Artist: W.A.S.P.
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release Date: 6/11/02
Rating: 4 Skulls
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Title: Dying For The World Artist: W.A.S.P. Label: Sanctuary Records Release Date: 6/11/02
Rating: 4 Skulls |
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Reviewed by Dawnrazor (7/10/02):
With lawlessness running rampant throughout the Middle East, Blackie Lawless takes up the fight on the intensely gratifying Dying For The World. A loosely thematic piece, Dying picks up where 2001's Unholy Terror left off and with a few rare exceptions, carries the action straight to the frontline with the blistering opening track "Shadowman," takes to the offensive for the Hellion-like "Revengeance," and marauding "Stone Cold Killers" - non-coincidentally when you look back toward "classic" W.A.S.P., the guts, glory and blood of the matter, these are the defining moments. Lawless has gone on record to state that some of W.A.S.P.'s best work is produced when he's in a foul mood and much of Dying is based on the anger and subsequent eruption following the 9/11 tragedy and war on terror - so then we're achieving the same level of intensity of their self-titled debut, Headless, and Unholy; what he failed to mention was the darkest one of all, KFD, which this record aligns itself with well, if only in carefully chosen spots. For instance, the acidic content that arises in the quick but intuitive "Black Bone Torso" follows the lead in path of "The Horror" in an Unholy Terror time zone; "Shadow Man's" foreboding opening and guitar sound; "Rubber Man," and "Wicked Love" tie well together as bastard sons of "Chainsaw Charlie;" "Hallowed Ground" and "Trail Of Tears" are two mournfully aligned ballads that result in some of Blackie's finest works to date-both touching, meaningful and extremely "heavy" in the true sense.Dying For The World introduces the work of new guitarist Darrell Roberts, who somehow Lawless got to play almost exactly like Holmes - the solos indeed fit the music, though it would be nice to hear him totally fly off the fretboard now and again - standouts would include "Revengeance" and "Stone Cold Killers." The record also features the full time drum duties of one Frankie Banali, who shared the role on the last record - no such discontinuity concerns here however, the record moves along much less awkwardly than the last and Banali's drum work is typically dominant. Stylistically the record follows closely to Unholy Terror, which itself brought back the often vague guitar sound, took a few chances and was a marked improvement from anything they'd done in a decade. However, there, as with here, the music still occasionally suffers from rhythm guitar reticence drowned out by the vocs, and "Real Me" riff recycling in and around the chorus and closings-a problem that surfaced quickly on The Crimson Idol and has inexplicably plagued them since - see Hell For Eternity, Stone Cold Killers.
Overall the record's symbolic sound and Blackie's lyrics and vocals are in full attack mode, the level of playing on the record immediately gets pushed up a notch with Banali back on board and the verses have never been stronger - their best record since their first stab at making war on the world with the under-appreciated KFD.
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