Maximum Metal Rating Legend

LA Guns - Waking The Dead - reviewed by: EC

Track Listing1. Don't Look At Me That Way 2. OK Let's Roll 3. Waking The Dead 4. Revolution 5. Ballad, The 6. Frequency 7. Psychopathic Eyes 8. Hellraisers Ball 9. City Of Angels 10. Don't You Cry

Well here you have it.

The best hard rock album of 2002.

One of the best hard rock albums to come out in recent memory.

Oh, you haven't heard about it? Thats probably because Spitfire Records has done nothing to promote the release at all. Hell, just hop on Spitfire's website and click the band's name. They still have "Man In The Moon" info up, LA Guns' last album. Or how about the Grammy nominations for hard rock this year...P.O.D, Linkin Park, Alien Ant Farm, Rage Against The Machine, and Saliva. Give me a break!! Where the hell is LA Guns? The award is for HARD ROCK, right? If those bands are hard rock, then obviously the words hard rock must mean something else by today's standards. LA Guns newest album, Waking The Dead, displays what I feel and what most rock n' roll fans from the 80's would call hard rock. Just listen to the balls to the wall title track. Or the bone chilling "Ok, Lets Roll", penned in salute to the heroism of 9/11. Feel good songs like "Don't You Cry" and "City Of Angels" combined with melodic passages like "Revolution" and "Frequency", really define the vast array of emotions the band brings to the record. Tracii Guns really captivates his audience with twin guitar harmony, acoustic melody, and killer leads. I almost want to think someone broke into the studio and put a gun to Tracii's head, making him play the best leads of his life. Forget everything we have hated about this band since Vicious Circle. LA Guns are back! If you miss this style of 80s "big guitars and attitude" hard rock, then you simply just need to buy this record. I'm sure in a few months it will be tossed in cut-out bins across the country, marked down to half-price, or put in clearence bins to remind everyone that this style of music is over. Waking The Dead has been tossed aside. Put away. Dead. Its not fair damnit!
--Reviewed by EC 1.26.03