While they started off being marketed as a band, past a certain point, W.A.S.P. became primarily a Blackie Lawless-led project.
Which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as it was the Lawless one that has written the vast majority of the group's tunes and has dictated their direction from the get-go.
And also past a certain point, W.A.S.P. went from shock-rock poster children for the PMRC ("Animal," anyone?), and began focusing on conceptual albums and more mature lyrical subject matter.
And it's the latter direction that W.A.S.P. continues with on their 2009 offering, Babylon.
Supposedly based on "biblical visions of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (as confirmed by the album cover's doodle), Babylon is still metallic-based, and such tracks as "Live to Die Another Day" and "Babylon's Burning" are instant W.A.S.P. anthems.
Elsewhere, you'll find a pretty darn dandy cover of the sadly oft-overlooked David Coverdale-era Deep Purple classic "Burn," and while they're known first and foremost as headbangers, W.A.S.P. has always had a soft side for power ballads, and "Into the Fire" (not to be confused with the earlier W.A.S.P. ballad, "Sleeping in the Fire") gets the nod this time 'round.
As far as '80s metallists go, Lawless is one of the few artists from the genre whose songwriting has only improved with age.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CrazyBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 05:10 | 11 MB | 38 MB |
| 2 | Live To Die Another DayBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 04:41 | 10 MB | 37 MB |
| 3 | Babylon's BurningBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 05:00 | 11 MB | 39 MB |
| 4 | BurnRitchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Jon Lord, Ian Paice | W.A.S.P. | Play | 04:50 | 11 MB | 37 MB |
| 5 | Into The FireBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 05:54 | 13 MB | 41 MB |
| 6 | Thunder RedBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 04:20 | 9 MB | 35 MB |
| 7 | Seas Of FireBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 04:34 | 10 MB | 33 MB |
| 8 | Godless RunBlackie Lawless | W.A.S.P. | Play | 05:43 | 13 MB | 40 MB |
| 9 | Promised LandChuck Berry | W.A.S.P. | Play | 03:14 | 7 MB | 25 MB |
| 43 mins | 99 MB | |||||
| 43 mins | 328 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chuck Berry | Composer |
| 2 | Ritchie Blackmore | Composer |
| 3 | Doug Blair | Group Member, Guitar |
| 4 | Eric Cook | Artwork, Web Service |
| 5 | David Coverdale | Composer |
| 6 | Mike Duda | Bass, Group Member, Vocals |
| 7 | Mike Dupke | Assistant Engineer, Drums, Group Member |
| 8 | Sandra Evans | Artwork, Web Service |
| 9 | Blackie Lawless | Composer, Group Member, Guitar, Keyboards, Producer, Vocals |
| 10 | Julia Lewis | Artwork, Web Service |
| 11 | Jon Lord | Composer |
| 12 | Logan Mader | Mastering, Mixing |
| 13 | Marc Moreau | Engineer |
| 14 | Ian Paice | Composer |
| 15 | Marisa G. Palicio | Administration, Producer |
| 16 | Polly | Artwork, Web Service |
| 17 | Christoph "Stripe" Schinzel | Layout |
| 18 | W.A.S.P. | Primary Artist |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |