W.A.S.P.: The Crimson Idol

Format: CD
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Madfish
Release Date: 28.05.2016
Order Number: YL1070472MDF

Re-issue of album from 1992. THE CRIMSON IDOL is a full length conceptual album that tells the twisted tale of a suicidal rock & roll icon and the perils that come with fame. With guitarist Chris Holmes no longer a member of W.A.S.P., Blackie Lawless recorded THE CRIMSON IDOL with guitarist Bob Kulick and drummers Stet Howland and Frankie Banali. Voted one of the Top 20 conceptual albums of all-time by Metal Hammer magazine, THE CRIMSON IDOL is obviously more of a soundtrack than say a straight rock n' roll album. Released internationally in '92, THE CRIMSON IDOL was not released in the United States until 1993 and gave W.A.S.P. their first U.S. radio hit single with "Hold On To My Heart." Ironcally enough, it was the way Capitol Records handled the push (or lack thereof) on "Hold On To My Heart" that made Blackie decide to leave Capitol Records. "The main theme of the "Crimson Idol" which is a haunting acoustic guitar riff was in a Sister song called "What I Am,". "I've always been very economical with my songwriting. If something wasn't working out I'd scrap it. But if something was a good idea but not ready, or didn't quite fit what we were doing at the time, I'd go back to it later and re-work it." During an interview conducted with RIP Magazine, Blackie Lawless had this to say- "THE CRIMSON IDOL is an enormously complicated story. There are ten songs on it and each one is a euphenism for something else. Nothing on this album is really what it appears to be at first glance. Everything is a symbol for something else. The story was written from a satirical point of view. That means that wherever a person is at their life and whoever's viewpoint they're listening to in the story are going to determine the story they're going to get. If you're 18 and you listen to it, you're going to see one thing. If you go back and listen to it five or ten years later, you're going to get a completely different story. I didn't want to create fast food for the ears. I wanted something that I thought was going to have longevity