W.A.S.P.

W.A.S.P. was IMO better than Motley Crue and Ratt, should have been a bigger band than those two bands, Blackie Lawless was a songwriter who could write songs that were both heavy and had a hook. Their image in retrospect might be on the goofier side but back in the 80's nobody pissed off more parents than W.A.S.P.

As time went on W.A.S.P. didnot play it safe, their Who inspired concept albums 'Headless Children' and 'Crimson Idol' are great albums that still hold up pretty well. Chris Holmes was not a great guitartist but he worked well for W.A.S.P., and their song catalog 'Animal ( I Boink Like a Beast)' 'I Wanna Be Somebody' 'L.O.V.E. Machine' served as a soundtrack to, as rattpoison might put it , to my beer swilling, bed squeaking teens. Great sleazy rock n roll circus. A band that deserves better than being a mere foot note in metal history.

Agreed.

I always felt WASP seemed more sincere in their decadence than alot of the other bands.

Preach it brotha Manny! W.A.S.P. is one of my all time favorites. Though I gotta say, Blackie's getting inconsistent in his old age, the last couple of records (especially that godawful "Crimson Idol" retread, the 2-part "Neon God" saga) have not been up to par. The recent DOMINATOR was slightly better than NEON GOD but felt like it was rushed out to the market before it was really finished.

Other than a couple of burps here and there, though, the W.A.S.P. catalog is pretty damn solid. Love me some HEADLESS CHILDREN, that's an all time Top 10 for me, easy.

W.A.S.P. was the shizz. That's for sure. I agree with Fred. The last few have been pretty below par, but I'll support the band until they quit. They have always been a top 5 band for me, and always will be.

I do not have that Neon God CD's, I do like most of their discography, I even like 'K.F.D' , if you strip away the pseudo industrial music elements from the production of that album, it is another solid W.A.S.P. album.

Quote :

I even like 'K.F.D' , if you strip away the
pseudo industrial music elements from the production of that album, it
is another solid W.A.S.P. album.

I am the only one here that LOVES that album. I say keep the industrial elements and let that be the document of that particular time. That album contains some of Blackie's darkest, angriest stuff. Limp Bizkit makes some people wanna break stuff, K.F.D. is my catalyst.

manny wrote:

I do not have that Neon God CD's, I do like most of their discography, I even like 'K.F.D' , if you strip away the pseudo industrial music elements from the production of that album, it is another solid W.A.S.P. album.

I wasn't crazy about KFD (in fact, I traded my copy away to Spec a while back and honestly don't miss it a bit) but I do like the live versions of the songs from that album on the DOUBLE LIVE ASSASSINS release... they sound better without all the industrial/processed crap added.

I was all stoked for the NEON GOD saga when I first heard about it cuz CRIMSON IDOL is one of my fave W.A.S.P. albums, but it was pretty much a stiff... sounded like warmed over CRIMSON IDOL leftovers. Maybe if I'd never heard CRIMSON I would've dug it more, but it feels like sitting thru a rerun. There was really no reason to stretch it out over 2 CDs either. My inner cynic tends to think that Blackie more than likely owed two more albums to Sanctuary Records to get out of his contract and that's why it was turned into a 2-album piece.

SpectreFate wrote:

Quote :

I even like 'K.F.D' , if you strip away the
pseudo industrial music elements from the production of that album, it
is another solid W.A.S.P. album.

I am the only one here that LOVES that album. I say keep the industrial elements and let that be the document of that particular time. That album contains some of Blackie's darkest, angriest stuff. Limp Bizkit makes some people wanna break stuff, K.F.D. is my catalyst.

I love the album also, and I agree leave it the way it is, just people got so hung up on the industrial elements of that album they failed to see that songwriting wise it was not as different as their other albums, attitude wise this album is the angriest album I have heard from just about any artist.

Limp Bizkit of course are not worthy enough to even carry Blackie's cod piece.

manny wrote:

people got so hung up on the industrial elements

I still remember the day I bought K.F.D. -- my bro and I were at the CD store, when we got back in the car I put it right in the CD player, and about two tracks in my brother suddenly piped up "What's with this Nine Inch Nails sh*t?"

I'm just getting caught up with all of thier discography and while it's been spotty in some places, I'd say that their latter material holds up much better than most of the latter output of their peers of that decade. They (or Blackie) do the whole shock/sleeze thing just as well as the more serious material.

It's a shame really that for the most part, they are only known for that one song. When I tell my buddies that I picked up any newer WASP material, the 2 reactions I get are:

1.) "They're still around?"
2.) "The guys that sang "F**K Like a Beast?"

I like Dominator. I'll take that over the new Crue, new Ratt or most of the other LA glam bands still trying to make a buck.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I like Dominator. I'll take that over the new Crue, new Ratt or most of the other LA glam bands still trying to make a buck.

I like it too, but in this day and age, releasing an 'album' that's only 9 tracks (one of which is a 'reprise' of an earlier song for cryin' out loud) and a run time of about 35 minutes kinda seems like a cheat.

I think latter day "trilogy" of Helldorado, Unholy Terror and Dying For The World is just as good as their first 3 albums.

manny wrote:

I do not have that Neon God CD's, I do like most of their discography, I even like 'K.F.D' , if you strip away the pseudo industrial music elements from the production of that album, it is another solid W.A.S.P. album.

I agree. If you strip away the NIN-stuff, it's just as good as any WASP album. Sure, it's a sign of the times, but for me, the industrial stuff, like my grandmother used to say is like "Tits on a bull. Completely unnecessary". It dates the album and worse yet, makes Blackie come off like a flavor-of-the-day genre jumper, when it would have been just as fine an album without it.

Still good though. Nice and angry.

And yea Freddy, I agree that Dominator is too short. And to the best of my knowledge, it's still only available as a pricey import. Luckily, I got mine used from SecondSpin when they were running a sale. I think I still paid $12 bucks for it, which goes over my usual $10 spending cap, but well worth it.

SpectreFate wrote:

I think latter day "trilogy" of Helldorado, Unholy Terror and Dying For The World is just as good as their first 3 albums.

I just dusted off HELLDORADO for the first time in awhile earlier this week. I remember being very relieved when I first heard it because Blackie wasn't continuing with the K.F.D. sound. It's just a good ole fashioned, dumb, raunchy W.A.S.P. album ... in other words, exactly how they should sound.

Haven't listened to either UNHOLY or DYING in a while either (but now that you've mentioned'em I betcha I'll be pulling'em off the shelf soon), but I will say that the 9/11 inspired "Hallowed Ground" off of DYING is one of Blackie's finest works.

SpectreFate wrote:

I think latter day "trilogy" of Helldorado, Unholy Terror and Dying For The World is just as good as their first 3 albums.

Hmmmm, Unholy Terror and Dying for the World, I'd buy. Helldorado, eh, not so much. Leading up to that point, it seemed like Blackie was trying to lose some of the shock/sleeze stuff and be taken more seriously and move forward. Helldorado seemed like a step backward. Not to mention that when I'm playing it at work, I need to lower the volume when Blackie's screaming about his 'Dirty Balls'. Union electricians don't take kindly to some artsy dude listening to someone singing about his unclean nads.

I lost track of W.A.S.P. over the years, but I always loved Blackie's voice and attitude. I think their earlier "image" did them more harm than good in the long run, because once they got into more serious material (Headless Children) they couldn't shake off the perception that they were some kind of gimmick band.

I don't know. Helldorado blew me away when it came out. Just simple rock n roll about balls, sex, and cocaine. I love it! It jumps between #1 and #2 on my list of W.A.S.P. albums, the other possibile #1 being the debut.

detuned wrote:

I lost track of W.A.S.P. over the years, but I always loved Blackie's voice and attitude. I think their earlier "image" did them more harm than good in the long run, because once they got into more serious material (Headless Children) they couldn't shake off the perception that they were some kind of gimmick band.

I think you're right. I know I had that perception for awhile too. It wasn't until I heard Unholy Terror that my intrest in the band was re-kindled.

W.A.S.P. also had a sense of humor, you got the impression that they didnot take themselves as seriously as Motley Crue or Ratt for example. I agree with detuned when they tired to be a more serious band their image hurt them in the long run.

I am with Spec when it concerns 'Helldorado' it is fun metal album, and at least Blackie Lawless never released any album as crappy as Motley Crue's 'Generation Swine' or ' New Tattoo' or wrote lyrics as inspid as the following by Mr. Sixx

Sexy suki little geisha girl
Giving every samurai a twirl
An HIV, VIP
Backseat panties down around her knees

Hell 'Dirty Balls' sounds like it was written by Walt Whitman in comparison.

manny wrote:

W.A.S.P. also had a sense of humor, you got the impression that they didnot take themselves as seriously as Motley Crue or Ratt for example. I agree with detuned when they tired to be a more serious band their image hurt them in the long run.

I am with Spec when it concerns 'Helldorado' it is fun metal album, and at least Blackie Lawless never released any album as crappy as Motley Crue's 'Generation Swine' or ' New Tattoo' or wrote lyrics as inspid as the following by Mr. Sixx

Sexy suki little geisha girl
Giving every samurai a twirl
An HIV, VIP
Backseat panties down around her knees

Hell 'Dirty Balls' sounds like it was written by Walt Whitman in comparison.

One thing that I also admired about W.A.S.P. was the 'Headless Children' and 'Crimson Idol' albums was that he took a huge gamble writing concept albums at a time when no other band ( at least metal band besides Queensryche) was doing this at that time.

Also W.A.S.P. did a cover of The Who' s 'Real Me' and incorportated into their own concept album and not only did their version kick ass but they made it their own. That is not easy thing to do when it comes to The Who.

For some reason Manny's post reminded me of the old John Prine song "Dear Abbey", which contained the following verse

"Dear Abbey, Dear Abbey who woulda thought
That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught
Sittin' in the backseat just shootin' the breeze
With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees.

Signed: Just Married"

I think my favorite quote from Mr. Lawless was from one of those VH-1 shows where he was talking about a burnt lower abdominal area caused by his miss-fired roman candle cod peice. He said:

"You know, maybe if we wrote better songs, we wouldn't have to do this kind of sh*t".

Truer word were never spoken.

I remember getting Animal and the S/T as new releases, I didn't keep up as i did the "new christian" evil deed of getting rid of my "secular music" (ugh - STILL regret it to this day!!!!)

I will ahve to start picking up some of theother releases.

I remember we used to joke and say WASP stood for We are As* Sucking Pansies

thejokeriv wrote:

I remember we used to joke and say WASP stood for We are As* Sucking Pansies

The hot rumor when they first came out was that the initials stood for "We Are Satanic People" or something similarly stupid. Blackie used to say it stood for "We Are Sexual Perverts" of course, but over the years he's made many jokes about what the initials stand for, I remember one interview where he answered the question "what do the initials W.A.S.P. stand for?" with "We Ain't Sure, Pal"