W.A.S.P.

(UNITED STATES)

W.A.S.P.

(1984)
LABEL:

CAPITOL

GENRE:

HEAVY METAL

TAGS:
80's, Easy-Listening, Rasping vocals
"W.A.S.P. launches its career with an explosive cocktail of sex, drugs, alcohol and violence. A provocative album with undeniable musical qualities."
NIURK (25.02.2009)  
5/5
(0) opinions (0) comment(s) (1) Biography + (5)
In the 80's, Heavy Metal is in full expansion and scandalizes the American morality. The music genre is then classified in a random but systematic way as satanic, violent, pornographic, inciting to drug consumption or pushing to suicide... In 1985, the lobby Parents Music Resource Center is created. It gathers scandalized parents wishing to fight against this musical plague and the evils it generates. In the Top 15 of the hated titles, we find Prince, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Motley Crue. But of all of them, we can easily imagine that it is W.A.S.P. that must have scandalized them, because if they could hardly expect pious sermons from Judas Priest, how could they have doubted young people taking up the acronym of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants! 

Because we can't say that Blackie Lawless, leader and singer of the band, hidden his intention for along time. From the first track and with a finesse that is only equalled by the sweetness of his voice, he sings a thundering "I fuck like a beast" animated by a fervour that is anything but religious! But beyond the explicit lyrics, it is Blackie's voice itself that gives us the biggest slap in the face... A hoarse voice, powerful, hoarse or high-pitched, sexual... Besides, it would have been complicated for our good parents of the time to take offense at the lyrics of a song that the record company had removed from the album! "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)" will indeed be revived only in 1998 for the reissue...  

W.A.S.P. evolves in a hard-rock / heavy metal register, which leads it to propose short and catchy tracks, with relatively simple but rough and raging structures. Each track is an immediate pleasure, but rich and worked enough to support repeated listening. Tony Richards, who will have made like so many others a lightning passage at his post, gratifies us behind his drums of a solid score by establishing groovy tempi ("Animal (Fuck Like A Beast", "The Flame", "BAD"...) or wild ("Love Machine", "I Wanna Be Somebody", "Hellion"...). On their side the soli are short and sharpened, the 2 present six-stringers offering themselves some glorious moments ("Sleeping In The Fire", "Hellion" !). Special mention to "Sleeping In The Fire", ballad of the album with infinite emotional charge, which sees Blackie passing from a macho manly dress to that of a libidinous bear! The end of the album sets the clock back by stating "The Torture Never Stops"!

To make the pleasure last, the remastered version offers 2 bonus tracks: a very good "Show No Mercy", as well as a cover of "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones subjected to Blackie's inexhaustible sexual appetite, turning here into a kind of sensual monster.

Sex, drugs, alcohol, violence... An explosive cocktail that we find in this eponymous album which will have been more talked about for its extreme and provocative aspects than for its musical qualities. Anyway, W.A.S.P. released a major work that will have marked the 80's and the world of Hard Rock.
- Official website

TRACK LISTING:
01. Animal (Fuck Like A Beast) – 3:06
02. I Wanna Be Somebody – 3:43
03. L.O.V.E. Machine – 3:51
04. The Flame – 3:41
05. B.A.D. – 3:56
06. School Daze – 3:35
07. Hellion – 3:39
08. Sleeping (In The Fire) – 3:55
09. On Your Knees – 3:48
10. Tormentor – 4:10
11. The Torture Never Stops – 3:56
12. Show No Mercy (bonus) – 3:38
13. Paint It Black (bonus) (Cover Roll. Stones) – 3:27

LINEUP:
Blackie Lawless: Chant / Basse
Chris Holmes: Guitares
Randy Piper: Guitares
Tony Richard: Batterie / Choeurs
   
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