Madfish [Release date 17.01.26]

Formed in LA in 1982 by guitarist and vocalist Blackie Lawless, W.A.S.P. have been going strong for over 40 years and still producing some excellent metal. A little rough and raw, but they’ve rocked hard and still do.

This set does what it says on the tin; 7 discs, the first 5 original studio albums, their first live album, and a disc of bonus tracks (single b-sides et al). And in classic Madfish style, the box is magnificent. To call it heavy duty, solid and exuding quality would be an understatement. Seven discs in a hardback book that is full if information, press cuttings, pictures, and all in a solid card case tough enough to play cricket with. You get what pay for, and the box arrived packaged with similar quality.

Onto the music; the band signed to Capitol, yet the debut single ‘Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)’ was issued on Music For Nations. With Lawless switching to bass, the 1984 eponymous album was high octane yet gravel rough metal that verged on red hot hair metal. Tracks like “I Wanna Be Somebody” and “Tormentor” went down well with many.

The band soon attracted attention from the PMRC on account of their image and lyrical content. When this reviewer spoke with Blackie Lawless, he said “At the end of the day, I don’t think it made a difference. It’s not like we weren’t selling records before they came after us. We were already selling records, which is why they came after us”.

For the debut, the band consisted of Lawless, guitarists Chris Holmes and Randy Piper, and drummer Tony Richards.

1985 and now with drummer Steve Riley, W.A.S.P. released The Last Command. The sound was a little tighter, but the vocals as solid yet rough. There’s some good guitar work on the likes of Ballcrusher, and the singles Wild Child and Blind In Texas were decent too.

With bassist Johnny Rod coming in and Lawless switching back to guitar, 1986 saw Inside The Electric; a good album that saw the band strive forward with a more mainstream sound, songwriting, but Lawless would later call it “A tired album by a tired band”. It is solid and in many mays very enjoyable, standout tracks including the title track and the cover of I Don’t Need No Doctor, but it does lose that spark. The cover of Uriah Heep’s Easy Livin’ is good too, if a little ‘by numbers’.

Next up the Live In The Raw live album. Very live and very raw, and a transitional album between old W.A.S.P. and new. Some energetic yet tight playing, I Wanna Be Somebody (from the debut) sounds so good here. And as a bonus there’s the studio track Scream

Until You Like It (from the film Ghoulies II), a track back in the day that saw WASP appear on Top Of The Pops.

The band took a year off, and returned in 1989 with The Headless Cross, their most mature album yet, and as close to polished too. With Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot) now on the drum stool, and keyboard player Ken Hensley, the album had an extra dimension. Blackie said about the keyboards, “That was Ken Hensley, from Uriah Heep. I don’t know, I do most of that myself. I don’t like keyboard players generally, but Ken, I still use the rig he put together, he showed me how to tinker with it, so in a way he’s still with us”.

Check out the title track, Thunderhead and the cover of The Who’s The Real Me, some cracking stuff here. If you only ever to one W.A.S.P. album – it should be this one.

The band temporarily split, with the next album planned as a Blackie Lawless solo effort, but bowing to fan and record company pressure, the W.A.S.P. moniker was used. With guitarist Bob Kulick and drummer Frankie Banali, Lawless handled vocals, keyboards, bass and rhythm guitar, with guest appearances from drummer Stet Howland and guitarist Doug Aldrich. Another top album, a concept about a boy, Jonathan, and the ‘Crimson Idol’ being a crimson guitar stolen to change his life around.

There was a film made to go with the album that was shown during shows some 15 years later (I caught that in London, November 2007 – amazing show).

A cracking album, mature lyrically (as much as The Headless Children if less political). 1992 and this was the perfect 2 fingers up at the grunge trends of the time.

The seventh disc is single b-sides, which is a full disc. Sadly we don’t get the live tracks that have appeared as some bonuses previous, but the tracks here are a great addition. Aside from Animal, there’s a very enjoyable cover of The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, and a 16 minute The Story Of Jonathan, a prologue to The Crimson Idol.

Some great music, the story of a band’s first few albums pretty much in full. But I must reiterate the quality. The book, aside press cuttings and pictures, there’s new text, reproduction LP inner sleeves, it’s hefty in all the right ways. As with the recent Alex Harvey box set, Madfish have (and continue to) set the bar for box set quality. Worth every penny. *****

Review by Joe Geesin

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 25 May 2026

BABY JANE Midnight Highway (Sped Up) (indie)
ASTRAL ROCKS The Flame In Me (Astral Rocks Prodns.)
INDIGO SYNDICATE dwn4smr (indie)
THE SKBS The Prying Eye (indie)
AGAINST THE CURRENT Dead Man Walking (indie)
ICONIC Tears Keep On Falling (Frontiers)

Featured Albums w/c 25 May 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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