W.A.S.P. - Inside The Electric Circus review
| Band: | W.A.S.P. |
| Album: | Inside The Electric Circus |
| Style: | Heavy metal |
| Release date: | November 08, 1986 |
| Guest review by: | Doc G. |
01. The Big Welcome
02. Inside The Electric Circus
03. I Don't Need No Doctor [Ray Charles cover]
04. 9.5-N.A.S.T.Y.
05. Restless Gypsy
06. Shoot From The Hip
07. I'm Alive
08. Easy Livin' [Uriah Heep cover]
09. Sweet Cheetah
10. Mantronic
11. King Of Sodom And Gomorrah
12. The Rock Rolls On
13. Flesh And Fire [1997 Re-Mastered bonus]
14. D.B. Blues [1997 Re-Mastered bonus]
After the 1984-1985 "Last Command" tour, guitarist Randy Piper quits and Blackie Lawless puts the bass down and takes up rhythm guitar and vocals. Perhaps it is Randy Pipers departure, or just coincidence that this album is just plain weak next to the two previous albums.
Don't let the previous statement fool you, this album is not completely terrible. The intro "The Big Welcome" flows perfectly into the title track which gives the impression that the album is going to be a solid one. The title track is then followed by two tracks that are classic W.A.S.P. tracks sure to please; but after the catchy "9.5-N.A.S.T.Y" finishes the whole album just seems to fall into a void of filler track after filler track. Thankfully enough there are a few breaks of great songs between the fillers, for example, the out-of-character Deep Purple-esque track "Easy Living" which includes W.A.S.P's first use of an organ (or keyboards for that matter), then followed by the semi-memorable "Sweet Cheetah" but that's the final solid song until the end of the album.
As previously stated this album is riddled with highly forgettable tracks and is a pretty disappointing follow up to "The Last Command." Blackie Lawless has been quoted as saying this is "A tired album from a tired band" and this quote is never more true than in the case of the closing track"'D.B. Blues" which is a purely acoustic blues track (D.B. meaning Douche Bag). It's a song that seems to only exist for the sake of vulgarity, it gives a good laugh as you listen to this sloppy drunk sounding track until you realize the entire album appears to have just as little effort into the song writing as "D.B. Blues."
A tired album from a tired band is right. I recommend against this album unless you're already a W.A.S.P. fan, seeing as the majority of the good tracks off this album you can find on a compilation.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Doc G. | 10.05.2007
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments: 15
Visited by: 52 users
| marillionfan Account deleted |
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
Written by [user id=17278] on 10.09.2008 at 02:20 Yeah my dumb-ass found that out shortly after I wrote the review.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| marillionfan Account deleted |
marillionfan
Account deleted
what many people do not know is that Blackie is a big admirer of Ken Hensley and Uriah Heep; that's why the collaboration of these two on The Headless Children where Ken Hensley was a special guest musician. 
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| thewikkedone Posts: 4 |
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
I think this is definitely W.A.S.P.'s worst album, and by quite a long way. The amazing title track which opens the album leads you to think the rest of the album will be great. Most of what follows though, is completely forgettable, and the songs lack the bite and energy of W.A.S.P. at their best. The fact that it is very weak compared to the 2 preceding and succeeding albums I think says a lot. The best word I can find for the album is that it's tame. The title track is definitely my fave on the album, and is actually one of my fave W.A.S.P. songs. "Im Alive" is the only other song on the album which I really like. Who'd have thought their next album would turn out to be their best?! 
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718 |
Written by thewikkedone on 23.02.2010 at 21:18 Have you read that comment back to yourself at all? Your stating that my opinion is "false" and backing that statement with another opinion. Celine Dion is better than WASP, "My Heart Will Go On" is a classic track, or "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" I heard is Celine's favourite, or "A New Day Has Come" is great. Yes, your comment was about as pointless as that. Anywho, are you another one of those people that thinks anything rated under an 8 means it's crap? 6.9 is not a terrible score, it basically means "OK" at best. This one had a few decent tracks on it but over all (as Angelic Storm just stated) it lacked the bite that their other albums had. Thanks to a little help from wikipedia: Quote: Even Blackie was disappointed with it. Or are you one of those people that refuses to accept the fact that your favourite band released a lack-lustre album?
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| DayFly Posts: 383  |
Dr.Rock was really generous as in my opinion this album is horrible and I've been a W.A.S.P. fan so long I can't even remember not being one. I'm somewhat undecided whether it's actually worse than Helldorado.
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by DayFly on 24.02.2010 at 00:04 I forgot about "Helldorado"! All I can really say is that W.A.S.P. have had some dodgy lyrics in the past, but the ones on ''Helldorado" are their most ludicrous. I also prefer ITEC's title track, and ''I'm Alive'' over anything from that album, so....''Helldorado" isnt overall, as boring to listen to. But there's no really great tracks on the album, and the lyrics are just woeful. Its a problem to decide, but I think "Helldorado" is probably a bit worse than ITEC, and so is W.A.S.P.'s worst album!
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| thewikkedone Posts: 4 |
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718 |
Written by thewikkedone on 24.02.2010 at 02:13 There is no word in the english language to describe my confusion as to how the purpose of my Celine Dion comment went completely over your head. So I'll just leave at this: /Facepalm.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| thewikkedone Posts: 4 |
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718 |
You seem to be getting a lot more excited about this than I do. First of all, yes, I do enjoy criticism, when it's thoughtful and actually has some application or actually challenges me. Your "criticism" was merely a "I like this album, here's a list of songs I think are good...", that's where my Celine Dion comment (which was basically a copy-and-paste of your original comment, names switched) came up. The fact that your taking my Celine Dion comment in a literal fashion is probably a good sign that I'm wasting time trying to explain things to you. Thank you, there will be no encores.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469  |
This album is by far the worst W.A.S.P album of the 80s. Inconsistent and weak. I don't know if their more recent stuff is worse than that because I never checked any W.A.S.P album released after "The Crimson Idol" (great, this one).
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 24.02.2010 at 04:03 The only album I'd really consider worse is ''Helldorado". Awful lyrics, and not a single great song. A couple of other later albums are quite weak, (like "Dying For The World") but they are stronger overall than ITEC. ITEC is by far their weakest 80's album though. It's amazing to think that they went straight from that, to releasing a classic album like ''The Headless Children"
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62002  |
I think its good album , gets away from so called glam era whit WASP and The Last Command, (even I have over plaid The Headless Children, but I like more non glam era works, Kill fuck Die is below critics, but rest of WASP simply is mind-blowing albums
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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