By the time 1989 rolled around, Blackie Lawless was fed up. He
\nwas tired of the toll his war with the PMRC had taken on him, and
\nhe was tired of the commercial direction that people were trying to
\npush his band, W.A.S.P. (You could hear in the music that fatigue
\nwas setting in;
\nInside The Electric Circus<\/i> was a disappointment, and
\nLive… In The Raw<\/i>, while a good album, was admittedly a
\nstop-gap measure.)<\/p>\n
Lawless, lead guitarist Chris Holmes and bassist Johnny Rod
\nturned their attentions toward the one thing that had to remain a
\nconstant: the music. The end result was
\nThe Headless Children<\/i>, an album that was a major step back
\nin the right direction for W.A.S.P. – and, surprisingly, the album
\nthat gave the band their highest charting single. Even now at 10
\nyears old, the album has lost none of its power, and is a joy to
\nbehold – made even better by the inclusion of bonus material.<\/p>\n
Following the departure of drummer Steve Riley, W.A.S.P. looked
\nto regroup after some well-deserved time off. Recruiting Quiet Riot
\ndrummer Frankie Banali and keyboardist Ken Hensley, Lawless went
\nout to do something that he hadn’t done since
\nThe Last Command<\/i> – write songs that focused on the music and
\nits quality.<\/p>\n
With the temporary adjustment of W.A.S.P.’s lineup, they gained
\ntwo things they might not have achieved had the band stayed a
\nquartet. First, Banali’s drum work seemed to give the material an
\nextra kick into overdrive at the right times. (I don’t want to say
\n“when the material needed it,” ’cause that would imply the
\nsongwriting was weak – something it definitely wasn’t on
\nThe Headless Children<\/i>.) Second, W.A.S.P. almost seems to toy
\nwith some progressive riffs, especially at the end of the title
\ntrack. It’s an interesting experiment for the band to try – and is
\none I kind of wish they had continued doing.<\/p>\n
\nThe Headless Children<\/i> is best noted for two songs. First,
\n“Mean Man,” an almost autobiographical look at the stage personas
\nthe band had. (Having had the privilege of interviewing Lawless, I
\ncan honestly say he’s anything but what this song describes.) The
\nother track, “Forever Free,” is a surprising dip into a – egads! –
\nsofter side of W.A.S.P., one that dares to embrace the melody of
\nthe music without turning up the distortion pedals to 11. It’s a
\ngutsy move – and one that works well.<\/p>\n
The 10 basic tracks that made up the original release of
\nThe Headless Children<\/i> are incredible enough on their own.
\nSongs like “The Heretic (The Lost Child)”, “Thunderhead,” “The
\nNeutron Bomber” and their cover of The Who’s “The Real Me” all
\nreflect some of the band’s best work, erasing any doubt one might
\nhave had after
\nInside The Electric Circus<\/i>. It’s almost – but not quite – as
\ngood as
\nThe Last Command<\/i> – but I admit I’m a bit biased, since
\nThe Last Command<\/i> remains one of my all-time favorite
\nrecords.<\/p>\n
But if the basic album isn’t enough for you, the re-issue piles
\non an additional six songs, all of which were b-sides. Lawless’s
\ntake on Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” is interesting, and is
\nnot bad at all (though I’ll always be partial to the original).
\nAfter hearing tracks like “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (not the
\nMetallica version) and “Lake Of Fools,” I had to wonder why these
\nsongs didn’t make the original cut for the album.<\/p>\n
The two live tracks, though, are a bit hit-or-miss. “L.O.V.E.
\nMachine” is great, though it sounds like Lawless’s voice was
\nbeginning to weaken during this song. The other one, “Blind In
\nTexas,” makes mistake number one by coming into the song on the
\nthird verse. The other mistake is bringing an audience member up
\nand having him attempt to sing “I’m blind in Texas.” Lawless hit it
\non the head when he said the kid’s first effort was “terrible”;
\nsorry, but there are some moments in a band’s career that can
\nremain locked in the vaults, and this was one of them.<\/p>\n
The re-issue of
\nThe Headless Children<\/i> has enough toys on it to make everyone
\nwho has a battered copy run out and pick up a shiny new one. If
\nyou’re one of the uninitiated who haven’t experienced this album,
\nthen pick it up, strap on the headphones, and don’t make any plans
\nfor about 75 minutes. It all leads in to what would become
\nLawless’s major project,
\nThe Crimson Idol<\/i> – but we’ll talk about that one soon
\nenough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5899],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39175","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\/39175","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=39175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39175"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39175"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}