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L.A. Guns: Black Diamonds
L.A. Guns - Black Diamonds Album Art

L.A. Guns: Black Diamonds

Melodic Hard Rock
4.0/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 12.04.2023 | Released: 14.04.2023

More consistent now than in their early years, L.A. Guns, featuring guitarist Tracii Guns and vocalist Phil Lewis, have released a new studio album every two years since 2017. Black Diamonds is their fourteenth (if I counted correctly) album, and includes a stable lineup.

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L.A. Guns

If the reader will recall, L.A. Guns rose in the years of Sunset Strip hard rock. Not so much the pretty poodle hair variety, Guns was more like your leather-geared street-fighting band. Yet, like the classic rock that made the Eighties famous, L.A. Guns produced hard rocking songs gifted with song melody, gritty vocals, rock rhythm and groove, and Tracii Guns' fiery guitar work.


With Black Diamonds, not much has changed in the 21st century except, perhaps, mature songwriting that produces more varied and entertaining songs. For example, L.A. Guns can rip it up with classic hard rock kickers like Got It Wrong, Wrong About You, Shattered Glass, or You Betray. Alternatively, I thought Babylon, clocking at three minutes, had more of a punk punch. Perhaps the same could be same for Lowlife, if only because Lewis has a snarl and sneer to his voice, and the song is short and quick. Gonna Lose and Diamonds are both slow burning ballads, the latter maybe a tad heavier. Considered as a whole, when listening the first time around, I wasn't sure how impressed I was with Black Diamonds. But a second spin allowed my to hear the nuance and so I appreciate it much more.

All things considered, once more, L.A. Guns, featuring guitarist Tracii Guns and vocalist Phil Lewis, have dropped another well-crafted, varied, and entertaining album of their classic melodic hard rock. They're on a roll. Recommended.



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The Take Away

Once more, with Black Diamonds, L.A. Guns, featuring guitarist Tracii Guns and vocalist Phil Lewis, have dropped another well-crafted, varied, and entertaining album of their classic melodic hard rock. They're on a roll. Recommended.

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