Our look at the recently remastered catalog of W.A.S.P. takes a
\nfamiliar turn for me today — their 1985 release
\nThe Last Command<\/i>, the album that caused Tipper Gore to have
\nconvulsions and the religious zealots to preach fire and brimstone
\nagainst the band.<\/p>\n
It’s also the album that got me hooked on Blackie Lawless and
\ncrew, courtesy of such songs as “Blind In Texas” and “Wild Child”.
\nIn a time where one radio station in Chicago had the guts to play
\nsuch music (normally a foreign-language station, the evening was
\n“brokered” for metal), it was a haven from such pabulum as Chicago
\n(if I heard “You’re The Inspiration one more time, I was gonna kill
\nsomeone) for a 14-year-old like me. I quickly snagged a copy from
\nmy local record store, and nearly wore it out.<\/p>\n
Thirteen years after its initial release,
\nThe Last Command<\/i> still remains a high-water mark for
\nW.A.S.P. in my book. With the change behind the drum kit from Tony
\nRichards to Steve Riley, to my ears, Lawless had his killer lineup.
\nPowerful performances backed with some of Lawless’s best
\nsongwriting equalled an album that I don’t think they’ve topped
\nyet.<\/p>\n
“Wild Child” might be seen as a strange way for W.A.S.P. to open<\/p>\n
The Last Command<\/i>. It’s not as heavy of a song as they had
\nbecome known for; it was even – dare I say it? – melodic. If its
\ngoal was to get MTV’s attention, it worked; I saw the video for
\nthis one… once. It still is a great track, and in retrospect,
\nit’s almost the perfect way to open the album – sort of a “calm
\nbefore the storm”.<\/p>\n
\nThe Last Command<\/i> was one of the first albums to feature a
\n“parental warning” label of some sort, though if it was for songs
\nlike “Ballcrusher” and “Sex Drive,” then they were really grasping
\nat straws. True, they do allow Lawless to explore the more raunchy
\nside of his songwriting, but they’re both written and performed
\nwell. And, compared to some of the other stuff that the PMRC had
\ntheir nipples in a twist about, these two songs were rather tame.
\n(For the record, the worst word on this whole album is “bitch,”
\nused once. Strange… R.E.M. can say “fuck” and not get any type of
\nlabel…)<\/p>\n
But the material that seals this album as a true classic for me
\nare the six songs from “Widowmaker” to “Sex Drive”. “Blind In
\nTexas” was the first song of W.A.S.P.’s that caught my ear, and
\nit’s still a fun song to listen to. “Cries In The Night” is a song
\nthat Lawless says in the liner notes that he wishes he had left in
\nits original version. Now, with all reverence to Mr. Lawless and
\nadmitting the fact that I’ve never heard the original, I have to
\nsay that he’s crazy. “Cries In The Night” is a beautiful song (if
\nthat term can be used with heavy metal) that is stellar from the
\nfaded in guitar work of Randy Piper and Chris Holmes to the ending
\nbellow of Lawless. The title track and “Running Wild In The
\nStreets” both could have been teenage anthems when I was in high
\nschool.<\/p>\n
With all this great material, I almost feel that the bonus
\ntracks included on the recent remaster ruin the mood ever so
\nslightly. “Mississippi Queen” tries to stay somewhat faithful to
\nthe original version by Mountain, but it’s not a song that lends
\nitself well to cover versions, and this version falters. Likewise,
\nthe b-side “Savage” was not a strong enough track to have been
\nincluded on
\nThe Last Command<\/i>, and it shows. However, the inclusion of
\nfive live tracks from a 1984 London concert are interesting, and it
\nmakes me wonder if there was enough material like this to even
\njustify releasing a live album from the vaults. (How about it,
\nBlackie? I’d gladly be the first in line to buy it.)<\/p>\n
Of course, you could say that I went into listening to this
\nalbum with a pre-set notion of it. You’d be right… but I’ve
\nlistened to this album some 100 times over the past 13 years, so
\nit’s not like I wasn’t familiar with the work. Fact is, whether you
\nlisten to something once or a hundred times, you know a classic
\nwhen you hear it, and
\nThe Last Command<\/i> easily qualifies as that.<\/p>\n
This lineup, as great as it was, almost was doomed to splinter,
\nfor such greatness is hard to repeat. By the time the third album,
\nInside The Electric Circus<\/i> came out, Piper was gone, Lawless
\nhad hung up his bass to return to the guitar, and Johnny Rod
\nstepped in to be the bassist. But that’s a story for another day…
\nsay, in two months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5899],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36014","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-w-a-s-p","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36014"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36014"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}