Tag: wasp

The one thing about Wasp is that they have continued to put out albums when all others fell by the wayside. Sure, there have been a few hiccups and line up changes along the way but Blackie is still fronting the machine. This was album number eight and was originally released in ’99, which was past their prime years but nevertheless it is still a solid hard rockin’ record.

This is a reissue through the Madfish label and the mix isn’t the best if I’m honest, especially the drums. They sound a tad muffled, like they are coming from the next room. As well as Blackie, OG member Chris Holmes was still in the band at this point, although he would depart after the next release. Out of the ten tracks on offer here my favourites are Damnation Angels, Can’t Die Tonight, and Saturday Night Cock Fight. All of which are good enough to be classed as prime WASP tunes.

Once you get behind the shock rock gimmicks of blood and cheese graters, Blackie is not bad at writing a good tune.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

If you’re a new band and you want to get people to pay attention to your music, what’s the best way of doing that? Well, you can always rely on talent and great songs – or you can shock the public into gaining attention. Wasp chose the latter!

I think we are all aware of Animal (F**k) Like A Beast and the all the furor that surrounded it. It certainly worked – as fans turned out just to see what all the fuss was about. Then there is guitarist Chris Holmes’ antics, most famously the scene of him in the swimming pool smashed out of his face drinking vodka. Next there was the cheese grater on the back of the guitar of (I think) Randy Piper, where he would allegedly shred his hands. All that seemed to detract away from the music, even though it was designed to gain attention.

The songs are mostly really good, and Blackie Lawless knew how to write a great rock song. The album starts off with with two killer songs that were released as singles, namely I Wanna Be Somebody and Love Machine, highlighting my point about Blackie’s songwriting. Both great songs with a big hook and chorus. Other notable tracks on the album are the pure LA rock of Hellion, and the gallop of The Torture Never Stops. This is just straight rock n roll. This was as good as they got as the image started to overtake the music.

9/10 from The Grooveman.