Customer Reviews

American Hardcore

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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

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.

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.

I bought this cd in 1996 expecting it to be "L.A. Guns" is some form and I was sorely disappointed. The gig I saw shortly therefter didn't improve things (until they closed with Rip n Tear (rocked!)). But that proves the point: This grating, poser, grindcore a) isn't L.A. Guns, and b) sucks for any form of "music." If I want fast/aggressive music, I WILL buy (and ideally, see) Cannibal Corpse or Killswitch Engage. Next time I buy/see L.A. Guns, I'll ensure that it's the real deal (i.e. with Phil). Aloha.

This albums horrible the only good thing about it is the guitar riffs and the only reason I own it is because im a true L.A. Guns fan

here's the deal: to make a short story long by 1994, LA Guns was a mess. the guys had personal and creative differences that prevented 1995's "Vicious Circle" from being a solid effort. the album suffered from trying to mash so many styles of music on one CD. "chasing the dragon" and "kill that girl" did not belong on the same CD. at this point, the 4 guys were writing very different tunes. when mick cripps, phil lewis, and eventually kelly nickels left, the style that tracii guns had gone for took over the band. "american hardcore" is the result. the album has a lot in common with half of the tracks on "vicious circle", but it too was a bit skewed... each song on "hardcore" sounds like a different "current" band that Tracii, Steve Riley and the new boys Chris & Johnny were trying to emulate. A Lot of LA Guns fans say that Chris is the worst singer in the band's history, but he's actually pretty good. That doesn't make this CD any better, but songs like "new generation" and "needles and hugs" are very close to the band's old sound, whereas "give", "mine", and "i am alive" are much heavier. "what i've become", "pissed", & "don't pray" show the band trying to be cool again in 1996, and "hey world" is just a re-written version of the classic "one way ticket" written way back in 1986. The production is a bit one-dimentional as steve sounds like he's hitting a garbage can instead of a snare, but at that point the fans that acually enjoyed the album didn't care. A lot of fans say, and maybe rightfully so, that the band should have changed their name at this point, but in their defense why try to rebuild something from scratch when people were just going to say that it featured Steve & Tracii from LA Guns anyway!? Yeah, it's an odd album, but it does have its moments and it shows a band hungry to do something new and be cool again even though all odds were against them. i don't recomend this album to any LA Guns fan who loves their older hits, but to anyone who's willing to try someting a little left of center, then go for it... this CD comes cheap these days!

This crap makes death metal sound melodic. It's laughable at best and what's worse is that I saw them on this tour with Van Dahl on vocals and everyone walked out on the band because it was billed as L.A.Guns and this is not L.A. Guns. Suckups to the band will argue that it's just heavier than the normal L.A. Guns sound but that doesn't account for the despicable attempts at song writing that ended up on this cd. If you want to hear L.A. Guns sound heavier than usual, then buy Traci Guns solo cd. It is freakin' heavy and it rocks. The songs are great.

If you are buying this CD because you like LA Guns, you will probably want to consider one of their other releases, which are all outstanding. This CD features a completely different linup and a completely different sound than anything else they have put out. Being a die hard LAG fan, I've tried to give it the benefit of the doubt and actually listen to the entire disc, but it is so horrible that I can't bear any more than two or three songs! I recommend Vicious Circle or Cocked and Loaded. Both are outstanding.

I actually saw this incarnation of the L.A. Guns on tour in late 1996, and I must say the show really rocked and the guys were FULL of energy that they haven't had since some of their videos showed from the late 80's. (Contrary to their last few years of tours which I have also seen, despite the fact 3/5 of the original line-up is back, the shows are actually very boring and enthusiam is almost non-existent..)

This album features (at the time) new singer Chris Van Dahl (who I thought was just beyond awesome lives) and new bass player Johnny Crypt. The first track of the album isn't supposed to make sense and sounds like as if it were skipping, but supposedly it is a Black Sabbath song just played backwards. Aside this unnecessary intro, the rest of the album is actually pretty good, and you can easilly find yourself rocking to most of the tracks even though the lyrics arent exactly Led Zeppelin. The standout tracks are the very last one ("I am Alive" has a tremendous 2-3 minute guitar solo, and spectaucluar over-dub vocals), Kevorkian, Give, What I've Become, and Pissed are all very good.

This line-up didnt last too long as Chris was only around for about two years, Johnny left soon afterwards, and despite it being a solid rockin' album it had poor promotion and consequently didn't sell well. Many people also didn't really want to see an L.A. Guns without original singer Phil Lewis. Chris rocked on the album and this line-up totally smoked and put on one heck of a show LIVE for the year or so they toured -- I dont think you can find this album new anymore, but I would check if you can find it used somewhere.

No two LAG recordings sounded the same but when I heard this one for the first time it seemed complexly different to anything done previously. What I've Become, Pissed and tracks like Don't Pray could almost sounded like LAG does Chilli Peppers, Korn and Metallica respectively with the only true sounding LAG tracks Hugs & Needles and Hey World. The remaining tracks are both progressive and distinctive; Chris Van Dahl comes into his own with tracks like Unnatural Act, Give, and Mine. American Hardcore furthers dark sound initiated with Hollywood Vampires but places it in that heavier context which Vicious Circles touched on with a few tracks.

For hardcore metalers it took sometime for it too sink in that LAG could compete with the flavours of the month, for original LAG fans there was an initial shock.