11. W.A.S.P. The Last Command 1985 (Capitol)
Glam Metal
The millions are waiting for my last commandment.
The Lowdown
The Last Command would be one of the bigger selling albums from the garish rocket-launcher band known as W.A.S.P. and despite not being as big as they had wished, it would still reach gold status in America, where of course the masses were still gobbling down anything glam metal related. The album would also be their last without guitarist Randy Piper an original founder of the band but it would be their first with drummer Steve Riley and like many bands of their ilk, this would be the first of many line-up changes for the band over the years.
The Last Command is a more balanced record compared to the top heavy and in-yer-face debut, which from its shock-rock approach took the metal world by storm, largely thanks to its booming tracks like “I Wanna Be Somebody” and “L.O.V.E Machine” along with shock value titles like “Animal (**** Like a Beast)” and in the process they were taking no prisoners either, due to their celebrated stage show! The balanced approach largely comes in the form of hiring Quiet Riot producer Stephen Proffer and W.A.S.P. demonstrate here that when the combination between quality band material and strong production editing finds the right compromise, the end product is normally a strong and balanced record. This makes
The Last Command one of the best metal albums in a year where most glam metal bands were stalling compared to the previous couple of years. The album cover has the buck nasty Blackie Lawless poised with a flag on an album cover that would’ve done Manowar very proud. The album has a number of standout tracks and these include dynamic offerings such as “Wild Child” "Cries in the Night" "Ballcrusher" and the title track "The Last Command" which draws elements from most of the previous tracks. All these tracks are full of bad ass Blackie’s vocals and have big dirty riffs in the right places and these tracks combine well with the more fun offerings on the album such as “Sex Drive” and "Blind in Texas" along with the more sedate stylings of "Widowmaker" which sounds like it could be a Gene Simmons song subject. Whilst these tracks may not be as hard hitting as some of the material from the debut, they add a consistency that is usually much needed on sophomores making this a solid listen. Not only did the success of this album get high-profile producer Stephen Proffer back on track after the disappointing
Condition Critical, which had failed to live up to the heights of Quiet Riot’s previous release
Metal Health, but it also continued to guarantee W.A.S.P. continual tours with metal giants such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden over the coming years. The 1998 reissue of the album comes with a number of live tracks and most interestingly on this reissue, there is a cover of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” where Blackie Lawless attempts to do the Leslie West original vocal justice, but personally I'd sooner listen to the original here. W.A.S.P. were constantly compared to Kiss around this time and in fact they toured with the mighty Kiss on quite a few occasions, but one thing is certain here and that is
The Last Command is a far superior record compared to the Kiss release of 1985
Asylum.
Blackie Lawless- Bass/Vocals
Chris Holmes- Guitar
Randy Piper- Guitar
Steve Riley- Drums
Production- Stephen Proffer