Comments about W.A.S.P.'s new album 'The Crimson Idol'
Tapio Keih{nen
became one right after they released their first album. Their first
album is their greatest, IMHO, and then comes The Last Command and
Live ...In The Raw. This new album situates in my 'WASP TOP' list
between Last Command and Live In The Raw.
There is a short story written by Blackie Lawless printed on booklet
of CD. It is about someone whose name is 'Jonathon Aaron Steel'. The
beginning of it is just shortened version of Stephen King's novel
'Body' - the movie version of Body is titled 'Stand By Me' (this is
only my opinion (Stand By Me is one of my 10 favourite movies ever),
you can think differently). But when I finished reading that story,
somehow I felt that the story is actually a story about Blackie
Lawless himself.
The lyrics were also about that Jonathon guy. Actually the whole album
& sleeves is a story about Jonathon's life. This is first time WASP
has made this kind of album which has one story to tell. This brings
my mind Iron Maiden's Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album. I wonder how
WASP is going to play this on stage... The single songs don't make too
much sense alone; they need the whole album and the story which is
printed on the booklet.
Musically this album is overall quite good. There are some weaker
points but mostly it is great. Some songs sound bit too much of Iron
Maiden - for example 'The Crimson Idol (Murders In New Morgue)'. I'm
not saying that it is a bad thing, though. What is missing from the
newest Iron Maiden album 'Fear Of The Dark' you can probably find on
this album.
The biggest think I can't find on this album is the original sound of
Blackie Lawless' voice! I don't know if his voice has gone with 315
gallons of beer and 27 gallons of Smirnoff vodka (there is a list of
things they used and how many/much they used them)... But it isn't the
original Blackie Lawless singing! I really miss the voice from 'I
Wanna Be Somebody' and 'The Last Command'. If he could get his voice
back, this album would be probably almost as great as 'I Wanna Be
Somebody'.
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Tapio Keihanen, Mesiheinankatu 2 B 6, 33340 Tampere, Finland | Rare/unique Dio
Internet: ta...@nic.funet.fi Tel. +358-31-432478 (evenings) | records wanted!