W.A.S.P. will be returning with a new studio album entitled Golgotha next year, one that founder and frontman Blackie Lawless says will sound similar to 2009’s Babylon and 2007’s Dominator.
“We’re about three weeks away from finishing the next one, so it will be out next year and it will be called Golgotha,” Lawless announced at a Sweden Rock Festival press conference. “Golgotha is Hebrew for place of the skull and it’s the hill where Christ was crucified. It’s interesting when you see a lot of bands going around using Satanic images, or images of death and things like that, and I’m thinking all they need to do is look at the source cause it’s right there. If you want death, there’s enough to go around there.”
As for what fans can expect musically from Golgotha, Lawless says, “It sounds… probably more similar to the last two that we’ve done. We’ve been working on this thing for four years now, and I don’t know if you guys heard but I had a little hiccup last year, and that delayed recording for about a year. I broke my leg — that too was an interesting trip (laughs). There’s one thing I learned when I was doing The Crimson Idol. If you make a record over too long of periods of time you have to be very, very careful because the record you start out making is not the record you end up finishing because you’ve changed so much as a person over a three or four year period. You’ve got to be very careful to hold onto that vision. But from what I’m hearing so far, and it’s not completely mixed yet, but it has definite overtones of the last two records.”
Lawless also addressed his decision to stop playing the W.A.S.P. classic Animal (Fucks Like A Beast by saying, “”I look at it like this. I’m a representative of the most high God, and I have to be very careful about the things I say and do. I’m gonna answer one day for the things that I’ve done and I wanna make sure that when I do, that my slate is clean. But equally as important as that, I think, is I’ve been given an opportunity to stand in front of people and you’re either gonna say something positive or you’re gonna say something mindless –there is no in between. You’re either one or the other. And I’m just trying my best, and I’m not saying that I’m doing it all the time, but I’m trying my best to say something that I think could help somebody’s life.”
Watch video from Blackie’s Sweden Rock Festival press conference below.
additional source: sleazeroxx.com
87 Responses
‘I just live in my own little bubble, I am the wrong guy to ask about opinions on anything.’ . He’s right about one thing though, “Electric Circus” is a pile of crap!
The live versions of those songs on LIVE…IN THE RAW do them justice. THE HEADLESS CHILDREN and THE LAST COMMAND are top notch dwarfing INSIDE THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS.
Absolutely. The Last Command, you might be interested in this, he recorded the song, mixed each one, before beginning the next one. Treating each song like it was a single. Some great songs on that. They annihilated Kiss on their Asylum tour. Electric Circus is still good crap, but it has …I once heard this story about W.A.S.P. in the 80s. They rented out a rehearsal studio for three weeks, at the Fortress in Hollywood. They had their whole backline set up, full stage set up, lights, everything. The band came and went at all hours of the day and night for three weeks and always wore shades day and night. They partied hard the whole time and didn’t pick up their instruments once, not one time, for even a nanosecond in three weeks. I think this was when Johnny Rod (who is a fantastic performer and bass player) just joined. Lol, someone who worked there told me this, he was sort of stunned at the debauchery.
Shannon,
I think I am probably the only soul who really digs Inside The Electric Circus.
I like their covers of I Don’t Need No Doctor and Easy Livin’. Love 9.5Nasty, Restless Gypsy and I’m Alive. Don’t mind Shoot from the Hip either. I think the background vocals are really strong on this record as well. I know Blackie always hated this record, but as I said above, I’m a big fan.
Dana from EddieTrunk.com 🙂
No, I like it too…it’s crap, but it’s still done at a level of competency. He decided at the last minute to put his heart into writing decent lyrics, in an interview, he stated that he almost didn’t. His voice is very well produced here but if you really listen, you can hear he sounds tired, you can hear him desperately writing for the radio, (“Restless Gypsy,” is his version of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone,” from Top Gun)…he was consciously trying to write this way. If you listen to “Mantronic,” that song is about him, he is fooling his audience with this record, but he is clearly not fooling himself. Big changes on the horizon. Notice on “Circus,” Blackie somehow morphed one single guitar solo from Chris Holmes onto every song. i.e. it’s the exact same guitar solo. 🙂
Funny, Last Command is probably my least favorite. Although Wild Child is still one of my favorite tunes period. That album always wreaked to me as WASP trying to go commercial. Good album still though. But I would actually take Circus over Command.
Restless Gypsy and I don’t need no doctor had their moments. The dude got body painted for the album cover. Imagine Lemmy or Ozzy doing that? He was ahead of his time. WASP will go down as one of the most misunderstood bands in rock. If you got it and appreciated it, you were rewarded with some great music. Headless Children was pure fantasm. Crismson Idol did it for me as well. Clown, you’ve got some deep insight going on today. Nice to see you again.
Honestly, I don’t see a Stryper/WASP tour anytime soon.
FUN FACT: Blackie almost played the liquid terminator in T2 but was considered “too tall” to play opposite Shwartzenegger. So no dice.
Yes and he also was offered a role in a movie titled Trick or Treat and he s also used to breed Arabian Stallions sorry Im a newcomer but W.A.S.P. has been my favorite band ever since I found out who they were ehen I was a kid but one of the most Ass Kicking albums ever! – that nobody’s even mentioned here and mind you Im not here to argue , fight or start any trouble is Unholy Terror and my question is why not?
If you look at Blackie now, or have seen him perform recently, you can see he is still in very good shape. His guitar playing and singing are at very high levels, he may be at the highest level he’s ever been at. So, it makes perfect sense for him to put his hat in the ring and attempt a competitive album that doesn’t just cater to his hardcore fans (honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Neon God are literally the same backing tracks he used for Crimson Idol with a new narrative over it)…Blackie should find a great producer who can come up with some new songs. Blackie can still write all of the lyrics.
I mean to co write with, music too