W.A.S.P. - ReIDOLized

With this year marking 25 years since the release of 'The Crimson Idol' – W.A.S.P’s ambitious and critically-acclaimed fifth album – the band will hit the UK and Ireland in October with the Reidolized Tour AND a re-recorded version of the album along with a 50 minute DVD film of the entire story.

I have absolutely no interest in this whatsoever.

I picked up the crimson idol at a used record store for about 5 euros last weekend. Will listen to it tomorrow. If i like it enough, i might eventually upgrade to the new version.

At first I was like "COOL!" cuz I love "The Crimson Idol" ... but there are no U.S. tour dates, of course... because "Idol" only sold about twelve copies in the U.S. when it was first released.

Not sure why it's necessary to put out a re-recording of "Idol," but then Blackie has been cannibalizing his own past goods for pretty much every W.A.S.P. album since Helldorado, so I guess he was bound to start simply re-recording stuff rather than come up with new songs sooner or later.

I like the album well enough, but I don't see the point in re-buying a re-recording of it. If Blackie wants to re-record his entire catalog to piss-off Chris Holmes or whatever, that's his business. But I ain't re-buying his albums anymore.

Yeah that's my stance. If you want to,or need to, re-record something,go right ahead. I'm not re-buying something I already own.

I don't see the point of re-buying this.

Dumb. Usually bands re-records albums because they don't own the original masters. I had assumed Blackie owned all the W.A.S.P. original masters because they've been in print continually since they were originally released and on a variety of labels - Capitol, Snapper, etc...

Great album though and well worth owning in it's original form.

I love the original album but re-recording classic songs and entire albums is pointless. No matter how good it may turn out, even if it turned out to be better than the original, fans are always going to go back to the original studio versions.

I've only discovered the original in the last few years (I left the W.A.S.P train when Inside the Electric Circus came out and only discovered anything past that fairly recently) so I can't imagine why I would ever need this. I also saw them live in their prime in 1987 so I'll not be up for a nostalgia kick there either.

Pass!

Wont be buying this but I do wish WASP would tour the states..

it's gotten to the point that the only albums I consistently revisit by WASP are the debut and the Crimson Idol, but even then, this still seems pointless.

I've never been one who has been big into WASP. I've had their debut and "The Last Command" for a few years. I never thought I would go much beyond that. I ended up getting "Golgotha" last fall and have enjoyed that quite a bit. It made me interested in delving deeper, so I ordered both "Inside the Electric Circus" and "The Headless Children", which I received a little over a week ago. They're both a little hit or miss for me, but I still enjoy them. I'm going to at least get 'The Crimson Idol" next, but not sure what road I might venture down next?

Still haven't heard this album. Actually I still need to listen to this one and to the 2 Neon God cds i also got. Looking forward to cranking some wasp loud this saturday.

I love their last three albums. This generates zero interest in me.

glassprison wrote:

I love their last three albums. This generates zero interest in me.

same here. I really do dislike this trend of re-recording older material.

What a shame. The album is decent but re-recording this isn't gonna earn him any points. Whatever!

I was never a huge Crimson Idol fan, it just never really blew me away, and that was partially because of the sound(the drums sounded kind of weak). Maybe the re-recorded version will sound better.

They haven't been able to top the excellent comeback K.F.D., so revisiting older material is understandable. However, why re-cover the garbage released after their last legendary album The Headless Children? I think Blackie considers The Crimson Idol to be his Operation:Mindcrime or something. The Crimson Idol & Still Not Black Enough are best forgotten.

I know most guys here prefer his christian rock era, so I understand people here will disagree with this. I'll just put on Animal (F*ck like a Beast) and go my own way.

I've been watching a lot of live W.A.S.P. on Youtube lately and Blackie puts on a tight and consistent show no matter who's playing in his band on stage. There's something, to me, worth listening to in everything he puts out. Now, I am disappointed, as a result, that this tour isn't coming to the U.S. I've seen people you'd never believe come down here to my city. We've had Buckethead, Steve Vai, Gwar, a whole bunch of people you'd never expect our humble little port town to pull in, especially since we neighbor New Orleans, and the artists who hit here immediately go there the next night. So I have to believe W.A.S.P. would benefit from playing here.... So maybe he'll change his mind and bring this tour our way. I don't care if he re-records the album or not ... I tend to stick to the originals but re-recordings can be okay too, sound-quality wise.

Quote :

 I tend to stick to the originals but re-recordings can be okay too, sound-quality wise.

That's my take as well.  And since I don't really hear anything wrong with the sound quality on the original Crimson Idol this re-recording seems superfluous.  Now if Blue Oyster Cult would re-record some of their albums (especially "Imaginos" and "Spectres") I'd investigate those because the originals sounds like they were played inside a cave and recorded from the outside.

Great name and avatar, btw .....There are some albums, like even now, Kill 'Em All and And Justice For All by Metallica actually might benefit from rerecording ... better bass, better recording of the guitar sound, even if the original distortion is just what you still want ....

This and The Headless Children are my faves by WASP, don't care about a remaster but i'd like to see the tour.

I guess it's a cheap cash grab. I really don't see any reason as to re-record this album. It's perfect as it is and a re-record won't be better. Now if he were to re-record and improve the mediocre Inside the Electric Circus, that would be something useful...

ShadowAngel wrote:

I guess it's a cheap cash grab. I really don't see any reason as to re-record this album. It's perfect as it is and a re-record won't be better. Now if he were to re-record and improve the mediocre Inside the Electric Circus, that would be something useful...

Will it be a profitable cash grab though? Sure, touring behind this album might make him some money, but realistically, when you take out the cost of studio time, production, packaging, etc., will it generate enough sales to make re-recording the album worth while?

That's the part I don't get with certain bands that do this sort of thing. In this day and age, is it worth the cost of a re-record to sell an extra, I dunno, thousand copies? Even when they are doing it to get their music rights back, are they seeing that big of a return?