And Chris Holmes’ soloing… Well… Uh… Let’s just say I don’t think he went off key. As for the bands performance, they were good but far from technical. An attitude which comes through loud and clear on songs like “Dirty Balls”, “Saturday Night Cockfight”, and the parent enraging “Don’t Cry (Just Suck)” (If you have daughters, this one’s bound to make you cringe.), all driven home by a very impressive vocal performance by Mr. When you can sing one lyric to six or seven “different” tunes, you know that’s not a good sign.īut of course, this IS WASP after all, and attitude is always the #1 priority. Two or three songs of this style would have been fine, but a whole album? (“Blind in Texas” was never really one of my favorites.) Almost all the tracks are interchangeable. “Helldorado” makes for a great lead-off track, but the repetitive, blues-based nature of the tunes does get a little boring. The CD begins with “Drive By”, a spoken intro in which Blackie (as the devil) invites the listener along for a joyride in the Cadillac from Hell and from there goes into the title track (possibly the best on the disc). When I think about classic WASP, I think of songs like “I Wanna Be Somebody”, “Wild Child”, “Hellion”, etc… and the songs on Helldorado just aren’t of that caliber. With all the advance hype about this album being a return to WASP’s roots, I was expecting something more reminiscent of the first couple of CD’s (WASP and The Last Command), not a whole disc of three and four chord, hammer-on laden tunes. Age certainly hasn’t affected their attitudes, that’s for sure.Įven though Helldorado is a good CD, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I finally heard it. have recorded an album of full throttle, in your face party anthems. Claiming it to be more like their original demos than anything they’ve released to date, Blackie Lawless and co. WASP is back with their eighth full-length studio release, entitled Helldorado. Think the Rolling Stones are the “Bad Boys of Rock ‘n’ Roll”? Think again… Don’t believe me? Okay, picture Mick Jagger wearing a codpiece with a circular saw-blade jutting out of it and spitting blood… I rest my case. Released: 1999, CMC International Records

Helldorado full album