As it nears the end of a successful two-year tour in support of
"The Missing Peace" — the first
L.A. GUNS album since 2002's
"Waking The Dead" to feature founding guitarist
Tracii Guns and vocalist Phil Lewis — the group has announced that it has finished recording a follow-up effort, apparently titled
"The Devil You Know", to be released in 2019 via
Frontiers Music Srl.
According to a December 22
Instagram post by
Guns, the new album was completed earlier this week. "It's finished. It's pissed off. It's nasty and pure
L.A. GUNS," he wrote. Those comments echo what
Lewis recently told
Midlands Metalheads Radio, to whom he described the new album as "like [
BLACK]
SABBATH, but blacker."
When
"The Missing Peace" was released in October of 2017, it added a new and unexpected chapter to the long and often confusing history of
L.A. GUNS, who, along with
W.A.S.P., are the longest-running, continuously active group of the 1980s Sunset Strip scene.
Since being founded by guitarist
Guns and drummer
Rob Gardner in 1983, more than 50 musicians have performed under the
L.A. GUNS moniker, including
Axl Rose (who fronted the group prior to forming
HOLLYWOOD ROSE, and then again for a brief period after that band's breakup),
Ralph Saenz (better known as
Michael Starr of
STEEL PANTHER),
Jizzy Pearl (
LOVE/HATE,
QUIET RIOT),
Chuck Garric (
ALICE COOPER),
Chris Holmes (
W.A.S.P.) and
Keri Kelli (
NIGHT RANGER,
RATT).
In 1987 — two years after
Guns left the original lineup of
GUNS N' ROSES to restart
L.A. GUNS with a group of musicians, including
Mick Cripps — the band 's "classic lineup" was solidified with the additions of vocalist
Lewis (
GIRL), bassist
Kelly Nickels and drummer
Steve Riley (
W.A.S.P.). Those five members appeared on the group's first three albums — its eponymous 1988 debut, 1989's
"Cocked & Loaded" and 1991's
"Hollywood Vampires".
When
Riley left the band in 1992, it began a rotating door lineup that continues in full force in 2018, a year in which four guitarists have performed alongside
Guns. The group's current lineup officially features
Guns,
Lewis, drummer
Shane Fitzgibbon, bassist
Johnny Martin and bassist-turned-guitarist
Adam Hamilton, who played with the band from 2001 to 2007 and rejoined earlier this year after the departure of
Johnny Monaco (
ENUFF Z'NUFF). Because
Hamilton is unable to tour extensively, however, the group recently announced that
FASTER PUSSYCAT guitarist
Ace Von Johnson will join them on longer tours.
For a number of years after
Guns left the band in 2002 to focus on
BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION — a group that also featured
MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist
Nikki Sixx — there were two competing versions of
L.A. GUNS: one featuring
Lewis and
Riley, and another featuring
Guns. After the latter incarnation disbanded in 2012,
Guns and
Lewis gradually began making amends, performing a full set of
L.A. GUNS material together at a Las Vegas concert in 2015 before officially joining forces (while initially being billed as
L.A. GUNS' PHIL LEWIS & TRACII GUNS) for a handful of concerts the following year. For the past two years, the group has toured and recorded simply as
L.A. GUNS.
In 2019, however, there will once again be competing incarnations of
L.A. GUNS, as
Riley — who was in the group for a total of 27 years and is said to own 50 percent of the band's name — will perform at the
M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland in May under the
L.A. GUNS moniker with a lineup that will include
Nickels, guitarist
Scott Griffin (who played bass for the band from 2007 until 2009, and then again from 2011 to 2014) and vocalist
Jacob Bunton (
ADLER,
LYNAM).
Since the
M3 performance was announced,
Guns and
Riley have traded barbs on social media. "Some guys would rather headline a sports bar than play on a great bill like
M3,"
Riley wrote on December 6. "
L.A. GUNS is back to being a fantastic band and
Steve Riley is still a drummer,"
Guns responded. He subsequently added, "What would you have done without my name [for] the last 15 years, you ungrateful punk?"