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W.A.S.P. - The Neon God Part 1 - The Rise


*
=Staff's pick

Overture*
Why Am I Here
Wishing Well*
Sister Sadie (And The Black Habits)*
The Rise
Why Am I Nothing
Asylum #9*
The Red Room Of The Rising Sun
What I'll Never Find
Someone To Love Me
X.T.C. Riders*
Me & The Devil
The Running Man
Raging Storm*


Genre Heavy Metal
Blackie Lawless
Vocals
Tracks 14
Blackie Lawless
Guitar
Runningtime 52 Min.
Darrel Roberts
Guitar
Label Noise Records
Blackie L./Mike Duda
Bass
Release 21 April 2004
Blackie L./Frank Banali
Drums
Country USA
Blackie Lawless
Keyboards
Similar artists ---

The Neon God - Part I is a concept album that has high expectations to live up to. With the release of their earlier concept album The Crimson Idol (1992), an albums that already is seen as a classic among some, the band W.A.S.P. lead by the infamous Blackie Lawless reached out to a wider audience with the great success from that album. So in order repeat the success with another mighty concept album Blackie has created a story that needs two album to contain the whole story and now is the time for the release of chapter one.

It is with an epic touch it starts with the Overture including bombastic drums that is all over the place just like with the start of Crimson Idol and the further comparisons with Crimson Idol are inevitable. They are all over the album and sometimes it gets almost creepy with how close it sounds with the music, it is as Blackie Lawless has been using more or less the same ideas and song structures at times. Although it sounds rawer and that could have something to do with the sound of the production that is weak and raspish, when I would have preferred a bigger more compact sound from mainman Blackie that has produced as well as composed the album.

The ballads feels weak but then it is there Blackie's calmer and more emotional voice functions the best, his way of singing with a vulnerable voice makes you believe in every word he sings. But it is with the faster tracks and the raw screaming voice from Blackie it gets the most W.A.S.P. and it is also there I like it the most. Sister Sadie is a track perfectly in the vein of classic W.A.S.P., greatly driven forward by the drums and with screaming guitars but towards the end with a oh-ah part it is inevitable to think about Chainsaw Charlie from Crimson Idol. Nevertheless that one is going to be a killer live just as Asylum #9 but this time my mind drift towards the mighty track The Headless Children with the driving riffs and the pace of the track.

If the album gets broken down, the fourteen tracks don't seem so many any longer. Many tracks are fillers that fills no musical purposes, its more about to act as a bridge to get the story moving and complete a wholeness in the album, but if it hadn't been for the story most, if not all of them we could have been without.

Last but most definitely not least of all is the feeling of genuineness, even though it is fiction Blackie makes you believe that he has lived through the story that is told, it is a great sense of story-telling that the old horror-rockers posses and if he could act with the same conviction he should consider a career within the movie business. And what is the story about then?, after all it is a concept album. Apart from the lyrics the booklet includes ten pages with the story that the album tells, all circling around this one question: O'Tell me my Lord, why am I here?…

The first part of The Neon God is a really good album if you are a W.A.S.P fan, but unfortunatly it lands a bit in the shadow of Crimson Idol with me, not as strong songs seen over the entire album but nevertheless it is good even though the themes in the songs can be recognised sometimes from The Idol. And it is sadly a not as good production but the album is well worth the time you give it and you shouldn't settle with less than a lot, Blackie still knows how to deliver. And another good thing is that you doesnt have to wait a year or two before the release of the follow-up, since it is already recorded and set for release later this summer.

See also review of: Golgotha , Babylon , Dominator , The Neon God Part II

Production
Vocals
Compositions

4

8

6

 
Summary



7 chalices of 10 - Thomas

Related links:

www.waspnation.com