This page has been added to compile all of the news, reviews, and miscellaneous shit regarding W.A.S.P.'s activities in 1997 and the new album Kill Fuck Die. Any information you can send me about current appearances, concert reviews, and magazine articles (especially from outside the US) will be appreciated.
As part of the Castle web page project, I got a chance to talk to Blackie for about an hour a couple of weeks ago. I asked him some questions relating to the page, and also some miscellaneous questions too.
He said that the next single will be Killahead. I asked if there would be any unreleased b-sides on it, and he said probably not becuause they didn't have much material left over from the recording sessions. I told him I had heard of two other songs from the sessions, Asylum #9 and Organgasm (I think Blackie said that Orgasmatic was the correct title) that didnt' make the album, and he said that these were two unfinished ideas that they had worked on, but weren't properly recorded.
Also, I've had many people ask me if Blackie was any relation to Xena's star, Lucy Lawless, who bears a strange resemblance to Blackie. He kind of laughed and said that, no, that was just one of those strange Hollywood coincidences.
I also asked him why there weren't any lyrics in the US and European versions of KFD, and he said it had to do with the packaging, that they wanted to do something fun with the CD format since the CD doens't allow much freedom for cool packaging like the Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper album covers of the seventies. Anyway, the special packaging cost Blackie $.35 per copy straight out of his pocket. Including a lyric book with the package would have added even more cost to it. Thirty five cents may not sound like a lot of money, but if the band sells even only 500,000 copies worldwide, this will cost Blackie $175,000. So to rectify the situation, the Castle page will have the complete correct lyrics.
Click here for the current tour dates. The first leg of the European tour has been announced including dates in Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Holland, and Belgium, running from mid April through May. Look for the second leg to include the rest of Europe and run through May through June. Following that, they will be hitting US shores for their first full tour in five years and will be playing through August.
Unfortunately the two US promo dates in New York and L.A. had to be cancelled so that the European tour can start on time.
Album release dates:
The album is currently out in Europe and Japan. The Japanese version includes the bonus track Tokyo's On Fire, which replaces Fetus and Little Death. The US version will be out on April 29.
New Web Page
I have been contacted by Castle Records US about helping create a new web page to promote Kill Fuck Die: the W.A.S.P. Inter-nest. We're expecting to have the site done by the US release date (April 29) and the URL will be http://www.castleus.com/inter-nest/. Expect to see photos, Videos, interivews, and more.
Not Industrial!
There have been some rumors going around that Blackie has "sold out" and "gone industrial." Nothing could be further from the truth! I've finally got a promo copy of the new album, and the songs show Blackie once again moving forward in a new direction and breaking new ground. At the most, there may be a slight hint of an industrial influence in a couple of songs, but this is total WASP all the way. KFD is a classic W.A.S.P. anthem (like I Wanna Be Somebody for the nineties, as Blackie has said), Kill Your Pretty Face starts out with a melodic almost middle eastern sound that builds in intensity until it goes over the top into psychotic extremes mirrored in the live performance by the nun rape scene, and The Horror is also in a similar vein- going between melodic yet tense sections and heavier parts with strangely appropriate Doors-style keyboards in the background. There's no question in my mind that Blackie has produced another masterpiece rivaling both their first album and the critically acclaimed Crimson Idol. If anything, musically these songs show a balance of the maturity seen on Headless Children and Crimson Idol with the wild tortuous excesses of the first album. So don't expect some Nine Inch Nails imitation...
The Manson Connection
Another rumor going around the internet is that Marilyn Manson mixed some of the
tracks on the new album. Not quite true. Manson has contacted Blackie expressing an
interest in doing a remix of Animal (Fuck Like A Beast) and they have faxed each other
back about it but nothing has been confirmed yet, and if it does happen it probably won't
occur until late summer when both bands get off the road. Manson has also reportedly
offered WASP an opening slot on some summer tour dates in the US on a triple bill with
White Zombie, but Blackie is hesitant to take the opening slot because while it will
expose a new generation of fans to WASP, they would have to cut their set down to the
usual 45 minute opening slot. We'll have to wait and see what if anything pans out of
this.
Also worth noting is that like many other WASP fans, Manson was a big teenage metal fan in
high school and WASP was one of his favorite bands. The influence obviously shows!
Track Listing This was sent to me by MalenkoNo1@aol.com:
W.A.S.P.'s latest effort 'KILL, FUCK, DIE" is scheduled for release in America on 4/29/97. Produced by Blackie Lawless, here's the complete track listing-
"Kill Fuck Die"
"Take The Addiction"
"My Tortured Eyes"
"Killahead"
"Kill Your Pretty Face"
"Fetus"
"Little Death"
"U"
"Wicked Love"
The Horror"
Prior to returning to Europe in the middle of April for a full tour, W.A.S.P. will be doing several gigs in America where fans will be able to see the latest attrocities known as "The W.A.S.P. live show!" WARNING- this show is not for the faint of heart!
Press Bio
Also sent to me by MalenkoNo1@aol.com:
For light to exist their must be darkness. Some embrace what others fear and since their earliest days as a band, W.A.S.P. have been treading where few will willingly go. W.A.S.P. concerts broke new ground in terms of on-stage decadence and lunacy while their recorded efforts stirred enough controversy to land them in serious trouble with governments around the world. There are rewards for taking risks as well as there are pitfalls but past history is not a big concern to W.A.S.P. The future is what counts since those pages have not yet been written.
For W.A.S.P. the future is now.
"The time is right for W.A.S.P. because there aren't enough bands doing this kind of music and the few bands that are trying to be extreme don't really know how to do it," explains W.A.S.P. mainstay Blackie Lawless. "Stark realism is the only thing that's going to really move people because that's the most frightening thing of all. The new record is just a part of the equation. Our live show is going to go blow people away to the extent that after we finish doing what we're doing, all bands are going to have to become hippies because there will be nothing left visually to do."
Time may not heal all scars but it certainly helps them fade and after an eight year separation, WASP founders, vocalist/guitarist Blackie Lawless and guitarist Chris Holmes, have reunited forces. The Lawless/Holmes songwriting tandem are responsible for the ten tracks which make up W.A.S.P's latest effort- KILL, FUCK, DIE.
Written and recorded in Los Angeles during the end of 1996 and early '97, KILL, FUCK, DIE taps into the darker side of the human psyche'. It's the abstract artwork found within bruises that only a predator can see. It's the emotional release of vengeance that only the scorned knows. Produced by Blackie Lawless and engineered and mixed by Mikey Davis, KILL, FUCK, DIE incorporates modern technology such as samples, loops, and computer sequences along with driving guitars, a bombastic rhythm section, and, of course, Blackie's inimitable vocals. Bassist Michael Duda and drummer Stet Howland fill out the W.A.S.P. lineup. Brutally violent, sexual explicit, and politically incorrect, tracks like "Take The Addiction", "My Tortured Eyes", "Killahead", "Kill, Fuck, Die", "Kill your Pretty Face", "Little Death", and "The Horror" are W.A.S.P. at their over-the-top finest. After just one listen, it's rather apparent that W.A.S.P have returned to their crimson splattered roots of sex, blood, and rock n' roll.
"This was the single most difficult record I've ever had to make," says Lawless. "You look at the music I've done with Chris and then the stuff without Chris, his influence is all over this album. Chris is the single most angry man I've ever met in my life and I feed off of his anger. Chris and I started writing at his demo studio. We spent a few months just bouncing ideas off of each other. I look at songs like a puzzle in the sense that I have a vague idea where certain parts are going to go. I'm pretty good at "chop rock" because I go in with a hatchet and start moving stuff around until they feel right. It took a lot of effort to get these songs to where I felt they were there strongest."
KILL, FUCK, DIE is a new dimension in shock rock where parental warning stickers serve as toilet paper. Violently sonic and multi-textured, the ante has been upped to separate the pretenders from the originators. The music world is currently filled with flaccid alterna-crap and formulated punk but W.A.S.P have brought back a crucial element to rock n' roll that has been missing for the past several years.... danger. Subtlety has never been a W.A.S.P. strong point but with the release of KILL, FUCK, DIE, W.A.S.P. have re-written the rules for extreme rock n' roll.
From the Feb 19 issue of Kerrang!, here is a review of the Feb 8 Nottingham England show, sent to the W.A.S.P. Nest by John Oakley
Headbanger's Ball 2/13/97
The February 13 MTV Europe Headbanger's Ball interview has been painstakingly transcribed by Tommy Takku. This is must read information about their new direction!
Amsterdam Review
A review of W.A.S.P.'s Amsterdam show on January 31 from J.D. van Meines.
Hamburg Review
A review of the Hamburg show from Nils Kraft, complete with pictures. A word of warning: the boys have topped themselves this time and are sicker than ever. Not for those with weak stomachs!
Thanks go to Derek from S.A.V.A.G.E. for much of the current info, Shea from Castle, and everyone else who has contributed to this page, keeping WASP fans around the world in touch. Photos by Nils Kraft from the Hamburg show.
