22. W.A.S.P W.A.S.P 1984 (Capitol)
Glam Metal
Shock tactics from the bowels of the beast.
The Lowdown
I’ve constantly mentioned how glam metal had its different elements in some of my previous reviews and up until this moment only Twisted Sister had represented both the garish and heavier element of this metal sub-genre to the maximum. Twisted Sister would now be joined by the shock rock themed W.A.S.P (an Acronym btw) from Los Angeles. Initially the W.A.S.P debut had missed my cut for the year, but a friend of mine who often reads this journal despite not being a member here, wanted to know what the hell I was playing at passing over this album when I said it would be off the list and stated that if W.A.S.P weren’t on it he would be boycotting, so guess what I picked up the album and gave it another twirl and I’m glad I did in a way. First of all any album that’s on this list needs to be good, but those nearer the ‘20 mark’ usually have some distinct flaws that knocks them back and W.A.S.P in this respect are no exception as I will soon explain. The band emerged out of an outfit called Circus Circus which contained frontman Blackie Lawless (who sounds like a bad guy in a western) and guitarist Randy Piper. Photos of Circus Circus at this time basically have the band looking like Kiss but without the make-up and even the band’s poses are literally a double for Kiss at times, so it’s no secret that they were the biggest influence on the future W.A.S.P. Soon both Blackie and Randy formed W.A.S.P and after various line-up changes, Tony Richards on drums and party-animal guitarist Chris Holmes were added to form the definitive line-up of the band and a deal with Capitol saw them ready for their debut album. The album was a high profile affair given the band’s infamous theatrical stage show which included lobbing raw meat at the audience and having exploding codpieces amongst other delights. The W.A.S.P debut truly has some great cuts where they combine their heaviness with a surprising amount of melody and this combination reverberates throughout most of the album, as does the band’s love of the 1970s British glam scene, and of course the album’s biggest feature is the powerful energy of the band. The opening tracks start with the infamous “Animal (F
uck Like a Beast)” which was actually deleted from the original album due to it’s language content and didn’t appear until the 1998 re-issue of the album, but as it’s such a great track and an obvious album opener I’ve mentioned it here (the way it was meant to be) and it’s a pure muscle track that ignites the whole album. This is followed by the raging “I Wanna Be Somebody” (which became the original album opener) and it’s another definitive muscle song by the band and its powerful anthem overload blows a lot of the competition out there away. The band are still not finished because up steps track killer number three “L.O.V.E Machine” and this is followed by the angsty “The Flame” both these tracks imo are as good as the opening two classics. “B.A.D” takes the foot slightly off the power button but the energy is still there on the song. Now based on these songs this album would be in the top 6 for the year and when I listen to these tracks I’m usually blown away by the energy and power of them, but about 50% of the way through the album I tend to switch-off and this happens on every listen, and happens on “School Daze” and all the following songs, its not that these are bad songs or anything, but it feels like ‘my W.A.S.P fix’ has run its course! Meaning that the one-dimensional sound of the band and the similarity of the songs all end up blending together and start to feel watered down in the second half of the album. Overall I think the glam metal albums further up this list, despite not having the same shock value do offer much more musically than W.A.S.P do. As of yet I haven’t mentioned the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) which was an influential American committee at this time, that was charged with censuring offensive material in music and included the usual topics of sex, drug and alcohol abuse, strong language and the usual so-called satanic goings-on in music. Needless to say the shock rock tactics of W.A.S.P were soon brought under their microscope, which was no surprise considering the band’s risqué stage show and songs like “Animal (F
uck Like a Beast)” were of course perfect examples of songs being pulled up for language....hell even Def Leppard were pulled up as well at one stage! In fact in the case of W.A.S.P that song was actually pulled from the album, but luckily for us listeners it got back on the re-issue. Overall the album belongs in any metal collection for its impact, but as for how often it will come out depends a great deal on whether the listener is into the one-dimensional metal being put out by the band or not. Comparing them to say Kiss an obvious comparison, sure for a metalhead W.A.S.P are heavier and probably rank as being better musicians, but the real charm of Kiss is the fact that their classic line-up had three/four vocalists to add a different dimension to their sound which was something that W.A.S.P didn’t have as they only had Blackie Lawless.
Blackie Lawless- Bass/Vocals
Chris Holmes- Guitar
Randy Piper- Guitar
Tony Richards- Drums
Production- Blackie Lawless/Mike Varney