Today brings me to yet another "new" band that I've had no previous exposure to or knowledge of. W.A.S.P. first hit my radar with my PMRC Filthy 15 post, but since then has been coming around my various searches over the past year or so. While I would look at the list of their albums, probably did an ebay search, and made mental notes, I never officially added them to my want list, or prioritized getting them. This was mainly because there was always something more intriguing to venture into, music wise. However, they consistently stayed on my mind, and I would come back around to them multiple times, never pulling the trigger.
Then I went on a buying binge of heavy metal and hair bands of the 80's, and they suddenly became one of the priorities to obtain, which I did along with Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and Hanoi Rocks. Despite only having four albums from the era, they were surprisingly a bit difficult to track down, with their second album being the most frustrating. I'll go into more of that tomorrow.
For now, let me kick things off with their self-titled debut. Released in 1984, the band immediately came under fire by the PMRC for their track Animal (F**k Like A Beast), and as a result, the track would be deleted from the album prior to its pressing and release. This, however, didn't stop W.A.S.P. from unleashing it on the UK as a single, making it an import many fans instantly went on the hunt for.
Singles, I Wanna Be Somebody, and L.O.V.E. Machine, would push sales momentum of the album, and in support, W.A.S.P. would head out on tour with several notable acts; Kiss, Iron Maiden, Dokken, Krokus, Helix, Quiet Riot, Armored Saints, and the (at the time) unknown Metallica. They also found a home on MTV with their music video for I Wanna Be Somebody.
This is the track that opens the album, and it starts things off relatively well. Their music is definitely on the heavier side of metal and takes me back to my previous weeks of listening to Maiden and Megadeth. It's not a bad thing per se, but coming off of Hanoi Rocks, definitely puts me back in louder territory, and that's not somewhere my mind was necessarily prepared to go back to so soon.
Despite this, I did stick it out, and find some standout tunes in Hellion, and Sleeping (In The Fire). But mostly, it was just kind of noisy. Again, this may have been my own hangup, and not necessarily a flaw of the band.
I will say that my immediate instinct is to put W.A.S.P. aside, and move on to other music for a while, and then come back to it, but I probably won't. I also won't say I hated what I heard. It was decent material, solid metal music.
Prior to wrapping up the year, the band made an appearance in the film, The Dungeonmaster, playing themselves. This was followed by Tormentor, the song they contributed to the soundtrack for Ghost Warrior. W.A.S.P. would then return to the studio to record their follow-up album, The Last Command, releasing it in 1985.
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