Continuing the groundwork laid down by their 2021 debut, Evil and Divine, L.A. Guns ead guitarist Tracii Guns (a.k.a. Tracy Richard Irving Ulrich) and Stryper (and former Boston) frontman Michael Sweet return with Sunbomb for second album Light up the Sky (Frontiers Music Srl). 

Retaining the same talented line-up, the band is completed once again by L.A. Guns drummer Adam Hamilton and bassist Mitch Davis, the pair proving quite the rhythm section on an album which although having its roots on Sunset Strip along with the likes of Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses and Ratt, often possesses a heavier, darker edge.

Opening with “Unbreakable,” the album kicks off with a simple but chunky guitar riff similar to the middle section of Black Sabbath‘s “Hand of Doom,” something also reflected in Guns’s Iommi-esque guitar solo. Pushed to the front of the mix, Sweet joins the party with his strident vocals staying just the right side of overpowering.

“Steel Hearts” is built on another fairly simple riff with its foundations laid in eighties L.A., Sweet adding some dirt to his vocals as Guns delivers another top quality solo. Arguably the best cut on the album, “In Grace We’ll Find Our Name” possesses a slow Ronnie James Dio-era Sabbath style crawl, the song picking up the pace around the halfway mark with an up-tempo riff which combines well with the song’s doomier elements.

After its acoustic intro, the dramatic title track appears to cheekily lift its main riff from Ozzy Osbourne‘s Diary Of A Madman while giving “Rewind” and up-tempo banger “Scream Out Loud” more of the old-school Metal touch. “Winds Of Fate” sounds like The Doors if they’d been part of the early nineties Grunge scene while “Beyond The Odds” sounds like Bark At The Moon-era Ozzy and “Reclaim The Light” hits all the right slow and moody notes. If you thought the band had forgotten to include a ballad then “Where We Belong” pops up just in time to tap you on the shoulder and prove you wrong before the record closes with “Setting The Sail” packing another Sabbath-style punch.

Old school in its delivery, Sweet and Guns work off each other to great effect as they produce another collection of songs that sound like modern cuts by classic bands. The hair might be shorter and the ozone layer a hell of a lot safer but Light Up The Sky proves that much of the old energy is still alive and kicking.

Buy the album here:

7 / 10
GARY ALCOCK