{"id":7031,"date":"2012-06-05T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T00:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=7031"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:21:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:21:25","slug":"album-review-la-guns-hollywood-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-la-guns-hollywood-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. GUNS – Hollywood Forever (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

L.A. GUNS
Hollywood Forever<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCleopatra (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The 80s were never kind to L.A. Guns, if you ask me. Despite a few minor hits, such as the ballad \u2018The Ballad Of Jayne\u2019 and the more boisterous \u2018Rip And Tear\u2019 (both from 1989\u2019s Cocked & Loaded<\/em>), these guys, despite obvious talent, never hit the big time. Even with a number of solid albums, they\u2019ve never managed to carve a successful career in the same way M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce<\/a> or Guns N\u2019 Roses have, but it\u2019s great to see them still rocking hard today, and Hollywood Forever<\/em> is probably the best record they\u2019ve ever released.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been several years since the last studio effort, and due to the break singer Phil Lewis seems psyched up on this album; and if the title track is anything to go by it seems this band of gypsies have got a lot more left in the locker. The second Stacey Blades kicks in with that riff and Steve Riley hits the skins I\u2019m screaming, \u201cThat\u2019s \u2018Blind In Texas\u2019 by W.A.S.P.!!\u201d It\u2019s a little too close for comfort if you ask me, but it\u2019s still a great blazing song, bolstered by Andy Johns\u2019 great crisp production.<\/p>\n

The ghost of former guitarist and L.A. Guns founder Tracii Guns has most certainly been exorcized on this opus. Blades is all fuel and fury, delivering some blistering solos; check out his axework three minutes into the second track, \u2018You Better Not Love Me\u2019, and the darker, bellowing groove of \u2018Burn\u2019… great stuff! There\u2019s not a filler in sight as the band shift through uptempo sleaze rockers such as the glam strut of \u2018Vine St. Shimmy\u2019 with its Faster Pussycat-style swagger and the cool, metallic groove of \u2018Dirty Black Knight\u2019, where Blades shines once again.<\/p>\n

Personal favourite has to be the Faces-type bar room shake of \u2018Queenie\u2019, which takes us back to those hazy hairspray days. Lewis is more Rod Stewart now than Rod could ever be, but his voice really comes to the fore on the sultry \u2018Underneath The Sun\u2019, a steady, slow building, thoughtful rocker steeped in melody that deserves radio play. Biggest surprise on the album though is the closing track, \u2018Ara\u00f1a Negra (Black Spider)\u2019, a cover of a song by Argentine outfit The Bicicletas, sung entirely in Spanish but sporting a mesmeric riff and great bass work from Scott Griffin.<\/p>\n

Hollywood Forever<\/em> consists of 14 smoking hot tracks that have well and truly brought the sleaze back into metal. Who needs the new kids on the block when the old timers are still producing the goods? This is major league metal, and it\u2019s finally great to see L.A. Guns fulfil their potential.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

L.A. GUNSHollywood Forever Cleopatra (2012)Rating: 8.5\/10 The 80s were never kind to L.A. Guns, if you ask me. Despite a few minor hits, such as the ballad \u2018The Ballad Of Jayne\u2019 and the more boisterous \u2018Rip And Tear\u2019 (both from 1989\u2019s Cocked & Loaded), these guys, despite obvious talent, never hit the big time. Even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-l-a-guns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7031"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12015,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions\/12015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}