W.A.S.P.: Rock Or Metal Band?

So here's the deal: I've not been a W.A.S.P. fan for long. I've heard plenty of songs over the years, as they're one of best friend's favorite bands. Now, I've never viewed them as a metal band. They've always sounded like a rock band to me. Now that I've gotten their albums, I still think they're a rock band. They may have some metal moments, but I hear a rock band.

Over at the lala forum, some people are telling me they're a metal band. So I'm curious to know what everyone here thinks. I really don't think they're a metal band. What do you think?

W.A.S.P. have always been a metal band for me. In fact one of the greatest Metal bands ever!!
Having said that, it is not very important to me what genre people put various bands in. As long as I like the music, it can be labeled Metal, rock, folk, power, thrash, I don`t care that much.

I've always considered them metal

i've always considered them a traditional metal band. however, i can see how others lump them in with certain hard rock bands like Motley Crue, etc.

Metal.

Crue started off as a metal band too.

Definately metal, but i guess metal is a genre of rock so i guess their rock to0 just like slayer could be called rock.

To me they are sort of shock rock. Buzz saw blade jock strap.

HEAVY METAL and in their early days i would say SHOCK METAL (like IMPALER, HALLOWEEN, old LIZZY BORDEN etc...).

Metal.

hard rock

METAL!

I think it's all perspective based on age, maybe? I don't find their early stuff to be metal, but I also didn't start getting into music until the late 80s; heavily in the 90s. At that point I don't think W.A.S.P. was very unique in terms of their sound/look. Maybe when they debuted the only proper term for them was metal?

Maybe if I'd began listening to music in the early 80s my perspective would be different?

Eyesore wrote:

I think it's all perspective based on age, maybe? I don't find their early stuff to be metal, but I also didn't start heavily getting into music until the late 80s. At that point I don't think W.A.S.P. was very unique in terms of their sound/look. Maybe when they debuted the only proper term for them was metal?

Maybe if I'd began listening to music in the early 80s my perspective would be different?

That's true. I began listening to hard rock and metal in the 1970's. Then we called bands like Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Judas Priest, UFO, etc. heavy metal. Hard rock and metal were one in the same. However, now people seem intent on making a distinction.

I even see people arguing these days that Judas Priest and Saxon are not heavy metal. As a matter of fact, there is one such debate in my Hall of Shame. The fact is, these band's help define metal. Indeed, W.A.S.P. were one of the defining band's of the movement.

Yeah, that must be it, because I also feel that most of Judas Priest's output was rock, not metal. I edited my post above, to clarify that I just go into music in the late 80s, it wasn't until about the mid-90s (1993 or so) that I got heavily into music.

I can definitely see W.A.S.P. being considered a very heavy band in the early 80s, whereas when I got into music a really heavy band was Morbid Angel, you know?

I think it just depend on everybodys ears. I also started to listen to wasp in the very late 80s but still thought they were metal. Never thought about them like a rock band. For me, a rock band would be DIRE STRAITS or ROLLING STONES. Thats why i would even say that i dont like ROCK. I love HEAVY ROCK, HARD ROCK and stuff like that but ROCK is ELVIS PRESLY. Somebody agree??

I've always considered them a metal band.

krokus wrote:

I think it just depend on everybodys ears. I also started to listen to wasp in the very late 80s but still thought they were metal. Never thought about them like a rock band. For me, a rock band would be DIRE STRAITS or ROLLING STONES. Thats why i would even say that i dont like ROCK. I love HEAVY ROCK, HARD ROCK and stuff like that but ROCK is ELVIS PRESLY. Somebody agree??

Well, I'm not trying to break the genre down like that. Haha.

krokus wrote:

I think it just depend on everybodys ears. I also started to listen to wasp in the very late 80s but still thought they were metal. Never thought about them like a rock band. For me, a rock band would be DIRE STRAITS or ROLLING STONES. Thats why i would even say that i dont like ROCK. I love HEAVY ROCK, HARD ROCK and stuff like that but ROCK is ELVIS PRESLY. Somebody agree??

I agree. Actually, I had a teen metal fan email me not long ago and chew me out for having bands like Aerosmith and Ted Nugent listed as heavy metal on my site. He asked, "so if Aerosmith were heavy metal, who were the rock bands?" I replied with a mile long list of bands like The Eagles, Rolling Stones, ELO, Kansas, Tom Petty, James Gang, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 10cc, Doobie Brothers, Gentle Giant, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, The Doors, Supertramp, etc. He actually emailed me back and conceded, agreeing that in the 70's Aerosmith were a heavy metal band.

Same would be true of W.A.S.P. There were plenty of 'rock bands' in the early 80's. Anyone remember The Hooters? LOL! W.A.S.P. were a metal band.

ultmetal wrote:

krokus wrote:

I think it just depend on everybodys ears. I also started to listen to wasp in the very late 80s but still thought they were metal. Never thought about them like a rock band. For me, a rock band would be DIRE STRAITS or ROLLING STONES. Thats why i would even say that i dont like ROCK. I love HEAVY ROCK, HARD ROCK and stuff like that but ROCK is ELVIS PRESLY. Somebody agree??

I agree. Actually, I had a teen metal fan email me not long ago and chew me out for having bands like Aerosmith and Ted Nugent listed as heavy metal on my site. He asked, "so if Aerosmith were heavy metal, who were the rock bands?" I replied with a mile long list of bands like The Eagles, Rolling Stones, ELO, Kansas, Tom Petty, James Gang, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 10cc, Doobie Brothers, Gentle Giant, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, The Doors, Supertramp, etc. He actually emailed me back and conceded, agreeing that in the 70's Aerosmith were a heavy metal band.

Same would be true of W.A.S.P. There were plenty of 'rock bands' in the early 80's. Anyone remember The Hooters? LOL! W.A.S.P. were a metal band.

I am happy you agree and all those bands you named in your list are ROCK to me too only maybe i would call KANSAS a hard rock band and LYNYRD SKYNYRD a Southern rock band but i get your point very well ULTMETAL.
HAIL TO YOU BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think of them as a rock band with a metal image, so either answer can be right. But that's according to current definitions. Like Ult, I know that those definitions change over time, as I was calling my favorite music "metal" long before metal ever existed, according to some people's arguments.
An example of definitions changing would be that I remember when many people called Yngwie Malmsteen "gothic metal", and it made sense at the time because of all the kings and castles subject matter. However after the advent of so many goth/ metal crossovers like Paradise Lost, it doesn't really work to apply the gothic label to mid 80's dark power metal anymore. (And according to some, the definition of "power metal has changed as well).
I don't really care about the issue actually, except that I apply these labels when organizing my library; so I can find what I'm looking for when in a certain mood. I find that generally the labels move towards the heavier end of the spectrum over time.

Yet the definition of classic rock never changes. I mean, shouldn't Aerosmith and Def Leppard and even Winger be classic rock by now? Haha.

Eyesore wrote:

Yet the definition of classic rock never changes. I
mean, shouldn't Aerosmith and Def Leppard and even Winger be classic
rock by now? Haha.

Actually, the local 'classic rock' station plays Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard and Tesla. Go figure.

I've been a huge W.A.S.P. fan since their debut album and I've always considered'em metal. However, I can understand the confusion, as W.A.S.P. have had some bouts with an identity crisis over the years.
I'd say their first couple of records were more "hard rock" or "hair metal" oriented (though there is really some ferocious stuff on the S/T debut, i.e. "Tormentor," "The Torture Never Stops," etc.) "The Last Command" and especially "Inside The Electric Circus" were pretty much hair metal thru and thru. I remember back in the 80s they really didn't fit much of anywhere. The hair metallers considered 'em "too heavy" and the headbangers thought they were poofy, cuz they kinda straddled the fence between "hard rock" and "metal."

IMHO the HEADLESS CHILDREN (still their best album and in my top 5 of all time) finally kicked'em off the fence onto the METAL side. That album still rules.

Then of course, came THE CRIMSON IDOL where Blackie decided he was Pete Townshend and he decided to write his own "Tommy," this phase went on for another record ("Still Not Black Enough") before he jumped the shark altogether with the god-awful K.F.D. (their worst disc and in my all time BOTTOM five, haha). After that train wreck he went back to basics for a few more records, cannibalizing the S/T debut sound on HELLDORADO (decent record but nothing mind blowing) and then going back to the HEADLESS CHILDREN era with UNHOLY TERROR and DYING FOR THE WORLD.

Then we got hit with the NEON GOD saga (snore!) and I went "Ah sh*t, Blackie's got the Townshend virus again," haha. The new disc, DOMINATOR, thankfully seems a bit more back to basics, but I haven't had it long enough to figure out where it ranks with the rest of the catalog.

So I guess what I'm sayin' in my long winded way is that Blackie's been all over the map in the last twenty-odd years, but I always thought of W.A.S.P. as "Metal" and probably always will, even with Blackie's occasional detours into weird pastures.

ultmetal wrote:

Metal.

Crue started off as a metal band too.

very true.. the first 2 Crue albums were definitely metal.

I can't see them being classified as anything else than a metal band.