THE HANGMEN will release their new album, East Of Western, on May 8th via Acetate Records. It smashes together lead singer Bryan Small's lurid love songs with unsparing, unsentimental blasts that shine a baleful and penetrating light into the dark and seedy corners of modern-day Los Angeles. Check out the cover art below:

The Hangmen have always been a unique group that can't be easily pigeonholed, and East Of Western captures all of their different sides.

When they first got together in Los Angeles in 1987, The Hangmen were fiery and hard rocking enough to play with metal bands, but they also had a stubbornly rootsy and punk rock attitude that made them fit in just as easily with such legendary underground icons as THE GUN CLUB and TEX & THE HORSEHEADS. Their trademark dual-guitar attack combines the classic-rock drive of THE ROLLING STONES and AC/DC with the hard-charging swagger of JOHNNY THUNDERS' HEARTBREAKERS and the sinister allure of THE CRAMPS (in fact, the track 'Big Red Rooster' is an homage to the late Lux Interior of The Cramps, who Small lovingly describes as a "teenage bastard of the chosen one.")

But what really makes The Hangmen stand out is Small's gift for writing anthemic choruses with headbanging hooks, which he delivers with his distinctly feral and instantly recognizable snarl. On East Of Western, he sneers his way through boldly hard-rocking romantic pleas ('I'm Your Man'), Western-tinged barn-burners ('Railroad Man') and insomniac tales of junkie self-destruction and ultimate redemption ('Drink Smoke'). Drummer Dino Guerrero (who has played in JACK GRISHAM'S TENDER FURY, as well as CHARLEY HORSE with members of NASHVILLE PUSSY and THROW RAG) and longtime Hangmen bassist Angelique "Eek" Congleton give the band a properly menacing and scarily seductive groove.

Over the years, The Hangmen have worked with several notable producers, including Vic Maile (MOTÖRHEAD, HAWKWIND), who recorded the Hangmen's self-titled Capitol Records full-length LP in 1989, which is now a prized collector's item. (Good luck finding that one on eBay!) RADIO BIRDMAN singer Rob Younger helmed the group's lost second album, which was commissioned by Geffen Records but never released and is now an even greater rarity.

More recently, SOCIAL DISTORTION mainman Mike Ness produced the Hangmen's 2007 Acetate Records EP, In the City, which featured 'Train', a songwriting collaboration by Ness and Small.

Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Doug Boehm, East of Western is just as loud and full sounding as The Hangmen's earlier releases, with heavy and expansive production that feels live and powerful without coming off slick.

Check out 'Homesick Blues' from East Of Western below: