It's always a pleasure for me when a new W.A.S.P. album gets out. First of all,
I can buy it blindly, because Blackie's not fooling anybody ever, he's putting
all his emotions, anger, sadness and more into his productions and you can feel
it in the final result. He says it himself, its always a painful process for
him to write albums. So in the end all WASP albums have something special to
offer, and never was I disappointed by any of them, this one's no exception,
Its not his best album, but its still a very good one. You'll find everything
you're used to find in WASP music, agressivity & good fast paced heavy metal.
Lyrics, like always are very smart, and this time the subject is mainly religion,
what we told us, what to believe, what truth to take out of everything we've
heard. Blackie don't have the pretension of knowing the answers of course, people
who know WASP well understand that Blackie will get us in a ride where he show
us what he believes in, understand and feel out of his own experience. Nothing
more, nothing less. Album after album, Blackie's giving a piece of his soul
to his fans, and that's also what makes this band so special.
Musically speaking, the album is halfway between Headless Children and
The Crimson Idol, but the overall feeling is a big Rock'N'Roll feeling,
less metal, much more Rock oriented. Amongst the deception I'd have to say that
the drums are so square, so typical, that you don't even know its there (too
bad, I usually love rhythm part in W.A.S.P), and the second problem would be
the production (by Blackie himself) which is inferior to many other WASP album.
Aside that the guitars are majestic and so are the screamy vocals of Mister
Lawless ! The CD contains a lot of nice songs like Loco-motive Man, Ravenheart
or the excellent Charisma. There's also a nice little instrumental tune called
Euphoria which is very nice and I was quite surprised by it.
If you're a WASP fan, you can buy this record blindly, its not their best piece
of music, but still its a very cool album, with interesting subjects and this
nice Rock'N'Roll feeling. For the others, there are better albums to start checking
the band out (Headless Children, The Crimson Idol, Still Not Black Enough,...).
See you in a couple of years for another W.A.S.P album and another review !
Keep on going Blackie !