Review Summary: Testosterone fueled '80s HEAVY metal at it's finest.
W.A.S.P. had been trying to make it for years before they were signed to Capitol Records and released this asskickin' debut. This is not your typical 1980's pop metal, this is one of the heaviest to come out of the '80s to find any kind of success whatsoever. Superb song craft and top of the line musicianship help push this one to classic status.
The album kicks open with a fast snare roll, immediately followed by that chugging guitar duo of Chris Holmes and Randy Piper, the speedy bassline, and vocals so gruff they'd give Alice Cooper a run for his money. This intro immediately grabs attention for it's sheer intensity that never lets up. Everything about this song is heavy. The production, the energy, the music, the theme, all custom made for headbanging pleasure. "I Wanna be Somebody" is W.A.S.P. at their absolute fastest, and has become a heavy metal classic since it's initial 1984 release. The rest of the album is just as superb, L.O.V.E. Machine has a restrained energy in the verses, and an explosion during the chorus. The verses are constructed with the heavy pounding of Tony Richards, while Blackie sings the catchiest melody of the whole album that manages to pierce it's way through your skull, into your brain forever. "Hellion", "The Torture Never Stops", & "On Your Knees" are superb fast paced pieces that are played with a plethora of testosterone, speedy drums, technical fills, fast solos, and those trademark gruff vocals singing the surprisingly catchy choruses. "School Daze" is an exaggerated version of Cooper's "School's Out". It's a pleasant song, especially if you're trapped in one of the hellish institutions. It is one of the weaker tracks on the album, not being especially catchy, or technically impressive, but is a pleasant listen nonetheless. Blackie screaming "BURN IT DOWN!!!" at the top of his lungs is enough to make most smile. "Tormentor" is a slow track that has been soaked with anger, marinated in a bucket of hatred, and seasoned with sadism. This song has a chorus that is also catchy as hell, and the verses spit plenty of venom that's worse than the snake's from Lawless. "Sleeping in the Fire" is a nice heavy ballad, but borderlines generic, and is not too interesting in terms of melody or musicianship, a throwaway piece really, it does have a nice guitar solo that compliments the somber music. They'd have better ballads once they got a more polished production to back them.
The production on this album is very rough. The drum sound on this record is huge thanks to a fair about of compression, and a lot of reverb. There's plenty of bass on this one, and the mix is done so that everybody is heard equally. The quality of the guitars and the vocals are a bit heavy on the mid-range frequencies, and it gives the album a quality that makes it start to become unpleasant to the ears a few songs into side two. The mastering is also a bit compressed, not brick wall limited, just quite a bit of compression which doesn't help the semi-grating properties of the guitars and vocals. The album also starts to get more quiet closer to the end, which isn't a big deal, but is slightly annoying requiring you to mess with the volume knob frequently. The rawness of the production does help accentuate the energy of the recording. This album just wouldn't sound as menacing with Mutt Lange at the board.
Overall the songwriting is strong, the musicianship is superb, and the raw production adds to the blind, raw energy of this asskicking debut. This is one of the few true heavy metal albums to come out of the "glam" scene in L.A., and is certainly one of the best. Unfortunately, W.A.S.P. would never match the quality of this superb release, and would only come close five years later on "The Headless Children" after releasing two albums comprised of about 70% uninteresting filler.
