On disc: W.A.S.P.

 
 Unholy Terror
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
 Dying For the World
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
 The Neon God: Part 1 - The Rise
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
 The Neon God Pt. 2 - The Demise
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
 Babylon
 
- Umberto Mino -
 
 

Babylon

(Demolition Records - 2009)



 
 

 

Mr Lawless is back one more time for the happiness of our ears!!!!! But guys this time is really a short time, only nine songs with two covers.... like their live shows!!!! Ok, this is a shot under the belt!!!

Guys don't worry, because also this time W.A.S.P. give us nice songs and nice rock'n'roll vibes. Let's start with the new single Crazy and Live To Die Another Day and.......... yes, here they're back to rock our asses!!! The following Babylon's Burning and the cover of Deep Purple's Burn still keep the level high!!!!!! Into The Fire is the power ballad (?) of the CD. Thunder Red returns to maintain the speed of the album, a huge powerful song, the following Seas Of Fire is a classic W.A.S.P. song, easily to recognize!!!! Godless Run and the cover version of the R'n'R classic Promised Land close this CD too soon!!!! High level album with a very short runtime, this is the only critic I can do to Mr Lawless. But these are W.A.S.P., love 'em or hate 'em...... LOVE!!!!!
 
 










Umberto Mino


  
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The Neon God Pt. 2 - The Demise

(Sanctuary Records - 2004)



 
 

 

Now a few months later part 2 of The Neon God is getting in the stores. Still I don't understand why this wasn't released as a double CD, but well.... They start with Never Say Die, here there are first some lines - the chorus - sung by Mr. Lawless, then the band joins in. An epic mid-tempo tune which has a certain aggression. Here you can feel some desperation, aggression, hate... An unusual way to start a CD. If it wouldn't be a conceptual album, this track wouldn't be the album opener. Perhaps this should have been on Part 1.... Track no. 2 - Resurrection - would have been a better track to start with. Here you have the typical sound of W.A.S.P. which is based on Blackie Lawless vocals. In this part of the story Jesse, the protagonist has to face his mother - who abandoned him and let him live in misery - in the middle of his followers and he got into a crisis. He tells his confidants about his decision. The music has to fit to the story and so Lawless was limited through the story line. He handled this task quite well. A great album.
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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The Neon God: Part 1 - The Rise

(Sanctuary Records - 2004)



 
 

 

The Americans are back with a new album which is called The Neon God Pt. 1 - The Rise. A conceptual album and more a metal opera then just a simple concept album. When you hear the first notes - Overture - of the album it's clear from the beginning, this is W.A.S.P.! The band's first songs on this album is Why Am I Here / Wishing Well. Starting slowly, acoustic - just an intro. Then Wishing Well, an up-tempo track, really heavy and the unique vocals of Blackie Lawless who changes between anger and desperation... Sadness... Self-pity. Sure, the music is somehow dictated by the story, but it has all facets and is full of emotions. The tracks have the typical W.A.S.P. sound. And they have other elements. Some parts are heavier then the band been in the past. Personally I think that guitarist Darrell Robertson fits better to the band. He has a wide range of sounds, from aggressive riffs to emotional parts. This is a very intense album which might need a few spins to get into, but it's worth spending time. Personally I found it very easy to get into it, even if this is very ambitious.

The story? Well, Mr. Lawless said: "This is War And Peace versus somebody just reading the preface of the first page." A radical metaphor for the concept. The story is not placed in a specific place... Town. He asked himself "What does it take to create a monster? Where does somebody have to get tweaked - and how often - to turn into something that can potentially be this?" His answer is the essence of The Neon God Pt. 1. The protagonist is that kind of character. His next question was "What takes this character further then other cult leaders?" The answer to this is that "he actually believes, at times". Blackie explained "In my mind I saw something very similar to the Manson family, or what Hitler had done with the Brown Shirts." And so this story carries on. A challenge to reconsider the own view of life, concepts of social life / society and the false prophets.

If you liked W.A.S.P. in the past, you won't regret buying this album. Beside that fans of Heavy Metal, Power Meta
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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Dying For the World

(Metal-Is - 2003)



 
 

 

The opening track Shadow Man kinda presents the new W.A.S.P. and has all the essentials, but with My Wicked Heart they are back to their classics. The songs have different lyrical backgrounds, e.g. Black Bone Torso is about religion and musically Blackie Lawless and his mates slow down a little, a very intense track and totally different to the rest of the tracks!

The next track is called Hell For Eternity and is a hard rocking track where their new guitarist Darrel Roberts had the chance to show his talents. The most intense and impressive track is Hallowed Ground which been written after Blackie visited Ground Zero. A slow, but intense song which shows the feelings Mr. Lawless had after being at the site. In the past Blackie Lawless wrote about serious topics, but this is his masterpiece so far.

And for the first time in the history of W.A.S.P. a track is released on an album in two different versions. The track Hallowed Ground is also the final track, but in an acoustic version which gets even more intense through the minimization.

This is one of the best albums of Mr. Lawless and his band, perhaps because he wrote the songs without thinking about the fans and the business.... Anyway, this album is a must for hard rock and metal fans!
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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Unholy Terror

(Noise International - 2001)



 
 

 

In the past Blackie Lawless and his band shocked the world with nasty lyrics and extreme visual effects. What effects they will present to shock the fans live, I don't know, but lyrically Unholy Terror is different... partly! Mr. Lawless is now singing about serious topics, even if he chose a drastic way.... Musically they didn't changed a lot, if you listen to one of the new tracks you will know immediately that it is WASP.

After the first spin I remembered the songs Loco-Motive Man best. The lyrics of that song deal with a boy run amuck at his school. A topic Americans have to deal with all the time and Lawless tells the story from the boys point of view!

But there are also the typical shock rocking songs like Who Slayed Baby Jane? and Hate To Love Me. Musically not a very typical tune for WASP is another catchy song called Raven Heart which is a partly slower song, but very heavy with a great guitar riffing. With Evenmore the Unholy Terror album contains a power ballad, a nice tune which in my eyes lack a little bit of emotion, especially Blackies vocals.

Final résumé: A good album which makes Kill Fuck Die forget which was one of the weakest WASP releases.... But that's just my personal opinion. Check it out!
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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