It's weird y'know cos' I adore early W.A.S.P. but 'The Headless...' passed me by at the time. Was it the almost clean cut image of the band on the back ? Or the seemingly non-W.A.S.P. cover, bereft of theatrical chainsaw, blood and red, raw horror. The whole record has a pretty commercial look and feel to it, or maybe it was just the band maturing from the heyday of leather pants and fireworks exploding from the crotch. However, many years later, I slap this on the turntable and I get chills down the spine. Blackie's drool gets me every time, a dramatic commentary over Holmes' cool, waspish riffs. The songs are as equally anthemic as classics of the past. 'The Heretic' is meaty, dark and drowned in classic W.A.S.P. cacophony and blessed with some eerie mechanics, something which W.A.S.P. would utilise a few years later as they experimented with more industrial terror noises.
Many have put W.A.S.P. in that cheesy metal bracket but fuck that, W.A.S.P. write quality heavy metal tunes of fire, frost and Gothic darkness. Even the cover of The Who's 'Real Me' is adequate although I would've rather have seen it towards the end of the record, but the title cut is a monster. A real mature W.A.S.P. in action. Mind you, the band still get dirty on 'Maneater' and hit track 'Mean Man', whilst 'Forever Free' soars like all metal anthem's should. Hard to knock a band who consistently churn out such dramatic metal. I've always loved these guys, and 'The Headless...' is another heavy metal album stuffed to the brim with thunder and black, fiery eyed abandonment. Although slightly more plot focused than the previous records, 'The Headless...' is still a melodramatic beast angry at the world and drenched in Blackie's vocal sneer.
8/10
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