Customer Reviews

Waking the Dead

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Introduction:
>>>It's only been a year since the L.A. Guns released their first studio album on Spitfire Records, and here they are again along with a new bass-player, a new (classic) producer, and renewed "spunk" in 2002 with yet ANOTHER release. Read on....

The songs:
>>>"Don't Look At Me That Way" is a future L.A. Guns classic. Sincerely, I haven't heard an L.A. Guns rocker this GOOD since "Over The Edge", and that was in '91! 'Waking The Dead' is really the band's best since 'Hollywood Vampires', in my opinion. Other great tunes include the title-track (accompanied by a fantastic guitar solo, courtesy of Tracii Guns), "City Of Angels", "Frequency", the September 11th tribute "OK, Let's Roll", "The Ballad" (the Gunses' best ballad since "Crystal Eyes") & the a Guns throwback, "Hellrasiser's Ball". Actually, come to think about it, the only track on the entire disc that I do not find some redeeming value in is "Psycopathic Eyes". Many of the Guns fans seem to find it a quite enjoyable tune, but the punk-vibe sounds out of place on such a "metal-ish" record like 'Waking The Dead'.

The music:
>>>Tracii's riffing has improved a great deal since we least heard him on 'Man In The Moon'. The riffs on tracks 1, 9, and 3 are awesome. Most would have to agree with me when I say that Tracii's rhythm playing HAS gotten a lot better, having heard him on 'MITM', without Mick Cripps' assistance.

Enough of that already, how about that "new guy", Adam Hamilton? Man, that dude is great! Hamilton is the Gunses' new and current bass-player, and this 4-stringer's technique is the perfect compliment to Steve Riley's and Tracii's playing. As soon as I popped my copy of 'Waking The Dead' cd in the player, I felt a completely new and different energy out of the L.A. Guns that I had never felt before. I've said it before and I will say it again: I am SO glad that that Muddy-dude is gone now--he added nothing, and I mean NOTHING to the Gunses' sound. He only dettracted, if anything.

Also, has anyone noticed how Phil's voice has improved over this past three or four years? He hasn't sounded this good in quite some time--even on 'Man In The Moon'.

As for Steve, I really like the drum kit he used on 'Waking The Dead'. Should we thank his drum tech for this one?

The sound production:
>>>A thousand times better that that heard on the band's previous, more bluesy rock 'n' roll album, 'Man In The Moon'. Andy Johns is a classic producer as he has produced everything from Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin to one of the 80's finest bands, Cinderella.

The cover artwork:
>>>10 out of 10; the band's best EVER. Maxine is a phenomonal artist.

The overall result:
>>>Rock and roll might not be booming over the FM radio airwaves or even on your television for that matter, but the L.A. Guns sure are back. So far this is the best album of 2002 in my opinion and I never used to be a real big fan of the Guns in the first place! When it all comes down to it, 'Waking The Dead' is a phenomenal rock 'n' roll album. It exceeded my expectations by far and part of that credit is due to the Guns'new bass-player, Hamilton, and the mixing/production staff involved on the record. Classic rock 'n' roll not your thing? Then avoid 'Waking The Dead' by all means, because if good quality music is not high-priority on your shopping list, then you'll be sincerely disappointed with this one.

Several bands of the 80's metal genre released albums in 2002. Poison, Bon Jovi, Jackyl, Dokken, and others are on that list. Unlike a lot of pretentious critics, I will not spend the entire review of this album debating myself on if L.A. Guns was a hair band. That is an irrelevant fact to any band and I will not mock a genre that produced some of the best music ever. Simply put, this is rock 'n' roll the way it was meant to be.

From the opening track of "Don't Look At Me That Way" with a riff that rivals anything Iron Maiden has done to the final track of "Don't You Cry," L.A. Guns has produced an album with no filler, and thus no bad songs. Every song is genuine. Especially the song "Ok, Lets Roll" which is a tribute to Beamer, the gentleman who is considered a hero for saying that phrase before he prevented another American tragedy on September 11, 2001.

So, what are my favorite tracks? Hellraiser's Ball, City of Angels, and Revolution get my head banging so hard I need a medicine chest to get rid of the insuing headache!

Bottom line, this album is metal. Throw away the word pop, throw away your misconceptions of hair, throw away any divisions of metal that you choose to water down the genre with. This is metal the way it was intended from the unsung metal Gods, L.A. Guns!

Ever since "American Hardcore," I have picked up everything the Guns have released with a good deal of reluctance. It's not that I didn't want to hear their sound expanded beyond "Cocked and Loaded" (actually the experimental "Vicious Circle" is still my favorite Guns album), but I'm always a little afraid of who the L.A. Guns might consist of at the moment and how that will affect the incredible chemistry they seem to have had up 'til that point......

So when "Man in the Moon" comes out a year ago, and Steve, Phil, Tracii, and Mick are all back, I'm thinking it's not gonna last - definitely a great album, and a much needed dose of good, hard rock - but not gonna last.

Not only did they last, but the new album, "Waking the Dead," is certainly one of their strongest. Everything the other reviewers have said is true - the songs rock, Phil's voice is incredible, production is awesome (as in, justice is finally done to Steve's power on the kit), and Tracii and Adam flat-out kick...

Most hard rock/metal bands seem to water down their "comeback" albums a bit, or else they try and return to exactly how they used to sound, and it comes off phony and outdated......all I can say is this is the real deal.

You hear "Don't Look at Me That Way," "Revolution," and "City of Angels" and you know that these guys are playing and writing as hard and passionately as they ever have.

This CD really lives up to the hype I'd read in interviews with Tracii Guns. He claimed that this would be a true metal album--a cross between Iron Maiden and early Scorpions. Well, he was right. This is probably their best album to date, which doesn't happen often with new albums from bands that were popular in the 80's (think of Generation Swine and Hollyweird, to name a few). Check out Revolution and Hellraiser's Ball.

I am not of the metal fans that demands the glory days in order to truly appreciate an album. I also will not spend my time writing a review complaining about the state of metal nor debating if a band is or was a hair band. I think hair metal is and was the best genre ever in American music history and I don't see a style of music or metal getting me up on my feet quicker or more proudly in my lifetime than the hair bands. Instead, lets just review an album that just happens to be done by a member of the hair band genre.

LA Guns was on the heavy side of metal. While they did have their softer side and beloved ballads, LA Guns was the preferred band of any hair band fan that wanted to do nothing short of rock the nation and scream their affection of metal to the World. Somewhere over the past 10 years, LA Guns just seemed to get lost in the shuffle. After a questionable decade in the 1990's, LA Guns returned to the studio to record Man on the Moon. To say it was one of their better albums is an understatement. To say that this album doesn't follow suit is false as well.
While some of the songs, such as the title track, are not quite what I want to hear out of an LA Guns album, it is a wonderful extension of their style. But, I have to call every radio station across the nation out on the carpet when I turned on track two entitled "Lets Roll" and wonder just why they are not eating this song up. The song is obviously in tribute of September 11th and the heroes that both died in attempting to save others in the towers and the heroes that took down the terrorists that stood to take away more innocent lives if not stopped. They even used the catch phrase that has grown incredible legs selling T shirts and is the battle cry of American pride and courage, "Lets Roll" which was said by Todd Beamer just before they battled the terrorists and took down the guided missile that was simply supposed to be an every day flight.

This album is so heavy that it actually rivals the head banging metal style of modern day power metal bands such as Iced Earth yet maintain the melody and chorus work of the finest of hair band. Translation? IT ROCKS LIKE NO OTHER! Don't pass this one up. As one of the songs says, LETS START A REVOLUTION! I say we've got enough strong albums coming out from true metal bands; They've all got just as much attitude as they did 10 years ago; Lets bring real metal back if we have to do so kicking and screaming? Lets start WAKING THE DEAD!

I was pleasantly surprised by this album. Up to this point, I considered Cocked & Loaded their strongest effort, but this disc takes the title. I read somewhere that Tracii said this record sounded a little like Maiden and early Scorpions. You can definitely hear that in the songs. If you're a fan of 80's rock/metal, you have to buy this. Check out the tune Revolution.

One of the best releases from the Guns, period. Their newest album "Tales from the Strip" rivals this one, but Waking the Dead is a masterpiece in its own form. There are some godly riffs from Tracii, killer vocals from everyone's favorite frontman Philly Lewis, and all the tracks are fantastic. The songs are very well produced and the bands' songwriting majesty really shows through on this one.

In conclusion...Killer album. I hope the L.A. guns make tons of money of this album and maybe theyll even be...LOADED.

As simple as this. If you like killer riffs and straight-from-the-hip rock, this album rocks from start to finish.
An unexpected gem this late in the game for the real Gunners!!!

Keeping this review short while letting the listener decide for himself, I will say this is overall very good with excellent production.

Much better than Man In The Moon and the 1998 Shrinking Violet release.

But constant line-up changes have all but killed the L.A. Guns.. Every other week there is a new bass player, or rhythm guitarist, or now Tracii isn't even in the band and the L.A. Guns site doesn't even tell you who the guy actually is playing guitars (even though there are pictures of him on the site) for them now...

I saw several incarnations of this band, strangely the one I felt was the most explosive and entertaining was in 96-97 when Chris Van Dahl was singing for the band -- show was full of energy, songs and album were actually very good -- and in 2001 with Phil Lewis back and "muddy" on bass -- band sounded good but looked very stale as if they were just going through the motions..

Again, line-up changes didnt hurt this album but the live shows it defenitly did. Not that L.A. Guns would have still stood above medicore like their prime all these years later, but having some form of consistent line-up wouldnt have hurt either.

This album is balls to the wall rock/metal at its best. I was
dissapointed somewhat with "Man in the Moon", it was nice to have Phil back, but the songs lacked something. This album
more than makes up for it. I was shocked to hear how great these guys sound. Tracy is better than ever. If you like LA GUNS you have to buy this NOW, and crank it up, check out FREQUENCY, what a jam. Thanks guys you made my day !!!