Published on Jan 6, 1999
After riding the creative high of their second album
The Last Command, one could have expected it would be tough
for W.A.S.P. to live up to the expectations of a similar album to
follow. Likewise, after struggling through life as the poster boys
for the witch hunt known as the PMRC, one would have expected
Blackie Lawless and crew to put out and album that would have even
made Tipper Gore squirm.
This takes us to 1986 and the band’s third album,
Inside The Electric Circus. On this album, everything
catches up to Lawless and company. Sporting the third different
lineup of W.A.S.P. in as many albums (out is guitarist Randy Piper;
in is bassist Johnny Rod with Lawless moving to guitar), the band
falters for the first time in their career. And while the end
result still shows some of the brilliance that this band was never
given the credit for, it is a disappointment.
The opening concept of a bizarre circus atmosphere (“The Big
Welcome,” “Inside The Electric Circus”) isn’t a terrible concept,
but the overall material leaves something to be desired. Musically,
Lawless, Rod, lead guitarist Chris Holmes and drummer Steve Riley
were still one of the better metal bands out there in the mid-’80s.
But as for the material, it just wasn’t living up to the high
standards that W.A.S.P. had previously established for themselves.
Tracks like “Restless Gypsy,” “Shoot From The Hip” and “King Of
Sodom And Gomorrah” just don’t pack the musical punch that some
listeners might have expected.
Then again, the material isn’t nearly as raunchy as some people
would like you to believe it is. There’s some suggestion, but this
material could be the tamest stuff that W.A.S.P. had put out to
date, almost challenging the PMRC to find fault with it. (Good
thing that the song “D.B. Blues” was a b-side until the re-release
of this disc last year, otherwise the Washington wives would have
been crawling the walls.) One problem: it almost seems like Lawless
and crew aren’t quite sure what to do with a tamer version of
themselves.
There’s still a good amount of original songwriting on
Inside The Electric Circus that shows why W.A.S.P. was being
appreciated by the fans as one of the better metal acts.
“9.5.-N.A.S.T.Y.” is a pretty good song, as are “I’m Alive” (the
first evidence of the deeper thinking, more angry side to Lawless’s
music – the side that would come out on
The Crimson Idol and
K.F.D.) and “Mantronic”.
The other thing that sticks out in my mind are the use of cover
songs. It was one thing for W.A.S.P. to cover “Mississippi Queen”
as a b-side to a single from
The Last Command, but to include
two covers on their next album? To the untrained eye, it
might seem like the songwriting well was drying up, or that the
band was looking to just fill up the album. (In reality, the covers
of “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Easy Living” are pretty good.)
And while this lineup of W.A.S.P. would be their most stable for
a while, it does sound like some of the magic that was in the
lineup from
The Last Command is gone. This is not a knock on Lawless’s
guitar work or Rod’s bass playing, but there is some spark missing
that is not easily re-created. (Lawless and crew would eventually
re-capture that spark.)
Inside The Electric Circus is not a terrible album, but it
is a letdown compared to the previous works of W.A.S.P., and it was
possibly a sign for the boys to slow things down a pinch.