W.A.S.P. - s/t track poll

i wanna be somebody kicks so much ass, i love it

but i love this whole album

was my ringtone for years.

only because of burnout, I might go "Tormentor"....cos that's one evil anthem, cornball lyrics aside.

the only one I don't like is "The Flame".

I could write for days about this album, but oddly I never really have, save for the time my 10th grade Catholic School English teacher encouraged me to write about W.A.S.P. and I aced the assignment (replete with descriptions of gore, fire, throwing meat, drinking blood from skulls, torture devices, sawblade codpieces, Hustler magazine, and that single with FUCK in the title) thus planting the music journalist seed in my brain that October of 1985.

W.A.S.P. were SO badass in 1984-85, especcially if you were 14 at the time. I didn't know about Alice Cooper until he appeared on Twisted Sister's 1985 album, so W.A.S.P. was my introduction to shock rock, psychodrama, metal theatrics, and I was all-in. Here was music purposely designed to piss off Boomers, but also with a dose of grift to it. Equal parts carnivore, carnal, and carny. My metal buds and I would watch the Live at the Lyceum VHS over and over, the band was so over the top.

The album, though, transcends all the gimmickry. Listen to the tone, it's effing RAW. The guitar tone is trebly, just shrill enough to add a little shriek to the heaviness, and when played loud through a walkman, it was abrasive and cathartic. Tony Richards brings a primal force to the drums...the gated snare triplets on "I Wanna Be Somebody" sounds MASSIVE. Then there's Blackie, this dude who was ten years older than the other Hollywood bands, who ground it out with the Dolls, Killer Kane, Sister, Circus Circus, London, before hitting paydirt with W.A.S.P., putting in a commanding vocal performance. The first half of the record is a straight party album, flirting with glam metal. "School Daze" was a big one for me: "A juvenile jail and I'm here locked up in their cage."

Side two, though, total heavy fucking metal that rivaled Slayer and Metallica. "Hellion", what a rager. Same with "On Your Knees" ("I bid you come taste your first deadly sin...WA-HAHAHA!". "Sleeping in the Fire" is a really well-crafted power ballad that doesn't sacrifice any of the heaviness (the riffs in the bridge right before the solo make the song for me). And those final two songs, what a clinic in 1980s shock rock/metal. We would rent the VHS of Dungeonmaster just to watch the part where W.A.S.P. plays "Tormentor" and does the torture rack bit. "The Torture Never Stops" takes it further, really dark, theatric, with a killer opening riff.

Last year, while digging through boxes of stuff I'd saved from then, I found an old silkscreen banner that I bought at a head shop, with the sawblade logo and Hellion quote ("the gods you worship are steel, at the altar of rock and roll you kneel"). I can't part with it. This album was so formative. I hope to FINALLY see Blackie in person this fall (stay healthy, big guy) and hear that album in its entirety.

Oh, and my pick is "Hellion".

booming post, just what I was hoping for itt.

i bought a W.A.S.P. flag at the last show I attended, never put it up. rectifying that today.

not every message board gets A. Begrand, kids!

for the record, though not a fan, i bought a tie dye w.a.s.p. t-shirt with the sawblade logo at a head shop in 1986.

were there many other bands that seamlessly blended hair metal and traditional heavy metal? obviously, there's a bit of NWOBHM underneath the surface, but this also has raw rock 'n roll in its DNA, as well as the trademarks of American hair bands of the day, and both seem to complement each other just fine.

feel like most other bands kinda pulled one way or the other.

I remember the first time I heard W.A.S.P. I said "is this fuckin Mitch Ryder singing heavy metal songs"

There were other LA bands who mixed glam and underground well. Lizzy Borden's Love You to Pieces is a severely underrated Metal Blade classic. Warrior's Fighting For the Earth (again, tragically overlooked) adds a touch of Dio to their slick sound. Racer X to a lesser extent, I always thought they were chronically ordinary. Phoenix's Icon put out an amazing first album that few remember now. Black N Blue's first album is heavy AF, too. Steeler too, maybe the first Keel album.

But honestly, the first W.A.S.P. album is easily the best of those crossover attempts. Though one could easily lump Shout at the Devil among those too, it has that same dark edge to it.

ahh yeah I love Lizzy Borden. forgot about them. do not know the rest other than Black 'n Blue.

well and Crue obviously. Shout at the Devil is the last Crue I'll listen to

Oh, Armored Saint, too. There's a band that never put out a bad record.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I Wanna Be Somebody and Aldo Nova’s Fantasy were big time hype tracks on my off brand cassette Walkman before I had to wrestle in a match when I was a freshman in high school. Kind of like Matthew Modine but WAY WAY less cool. Muncie.

I Wanna Be Somebody and Aldo Nova’s Fantasy were big time hype tracks on my off brand cassette Walkman before I had to wrestle in a match when I was a freshman in high school. Kind of like Matthew Modine but WAY WAY less cool. Muncie.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Love that story!

The cassette had such a mean, abrasive tone to it that me and my 14 year-old metal skid buds would rave about. It was *deafening*, whether through a walkman or through the wicked stereo rig one bud had in his rickety old Lada. Still have that tape.