Customer Reviews

W.A.S.P.

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Absolutely the best single release by W.A.S.P.! This was a phenomenal album when it first came out and the CD is still great to listen to today. This is metal at it's finest! The band would continue to put out good material for years to come, but in my opinion, this was the pinnacle of their creative careers. Every song here is good, whether it is heavy or slow. If I had to pick a weakest moment it would be the track "Hellion", simply because I can't even remember it at 3 in the morning, but the others ring loud and clear.

As far as good songs go, there is more than an ample supply. Tracks worth a close listen include "B.A.D.", "School Daze", "On Your Knees", "Tormentor", and "The Torture Never Stops". Exceptional songs that should have been huge hits are "I Wanna Be Somebody", "The Flame", "LOVE Machine" and my favorite "Sleeping in the Fire". The bonus tracks make this an even better deal as you get "Animal", a great version of "Paint It Black", and "Show No Mercy".

Blackie Lawless vocals are very good on this CD, but the high point is probably the guitar work of Chris Holmes and Randy Piper. Not quite as good as the twin leads of Thin Lizzy, but very good indeed! The production and musicianship make this an excellent release. NO great metal collection should be complete without this recording. This is one of my 100 all-time best. If you like this you may try HEADLESS CHILDREN.

I really like this album. It may seem cheesy but it is 100% real rock and roll. Every song on this masterpeice is simply bursting with Raw Heavy Metal energy. My favourite songs on this album are 'Hellion', 'Animal', 'I wanna be somebody' and 'School Daze'. The guitar work is great on this album, Chris Holmes is a great guitarist. All the songs are very well written, Blackie Lawless is a materful METAL songwriter who writes music that should be listened to at MAXIMUM VOLUME.

This album come highly recommended.

(My review scale: 1- Bad, 2- Average, 3- Good, 4- Very Good, 5- Excellent/Classic)

Of course it was easy to be fresh if you were WASP in 1984, and that's what this furious debut was, even if it wasn't completely original. WASP's debut fits alongside Ratt's, Out of the Cellar; Quiet Riot's, Metal Health and Motley Crue's, Shout at the Devil, in terms of 80's metal impact! It is a masterpiece of melodic metal pounding!

WASP, fronted by Blackie Lawless (who's only former claim to fame was being a member of the New York Dolls for about 10 minutes) came storming out of the L.A. club scene with the kind of reputation reserved for criminals. Stories of their wild stage show, featuring naked women chained to racks, raw meat, beheadings, and discount ticket prices for fans showing up at shows with a pint of blood (all donated to the Red Cross) made WASP legends before they ever had a record deal. A hard legend to live up to, but with this 1984 release, man, did they EVER live up to the billing. The bottom line here is that while it could be easy to dismiss WASP due to their over the top theatrics, there's not a single throwaway track on this album!!!

You start with the ultimate WASP anthem, "I Wanna Be Somebody", which is among the best metal songs of all time. Then the almost as catchy "L.O.V.E. Machine", which came along with a video that video channels refused to play in many countries, including Much Music in my own beloved Canada. (It does get airplay 20 years later on the Much Loud channel)

Smoking rocker "The Flame" continues side one's relentless pace, as it stretches Blackie "Doom Brother" Lawless' vocal range. Side one ends off with good rockers, "B.A.D." and "School Daze".

From the good old vinyl days, side two of this disk just keeps blasting! "The Hellion" is furious energy! "Sleeping (In the Fire) is a nice power ballad. The last three songs on this disk just COOK! "On Your Knees" is one of their best, while "Tormentor" foreshadows Blackie's future sound a bit. The album closes with the heavy and fast, "The Torture Never Stops".

This album is just so damn good! It features the original and BEST lineup of the band, Blackie, Randy Piper, Chris Holmes and Tony Richards. Leather, studs, bolts, nails, chainsaw codpieces, blood, sex, violence, lunacy...and rock and roll! This special 80's Metal release will always be among my faves! The added songs on the CD release are totally unnecessary. Buy it!

W.A.S.P.(1984). W.A.S.P.'s debut album.

Back in the early to mid 80s, glam metal was beginning to surface, with many of those bands like Def Leppard and Quiet Riot coming out of the earlier NWOBHM scene (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal to the uneducated). At the time, most of these glam metal bands were just starting out and the scene wasn't satuated with tons of cookie cutter bands and ridiculous clothing yet (that would come into effect in 1986). So many were just concerned with writing good hardrock/heavy metal songs. To me, I've always found the better glam metal bands to be the ones that always borderlined on real heavy metal music, but stayed commercial enough to keep in the realm of the glam metal genre. These include Twisted Sister, Kick Axe, and of course, W.A.S.P. This Los Angeles based band consists of lead singer/bass guitarist Blackie Lawless, lead guitarists Chris Holmes and Randy Piper, and drummer Tony Richards. This band appears as a much darker act than most glam metal bands, especially with their Priest-esque leather & studs outfits and the bloody stage props. Cheesy, yes, but it sort of adds to the appeal, and they're not overworked on the looks like say... Poison or Cinderella. With all the disgusting props, these guys were sure to be shunned by anyone associated with the Washington Wives, Tipper Gore and Susan Baker. Anyways, the music is what's really important, and in that they truly deliver. Sounding like a perfect medium between Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P. serves up 10 tracks of pure metal anthems, with nary a filler moment to be found. And thanks to the 1998 remaster treatment, not only do the tracks sound better than ever, but we also get three bonus tracks, including the A-side which was previously only available on their first single. Let's take a look at W.A.S.P.'s debut.

Starting things up is the aformentioned "unreleased" A-side, 'Animal (FLAB)'. This was an excellent track and I'm definitely glad to see it on here, though you can clearly see why is was originally cut. The next two catchy, bouncy rockers, 'I Wanna Be Somebody' and 'L.O.V.E. Machine' follow nicely, and are easy to get stuck in your head. 'The Flame' is a rocker which definitely brings to mind Metal Health-era Quiet Riot. 'B.A.D.' slows the pace down, but it's still very noteworthy. If anything is to be said, it's that W.A.S.P. likes to use initialed words in ther song titles, much like Anthrax. 'School Daze' is sort of your typical "rebel kid" anthem. Then there's the awesome fast rocker 'Hellion' (NOT the Judas Priest song), which sports a giant chorus. 'Sleeping In The Fire' is the album's ballad, though not a wimpy ballad by any means. 'On Your Knees' is a favorite blazing rocker of mine, and 'Tormentor' pounds all the way through. 'The Torture Never Stops' is a galloping rocker, like a cross between Iron Maiden and Yngwie Malmsteen. Both the B-sides are a welcome addition as well. 'Show No Mercy' sounds very similar to 'On Your Knees', and 'Paint It Black' is an excellent Stones cover, and does the original great justice.

If you're a fan of Quiet Riot and/or Twisted Sister, you will be right at home with W.A.S.P.'s debut. It has plenty of catchy metal anthems to bang your head to, and most importantly, it rocks like few can! So it gets my full 5 stars. I haven't checked out W.A.S.P.'s other albums yet, but I'm sure they've followed suit to the debut's style. I believe they're still around today. Simply put, if you want a decent glam metal band that plays good and memorable songs, but without all the decadent qualities, then W.A.S.P. is your prime pick. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Other similar albums:
-'Metal Health' by Quiet Riot
-'Vices' by Kick Axe
-'Under The Blade' by Twisted Sister
-'You Can't Stop Rock N Roll' by Twisted Sister

In 1984, a friend played a cassette featuring a song called Animal. The story was that the label refused to release it. Naturally we all had to hear it. Despite it's controversy, animal is actually a damn catchy little number.

Later that year, I snuck into First Ave(Mpls nightclub) to see Armored Saint, Metallica and....WASP! The whole reason for going was to see WASP and their legendary stage show. The two opening bands were awesome(looking back it is funny to think of a time when Metallica was just an underground band with a buzz) but Blackie Lawless and co made the night special. Blackie stepping out, 6'6 with boots and a buzz-saw blade on his cod piece, left a definite impression. I walked away hooked on this band that was too dangerous for mid-America.

On this re-release of the album that started it all, Animal is included, along with Show No Mercy and Paint It Black. As I said, despite it's subtitle, Animal is actually a decent song.

The album proper starts out with I Wanna Be Somebody, a thundering number that is the quintessential teen anthem, even now I want to raise my fist in the air and my teen years are long behind me. L.O.V.E. Machine follows and is a mid tempo dong about...well...not really love but sex. Hey, Blackie wrote it, you can't really expect it to be sentimental. School Daze is a far nastier song than Alice Cooper's Schools out. "Fire Bell is ringing hell and I'd sure like to see it blaze.....BURN IT DOWN!"
Songs like Tormentor and The Torture Never Stops certainly added to W.A.S.P.'s reputation as being satanic and sinister. Sleeping In The Fire is beautiful and dark.

Honestly, this album has a dated sound, but the songs are still enjoyable after all these years. The truth is that W.A.S.P. put out a heavy, tight album of catchy tunes. I would certainly buy it again, especially this version with the bonus cuts.

There were hair bands and then there was WASP! This CD in particluar was one of the first i ever bought, there really is no bad song on it, all the songs are killer from start to finish. Highlights include "B.A.D." "I Wanna Be Somebody", "The Flame" and one of my favorties "Hellion" which includes the the lyric; "the gods you worship are steel, at the altar of rock n roll you kneel" Truly W.A.S.P is one of the best and most underated metal bands of the 1980's. They are the reason Tipper Gore will never sleep well again.

Unfortunately the original first album came out without Animal as the first track...this here is the way the album was intended to be released by Blackie and co...until censorship issues forced the change.

Can't really say much about this album other than it is legendary. If you're a WASP fan you own it, if you are into rock and metal and don't have it you need to grab a copy.

I have been a fan of W.A.S.P. from the very beginning. I own every note they released. They have had their ups (Last Command, Still Not Black Enough) and their downs (Crimson Idol, Headless Children), but this album is a high water mark for ALL hard rock music. Think of all the bands that emerged in the early to mid 1980's. W.A.S.P. is STILL GOING STRONG! Not Poison, Not Bon Jovi, Not Crue, not Great (mediocre) White, but W.A.S.P. I challenge anyone to find a song on this CD that doesn't kick your teeth in. "The Flame" is the most overlooked gem in the band's catalog. "B.A.D." defines their attitude and image perfectly. While everybody else was busy chasing video models and MTV guest VJ slots, Blackie and the boys were busy developing the greatest band LA ever spawned. His openness and frankness in his lyrics and with his fans add to his appeal as a true rock frontman. If you only buy one CD from W.A.S.P., make it this one. Then go buy the others.

Back in a time when metal went soft, WASP kicked it in gear and drove home real hard crunching metal. No Poison here folks, if your looking for Bon Jovi I strongly suggest you find a different CD to buy!

I own all the W.A.S.P. albums and they still sound fresh today whereas other bands sound dated and fake. They RATT and Motley Crue are the pivotal heavy metal groups of the 80's genre. I'm glad they still record and tour. This album is great driving music and play along on guitar with its testosterone laced lyrics and gritty driving guitars.