Search - La Guns :: American Hardcore

The opposite of excellent

01/03/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"My grandmother eating a ham sandwich sounds more like LA Guns than this does."

LA Guns weakest album

Daniel Maltzman | Arlington, MA, USA | 12/12/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"1996 saw the emergence of a new, (albeit short-lived) LA Guns. After almost a decade with the band, bassist Kelly Nickels, guitarist Mick Cripps and singer Phil Lewis left the band. The new lineup brought Johnny Crypt (bass) and Chris Van Dahl (vocals) into the fold. Holdovers Tracii Guns (Guitar) and Steve Riley (Drums) filled out the lineup.



Musically, American Hardcore takes up where "Vicious Circle" (1994) left off. With "Vicious Circle" the band had been eschewing their signature pop-metal in favor of a more aggressive sound. This worked with "Vicious Circle" because the band still came up with some good hooks and Phil Lewis added melody and made the songs memorable. The band is less successful, however, with "American Hardcore." Chris Van Dahl is by no means a bad singer. He would actually fit in just fine fronting a death metal or hardcore band, but he just isn't right for LA Guns. Dahl's throaty growl just doesn't mesh with the band. But it just isn't Dahl that ruins the album. The album sounds forced, as thought they were trying too hard to sound aggressive. The album isn't a total failure; there are some ideas here and there, and some good riffs and solos, but overall, the album doesn't work.



If you are a hard-core fan or collector, you will want to own this disc. Casual fans are advised to stay away.





"

Without Phil?

Steve -o | Des.Moines, IA | 09/18/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Now when I first recieved this album, I was really excited to hear it being an L.A.Guns fan, but when I listened to the first few tracks I was truly dissapointed, for a few reasons

1:They changed their name to "The L.A.Guns"

2:Tracii Guns was the only original member in this lineup

3:They went into the Heavy Metal scene which is NOT L.A.Guns style at all.

I didnt like how they changed to the heavy metal scene because im not all that into heavy metal for 1, and for 2 because it is not L.A.Guns, this album was just a pathetic attempt to gain new fans since they started to fall off the map after the Vicious Circle flop, now dont get me wrong, I thought Vicious Circles was a great album, but this album they took it a step to far, and with this album you can tell that they were truly hurting without the vocals of Phil Lewis. The only positive that came out of this album was some pretty cool guitar riffs. I only recommend this album if your a TRUE L.A.Guns fan."