Photo Credit: Totally Driven Entertainment

As it turns out, “The Ballad of Jayne” isn’t the only song the L.A. Guns ever released. On Friday, October 13, the 80s group released their eleventh studio album – technically, the first in fourteen years. And The Missing Peace is spectacular. The band blended just enough electronic sound to keep up to this year’s other synthetically-driven albums, but remained true to their hard rock origins.

Those origins are evident in nearly all the introductions to songs. My personal favorite is “Baby Gotta Fever”, which opens with a fairly typical drum beat but quickly transitions to a raspy tribute to loving a woman who plays hard to get. The title track follows, imploring someone to stay, or perhaps, to go. There’s an unsettlement to the lyrics, as Phil Lewis sings of the paradox, “It’s all lost to a bit of fun/let’s hold on to a bit, a piece/of life.”

In true metal fashion, the album wraps up with “Gave It All Away”, which begins slowly but builds to a regretful, almost aggressive explanation of loss. The strings fade out as the song comes to a close, but the listener can hear the mourning that remains.

“The Missing Peace”’s title likely describes the dynamics of the band, or should I say, bands in the last few years. The lineup who performed this masterpiece last called themselves a group back in 2001 with the release of Man in the Moon. Including Lewis as frontman, Tracii Guns as lead guitarist, Steve Riley on drums, Mick Cripps on guitar, and Keff Ratcliffe and Muddy on bass.

It’s a little known fact, but the L.A. Guns lay claim to the idea that they were one of two bands to combine in 1985 to form Guns N’ Roses. The L.A. Guns themselves formed in 1983, and their original lineup included such greats as Tracii Guns and Axl Rose (the former of whom would return to L.A., and the latter who would remain to record “Welcome to the Jungle” and shoot into hair band fame).

The best selling of all L.A. Guns albums was 1989’s Cocked and Loaded, featuring Lewis, Guns, Cripps, Nickey Alexander on drums, and Kelly Nickels on bass.. It went gold, and included the “The Ballad of Jayne”, which would reach number 33 on the Billboard Top 40 chart. The Hollywood Vampires album to follow would peak at number 42 on the charts, allowing the band to keep their foot in the 80s door. However, they failed to attract much attention after that from anyone but the most diehard of fans.

That’s why this new album is so surprising. Though it doesn’t include any hit singles or lyrics that make you cry, the songs speak of a time in which rock was simply there: indestructible, invaluable, and a part of life that would never go away. “The Flood’s the Fault of the Rain” opens almost identically to the “Civil War” of 1991. “Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight” has a riff that mimics Ozzy Osbourne’s famous one in 1980’s “Crazy Train”. While the album may not go down in history, it’ll remain a fixture for those of us who don’t want to settle for paying $350 to see Guns ‘N Roses at Coachella. Live Aid may have ended three decades ago, but hard rock, it seems, will remain.