WASP - Babylon (Demolition) ****1/2

Well, well, well, it seems that Blackie Lawless is at it again and I say that as a good thing. The metal world is a lot more colorful with characters like him putting out music every few years. The WASP of 2009 is certainly a different beast (pun intended) than the one that released Animal (F… Like A Beast) and brought the metal community to the floor of the Senate. Who can forget the great cover with Blackie’s codpiece being displayed in our nation’s capital? Well, those days are gone to a certain extent. WASP has always had a knack for writing extremely catchy metal tunes and Babylon is no different. The difference between what is being released now as opposed to the earlier material is that the message is more thought provoking now. Gone are the superficial lyrics of Wild Child, L.O.V.E. Machine and Animal and in their place we get Babylon's Burning, Seas Of Fire and Godless Run. All of this is not entirely new. When Blackie and company released Headless Children, they started down a road of including material that was, dare I say, more mature in lyrical content. They continued in that direction for future releases with Helldorado being the only side-step back to the WASP of yore. Releases like Unholy Terror, Dying For The World, and now Babylon have become more political in nature and quite honestly, I like it. I don’t think you can categorize this as a Republican or Democrat release or conservative or liberal for that matter. Blackie (let’s face it, Blackie Lawless is WASP) has never shied away from giving us his opinion and that is what makes his records more than just a bunch of new songs. The songs are less preachy than other artists and they seem to be designed more about getting the listener to think.

Having said all of that, Babylon is chock full of great tunes. The album opener starts off with a riff that is reminiscent of Wild Child and just like that song; it is a catchy piece of WASP metal. And there is no shortage of catchy material. Songs like Babylon's Burning and Thunder Red will have you humming along after the first listen. Into The Fire is a bit mellower and would have fit perfectly on Dying For The World. As with many WASP records, we get some cover tunes and here we get the Deep Purple classic Burn and Chuck Berry’s Promised Land. I can’t really comment on the Berry cover because I have never heard the original but Burn is instantly recognizable. Mr. Lawless has a gift of taking songs and sticking close enough to the original to make it easily recognized but he adds enough of his own ingredients to make it fit with his own material. Both tracks fit nicely with the other material to make a very even and consistent release. Like I mentioned earlier, this album has meaning and although it doesn’t demand your undivided attention, you will get more out of it when you relax and really “listen” to it. I have spun this disk for a week straight and I have to admit, it is probably in my top 10 for 2009.

Greg Olma