W.A.S.P.

[Spyke005]

same thing happened to me when I started getting into these guys.
Love the raw energy and totally sick atmosphere on album 1!

[nightmaread]

so where can u find this in the USA?Or is it banned here?Also anyone heard the new LiZZY BORDEN?

[ManOnTheSilverMountain_DP]

[Bobby66]

... ...http://waspnation.com

[Bobby66]

...Coming to your Town!... ...In it's Entirety!!!

[Bildo]

I hope this tour goes over well. I noticed that some dates got shuffled already. I don't need all the theatrics; I just want the music.
_________________
Sit on it, Potsie.

[Bobby66]

...I hear ya Bildo...I just cant wait til it hits the states...some of Blackie's antics on stage would be nice...but your Rite, hearing Chrimson in it's entirety is why I will be buying my tickets...& I sure hope we get a DVD!!! ...anyway...I wonder why Blackie is insisting no cameras be allowed at his concerts?...I have seen him literally chew fans out while on stage for having them!...with the attendance factor at WASP tours lately you would think that he would welcome the exposure so to speak...WTF???...

[Bildo]

Maybe he's just shy.


_________________
Sit on it, Potsie.

[nightmaread]

Ok finally found it it's ok not to impressed at first but no worries love that song take me up w/that judas priest riff!!!Heavens hung in black is really starting to kick ass!!!Allright damnit!!!couple more shhots of eggnog and this might just rock!!!First it almost sounded like wasp light but again got it on repeat and will listen there now its sounding better don't know still up in the air but dig the fuk out of heavens black!!!!

[panayiotis1984]

Aedan Siebert of The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with W.A.S.P. mainman Blackie Lawless. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

The Metal Forge: What do you think you'd be doing now if you weren't a rock musician?

Blackie: "I'd be doing some sort of form of it, because this is — quite honestly, I'm just fulfilling my destiny. You know I don't think you choose it, it chooses you. And to what degree of success you may have, we can't choose that — but I think we can choose the actual field itself. So I think I'd be doing something in it, though I don't really know what."

The Metal Forge: I think that's a good way to look at it man.

Blackie: "Yeah, because I think, for myself — and I can't speak for anyone else — it's just driven by passion. Somebody says: 'how do you keep doing this after all this time?' - I don't know what else I would be doing. It's not that I'm not capable of doing other things. I'm one of those people – and allow me to be arrogant for a second – I do anything I want. I've got enough self confidence to think that I could try my hand in just about anything. Whether you have success or not, that's another issue. But you know, you can learn anything you want to. And it aint just me, it's anybody as long as they apply themselves — but what would you have passion in? That's a whole different issue. I tell people that 'it's not so much like I'm choosing it, it's almost like I get up in the morning and I put the shoes on, and the shoes do the walking! I just go along for the ride!"

The Metal Forge: So would you say that these days you're still living a pretty — what the media call — 'rock n' roll lifestyle'? Or is it a little more subdued?

Blackie: "I never did!"

The Metal Forge: Yeah?

Blackie: "No I never did. I mean I've always been a recluse you know? I live kind of in Los Angeles, but I live north of town about an hour and a half — I'm out in the sticks and that's the way I prefer it. When I was talking awhile ago about being driven by passion, that's part of the concept of keeping your eyes on the prize. And if you're driven by that passion, then the peripherals or ancillary things that seem to be part of it. Yeah, I mean, it happens, I'm not saying that I'm totally cut off from the world, but at the same time, in the last three years we've done 350 shows!"

The Metal Forge: That's a lot, man!

Blackie: "Yeah! It is a lot, man! And it's not so much the shows themselves, it's the other 22 hours a day. You know because we put it together, and we figure in the last few years we've done 1.5 million miles!"

The Metal Forge: Geeez!

Blackie: "You've got to get on your horse and ride to do that. So when you say the 'rock n roll lifestyle' — yeah, you could do that and you can get high all the time and do those other things, but your not going to last. You know, if you're lucky enough to have had any kind of success, then you've just got to the starting gate. You hear a lot of people use the expression — when some band gets a record deal they go: 'oh! they made it!' They haven't made anything! You are now in a position to find out what kind of batting average your going to have. Because up until then, you ain't even in the game man! If you're lucky enough to get in there in the first place its one thing. To be lucky enough to go a full 360 and to get back to square one again is quite an amazing journey. Because when you do, all those peripheral things that you're talking about — you find that they don't mean anything. What does matter is what got you into this in the first place, which was the music itself. And really, that's a pretty gratifying reward when you get back to zero again."

The Metal Forge: You said just a second ago that you don't listen to a lot of music these days — is there a reason? Are you just too busy?

Blackie: "Well, like I said you know, you do that many shows in a short period of time — I tell people it's kind of like being an auto-mechanic: 'You work on brakes all day and the last thing you want to do is go home and work on your own brakes!'"

The Metal Forge: That being said, where do you think music's going to be in another 20-30 years? Do you think it'll be much the same or different?

Blackie: "I… wouldn't begin to touch that — who knows! I mean, there's always going to be some form of it. I mean if you have a technological revolution — such as what the electric guitar was in the 50's, then you have the opportunity to take the same 12 notes and create something different with them. But it's not just that technical revolution, there has to be social revolution as well. You know, rock n' roll came along at the right time, where you had that social consciousness that was ready for change, and you had the technology to help explore that with. One without the other isn't going to do you any good that stage has to be set properly. And to be able to answer your question you'd need 100 crystal balls!"

The Metal Forge: (laughs) And even then, who knows eh?

Blackie: "Right. I mean, is there going to be another BEATLES in our lifetime? Another ELVIS? Probably not."

The Metal Forge: You wouldn't think so, would you?

Blackie: "Well, the machinery has changed, you don't have the big, evil record companies any more — which, as much as we curse them — at the time they served a purpose, in that they could break new bands. We don't really have that machinery anymore, you know? They could build artists into megastars! When the generation that is still there — that exists right now — the PINK FLOYDs of the world, or ZEPPELIN, or whoever — when those bands are gone man; that could fill a stadium, that phenomenon is over! It's never coming back again. So those fans that are out there right now, for anybody that's reading this, do themselves a favour, and go look at it, because when it's gone, it's gone forever!"

The Metal Forge: Then we'll have to have a rock museum, won't we?

Blackie: "Oh, man! There an endangered species! We all are to some degree that have come from that generation – the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s — when that's gone, it's gone. There was an attitude of performing, of trying to say something – socially, I mean — you don't really have those vehicles right now. You don't have a carrier like a major record company to be able to take something and exploit it on a global basis."

The Metal Forge: Do you think that's a result of the Internet?

Blackie: "Solely because of the Internet! I mean, people, you know, listen to the radio and they start bitching about having no new music — well, they have only themselves to blame because of it. I mean, METALLICA stood up to this 10 years ago and got crucified for it. Now it's coming home to roost and people are seeing the direct result of it. When you see major record companies declaring bankruptcy, how are you going to farm new music if there's no vehicle there to promote it? I mean, again, as much as we hated them, they served a purpose. To the alternative, it looks pretty good right now. I would rather have them back again then not. Again, those bands that can fill arenas or do stadiums — you better enjoy it while you have it, 'cause when it's over, it's gone for good! I mean, I'm not trying to be a doom prophet — you don't have to be Nostradamus to see this. And I hate it! I wish it wasn't that way. You know, I feel really bad for new musicians. You see really talented guys and you know that they are not ever going to go anywhere because there's no vehicle to carry it anymore. That vehicle was the major label. It's not there now. And if it is, all they're interested in is pop."

Read the entire interview from The Metal Forge.
_________________
Video games are bad for you? That what they said about Rock 'n' Roll...

[DevinMacGregor]

Metallica got crucified over greed. To constantly blame the internet is blatantly bullshit.

The record companies far more than a decade ago switched gears to what music they wanted to promote. It happens every decade. Hard Rock and Metal was not one of them. They want instant mega stars and if you can't sell platinum out the gate then screw you. The 50s through the 70s was a more nurturing time where as by the end of the 80s it was corporate this and corporate that. As in the suits were no longer music lovers as well but strictly money lovers. I see that in my own industry as well to where the top executives are not IT people. They are straight generic business people. This is not to say it did not exist before but that it has overtaken it all. Stockholders are more important than customers and the music itself or any set ideas of nobility. Stockholder wants high returns and that is what the execs are going to push for and do so on the short term not the long haul.

The internet is a byproduct of the greed of the record companies in over pricing CDs for more than a decade and shelving content. Not to mention people tired of having certain forms of music shoved down their throats.

Does Blackie understand how much music is tanked by the record companies and not given access to by the general public? When I say tanked I mean all this music of the past that is no longer offered for sale.

If we killed the internet today, tomorrow we would not see record companies signing metal acts and then promoting them like they did in the 80s. Ain't going to happen. KNAC went off the air in 1995. Metallica's Fade to Black was the last thing they played. You cannot blame the internet for that but conversing through the internet they have been resurrected and now expose many more people to what record companies were hiding. MTV eons ago stopped showing metal and hard rock videos. All of this long before the internet but conversing through the internet we now have things like YouTube where people are showing content of bands to which they would never had been explored before.

The major avenues for what advertised this music genre to the general public was cut off LONG before the internet happened. I see the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s as the Rock Era but the 90s something happened. We cannot blame the internet for that because at the same time it has exposed so many more to genres that are not being advertised by those same record companies he is lamenting over. How does he think younger people are going to his concerts? What because of the radio or video as through the likes of MTV? Hell no, though that evil internet.

Technology has changed and it is up to him and the record companies to change with it. He should take a trip to any physical record store and look at them and then look at them with the context that the internet does not exist. Why? Because all of them offer a pathetic amount of music to us. They have limited shelf space etc. And well over a decade ago, more like 15-20 years ago we had larger companies buying out record stores and all the mom and pop shops disappearing. The latter brought us affordable music while the forum kept prices jacked up. This lack of availability happened long before the internet came around in any viable affordable amount to the masses.

And Blackie if it were not for the internet I would have no idea that WASP was even alive still. WHY? Because since 1995 we have had a blackout, no pun intended. 1995 was also the year that cassettes were no longer offered as a format. The surge in record sales post that was not due to record companies promotions but due to people buying CDs to replace cassettes and that eventually ended since new technology released was not being released with a cassette deck but a CD rack etc. Not to mention MUCH was not released on CDs so when record stores removed all those cassettes they removed WASPs back catalog and all people saw was what WASP has done recently. With no back catalog in the stores then anyone coming in and looking for the new album would not see what WASP has done in the past and may not discover more of WASP. I personally am a complete discography person, meaning that if I discover a band I will not only buy their current and future catalog but seek past catalog and buy it.

Not to mention when his new album came out no where did I see in the store any in store promotion for it as I had in the 80s. We cannot blame the internet for that because that was happening 15 years ago. As well what needs to be mentioned is that in the age of cassettes back catalog was not sold for as much as the NEW album. For CDs record stores elevated the price of back catalog to the same as new releases. And we should keep in mind that in spite of rhetoric over inflation CDs were far far cheaper to produce than cassettes while the latter sold for well under half of what a CD sold for and if it was back catalog it sold for less than that.

In the late 90s I sought to replace all my cassettes with CDs. So cassettes that I had bought as a new release album for 3.99 when they came out I rebought the rights to for 18 bucks. At the time due to little to anyone having websites you had to send away for their mail order catalogs. I had one from metal blade and metal blade at the time wanted as much as 40 bucks for some CDs of bands in the past with some claim they had to get it out of some vault or whatnot. And to be clear here we are talking about people not buying for the first time the right to listen to something but the buying a different format of the same thing. It is the difference between buying a book written in ink to replace your book written in pencil. It is the same exact words. And when we had the crayon version of that same book we did not get raped if we decided to buy it in the pencil version. That was not the same when ink came out. Somehow version got turned into believing it was a completely new music when it was not. It was just the format that was changing to which the record companies never owned rights to in the first place because they are not the ones who created that technology. When record companies killed off vinyl they as well never re-established a singles market yet bands kept releasing singles. They tried with the cassette single but again the price of these were far higher than the price of the old 45s.

We cannot keep blaming the internet for actions the Record Companies did themselves that shot themselves in the foot. The social revolution is here and has been for almost a decade now. It is the Record Companies that are failing to alter their formats and keep tying old methods. 90% of all signed bands are financial failures to any record company. The other 10% are what carry the company. We are in the digital age. The cat is out of the bag. If he looks out at his audience and sees younger people there it is SOLELY due to the internet and not simply because they have an older brother or uncle who is into this type of music as was in the past. They are because they are being exposed to a much broader range of genres on the internet than record companies and record stores have ever allowed. Besides I am finding things on Amazon and many for less than 5 bucks. Shipping and handling sucks but at least I can find it to where as a physical store ... good luck.

The internet has just become some whipping boy for their lack of seeing the root of where this started. It is the same with govt. It becomes a convenient boogey man to scapegoat for people's actions and failure of one's self to learn to use that tool or lament that others use that tool more effectively than you do. I am not excusing file sharing but we need to realize that before the digital age it existed and in the 80s it is how many bands broke out into record deals.
_________________
Smacks & Manly Thumps,

The Cap'n

Sons of Griogair


http://www.atheists.org
http://www.clangregor.org/famous.htm
http://www.merchco-online.com/metalbladerecords/
'S Rioghal Mo Dhream

[Holymagica]

Global Music has set an October 12 release date (via Demolition Records) for "Babylon", the new album from U.S. rockers W.A.S.P. Themed around biblical visions of "The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse," the CD is described in a press release as "a metal masterpiece that will make fans both old and new craving for more."

The track listing for the album is as follows:

01. Crazy
02. Live To Die Another Day
03. Babylon's Burning
04. Burn
05. Into The Fire
06. Thunder Red
07. Seas Of Fire
08. Godless Run
09. Promised Land

W.A.S.P. will be touring extensively throughout Europe this autumn/winter in support of the new CD.

[#75race]