rain
10. The Devil Made Me Do It
11. The Missing Peace
12. Gave It All Away
