Vicious Circle (L.A. Guns album)

Vicious Circle
Vicious Circle
Studio album by L.A. Guns
Released	October 4, 1994
Studio	Ocean Way (Hollywood); 4th Street Recorders (Santa Monica); Red Zone (Burbank, California);
Genre	Hard rock; heavy metal; thrash metal; groove metal;
Length	56:06
Label	Polydor
Producer	Jim Wirt; Michael James Jackson; (Crystal Eyes)
L.A. Guns chronology
Singles from L.A. Guns
	"Long Time Dead"; Released: 1994; "Face Down"; Released: 1994; "Killing Machine"; Released: 1994;

Vicious Circle is the fourth album by the American hard rock band L.A. Guns. Most of the songs have Phil Lewis on lead vocals, but the track "Nothing Better to Do" features Kelly Nickels on lead vocals, and "Tarantula" is instrumental. Michael "Bones" Gersema drums on several songs. Lewis and Bones also played together in the band Filthy Lucre. Filthy Lucre bandmates Steve Dior and Jim Wirt sing backing vocals on several songs. Wirt was also the album's producer and engineer.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	8/10[2]

Bones left the band after recording and Steve Riley rejoined the band to tour for the album; it was the last time the classic line-up played together until 1999, Tracii Guns and Riley being the only classic members remaining after the tour.

According to L.A. Guns folklore, Guns originally left the band prior to recording Vicious Circle. With Guns gone, the remaining members kicked around the idea of renaming the band L.A. Nickels, after bassist Kelly Nickels, before opting to keep the L.A. Guns name. PolyGram was completely unaware the guitarist had left the group. The record company would later threaten legal action against the group when they discovered Guns was missing during the recording process. As a result, Guns returned to the band to finish the recording of the album and subsequent tour.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Face Down"	Kelly Nickels, Mick Cripps, Michael Gersema, Phil Lewis, Tracii Guns	4:11
2.	"No Crime"	Nickels, Gersema, Steve Dior	2:35
3.	"Long Time Dead"	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	3:22
4.	"Killing Machine"	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	3:27
5.	"Fade Away"	Nickels, Cripps, Gersema, Lewis, Guns	4:11
6.	"Tarantula" (instrumental)	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	0:56
7.	"Crystal Eyes" (American and European bonus track)	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Steve Riley, Guns	5:53
8.	"Nothing Better to Do"	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	2:52
9.	"Chasing the Dragon"	Nickels, Cripps, Gersema, Lewis, Guns	4:50
10.	"Kill That Girl"	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	3:13
11.	"I'd Love to Change the World" (Ten Years After cover)	Alvin Lee	3:39
12.	"Who's in Control (Let 'Em Roll)"	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	4:02
13.	"I'm the One"	Nickels, Cripps, Gersema, Lewis, Guns	2:28
14.	"Why Ain't I Bleeding"	Nickels, Cripps, Lewis, Guns	4:32
15.	"Kiss of Death"	Gersema, Lewis, Dior	5:55

Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
16.	"Death in America"	Nickels, Cripps, Gersema, Lewis, Guns	3:41
17.	"Empire Down"		3:29
Total length:			57:23

Personnel

Phil Lewis – lead vocals except on "Nothing Better to Do", acoustic guitar
Tracii Guns – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Mick Cripps – lead and rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards, bass on track 4, backing vocals
Kelly Nickels – bass guitar, lead vocals on "Nothing Better to Do", backing vocals

Additional musicians

Guy Griffin – acoustic guitar on track 15
Michael “Bones” Gersema – drums on tracks 1, 5, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, backing vocals on tracks 1, 13 and 14
Myron Grombacher – drums on tracks 2, 10, 11, and 12
Nickey Alexander – drums on track 4
Steve Riley – drums on track 7
Doni Gray – drums on track 8
Steve Councel – harmonica on track 8, 14 and 15, backing vocals on track 8
Cliff Brodsky – piano on track 8
Steve Dior – backing vocals on track 2
Jim Wirt – backing vocals

Production

Jim Wirt – producer, engineer, mixing of tracks 6, 11 to 13
Michael James Jackson – producer and engineer on "Crystal Eyes"
Dan Daniel, Dennis Degher, Jeff Graham, Mark Shoffner, Marnie Riley, Tim Allison – assistant engineers
Mick Guzauski – mixing of tracks 1 to 5, 7 to 10, 14, 15
Stephen Marcussen – mastering
Dale Lavi – photographer
Robert Bisbo – album cover art

References

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "L.A. Guns - Vicious Circle review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
Popoff, Martin (1 August 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.

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[1] Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "L.A. Guns - Vicious Circle review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 2021-05-02.

[martin-2] Popoff, Martin (1 August 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.