In summary:

Gun build on their solid debut album with the more rounded Gallus, an album which took them from rock hopefuls to rock standouts.

Gallus receives 7/11.
★★★★★★★

Gun’s brand of loud guitars and faux-American accents was really coming into its own in the early 1990s.

After the moderate success of their debut LP Taking On The World, the Glaswegian rock outfit looked to establish themselves as more than just a flash in the pan, and they achieved their goal on 1992’s Gallus.

Released at the height of the battle between corporate rock and grunge, Gun deserve credit for making the album they wanted to make, continuing with the “Billy Idol meets early U2” sound of their previous effort.

It produces several standout tracks, from the album opener Steal Your Fire (the best song of their career to date), Long Road (with a riff so easy on the ear you’ll wonder why nobody’s written it before), the tremendous Higher Ground, and the radio-ready Reach Out For Love.

The low point of the album comes in the form of Won’t Back Down, which begins as a decent guitar-driven track but is ultimately squashed by a chorus which sounds like a direct rip off of Free’s Alright Now.

It’s noteworthy that several of the Gallus’ tracks could have fit onto 1989’s Taking On The World, such is the similarity in the overall vibe of the album. And while this effort does lack some of the in-your-face groove of their debut, the band appear much more confident, sounding bigger and more bombastic thanks to the superior production.

As well as being warmly received by critics, Gallus received lots of praise from Steve Harris.

The legendary Iron Maiden bassist enjoyed the disc so much he proudly wore a Gun t-shirt on stage throughout the Fear Of The Dark world tour. Harris even insisted they be Maiden’s opening act at Monsters Of Rock: Madrid, making Gun an unlikely inclusion in a 4-band line-up which also featured Megadeth and Pantera, and their fine performance led to a world tour with the much better suited Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.

Proving their first album was no fluke, Gallus outperformed it’s predecessor in the charts, peaking at #14 in the UK Album Chart. It also matched it in producing another three Top 40 singles for the band (Steal My Fire was the biggest of those, peaking at #24).

In summary:

Gun build on their solid debut album with the more rounded Gallus, an album which took them from rock hopefuls to rock standouts.

Gallus receives 7/11.
★★★★★★★