L.A. GUNS To Release New Studio Album, 'Black Diamonds', In April

L.A. GUNS, featuring singer Phil Lewis and guitarist Tracii Guns, will release its new studio album, "Black Diamonds", on April 14. This will be the fourth studio album since the much-welcome reunion of the band's core foundation of Lewis and Guns. It will follow the well-received studio albums "The Missing Peace", "The Devil You Know" and "Checkered Past", plus the live release "Made In Milan", and a covers EP "Another Xmas In Hell".

The release date for "Black Diamonds" was revealed by Guns in a social media post on Saturday (January 21). He shared a new black-and-white photo of him and his bandmates, and he captioned it: "@laguns 2023 new album April 14 Black Diamonds and tour".

Last October, Lewis took to his personal Facebook page to share the "Black Diamonds" title and track listing, and he included the following message: "Incredibly happy to announce the completion of our forth record (post reunion). Great songs, fantastic playing and some of the best singing of my career. It's heavy and dark in places and bright n breezy in others. It's all over the place as per our usual style. I think it's the best thing we've ever done but yeah I know I say that about all of them but I truly love this record and had fun recording parts on the tour wagon and then five intense days doing vocals with Mitch [Davis] in NYC. Of course the wait for it to drop will be excruciating but I'll do my best to contain the excitement. Seriously it's fantastic and you're all gonna love it."

"Black Diamonds" track listing:

01. You Betray
02. Wrong About You
03. Diamonds
04. Babylon
05. Shame
06. Shattered Glass
07. Gonna Lose
08. Got It Wrong
09. Lowlife
10. Crying
11. Like A Drug

"Checkered Past" was released in November 2021 via Frontiers Music Srl.

In April 2021, a settlement was reached between drummer Steve Riley and Guns and Lewis over the rights to the L.A. GUNS name. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Guns and Lewis continue to operate under the L.A. GUNS trademark, while Riley and his bandmates from the other version of L.A. GUNS are now operating under the new name RILEY'S L.A. GUNS.

L.A. GUNS was formed in 1983 and have sold over six million records, including 1988's "L.A. Guns" and 1990's "Cocked And Loaded", both of which were certified gold. "Cocked And Loaded" contained the hit single "The Ballad Of Jayne" that went to No. 33 on Billboard's Hot 100 and No. 25 on the Mainstream Rock charts. From the mid-'90s to the mid 2000s, L.A. GUNS continued to tour and release new music. Following their successful performance at SiriusXM's Hair Nation festival in September 2016, L.A. GUNS went into the studio to record the critically acclaimed "The Missing Peace", which was the highest-selling release for Frontiers Music Srl in 2017. Their 12th album, "The Devil You Know", was released in 2019 to the same critical acclaim. Since reuniting, Tracii and Phil continue to tour around the world with L.A. GUNS, which currently includes Johnny Martin (bass) and Ace Von Johnson (guitar).

Image credit: Fat Samurai