W.A.S.P. has brought the Chuck Berry 1964 Rock and Roll Classic Promised Land to the Heavy Metal forefront. Promised Land is from the Chuck Berry album from 1964, St. Louis To Liverpool. Appearing on their new studio album Babylon, Promised Land is the last song, closing out a tremendously catchy and hook laden, Old School Heavy Metal album. W.A.S.P.’s Heavy Metal lays down the riffs, leads and solos that resonates power and electrifies this song. The rhythm section of W.A.S.P. sets and maintains the Metal pulse of Promised Land, balancing out a groovy ride. When an early 1960’s Rock and Roll Classic like Promised Land can be covered with the passion and intensity that W.A.S.P. brings, it is the Old School Heavy Metal balance and basics that makes this song come to life. W.A.S.P. makes this song crush with heaviness without sacrificing any early 1960’s Rock guitar sound and energy.
Nothing is overdone with W.A.S.P. covering Promised Land. This is not a cover song that is a filler for this Babylon album. I always feel, that if you are going to cover a Rock and Roll Classic, there better be plenty of emotional integrity with the music and vocals combined. A cover song has to really convey the original song’s essence and fire. Blackie Lawless does live up to my expectations with covering Promised Land vocally, he really sings the lyrics as if he penned them himself. Blackie Lawless sings the lyrics of Promised Land as if he truly was the poor boy, (in this song), traveling across the country to California. To camouflage oneself within a song’s lyrics, to make the song sound so believable as Blackie Lawless does with his vocals, is worth taking a bow. In my Metal opinion, listening to Blackie Lawless sing Promised Land makes me believe that he would have owned an enormous crowd of frenzied Rock and Roll fans back in 1964. This same sentiment goes to the entire W.A.S.P. band here, based on how authentic Promised Land plays out on Babylon. W.A.S.P. would have torn the roof down, (literally), at any given theater that catered to Rock and Roll concerts – back in the early 1960’s.
Anytime a band of any Rock or Heavy Metal genre pays tribute to such an icon such as Chuck Berry, it makes for quite the Rock and Roll history lesson. Younger bands should take notice, saluting a Rock and Roll originator such as Chuck Berry, through a high quality cover song such as W.A.S.P. has done, is of the highest compliment to this Rock and Roll legend. This cover version of Promised Land had me hooked from the opening note, it is the Heavy Metal of W.A.S.P. taking over a soda hop from 1964 and bringing it into 2009.
W.A.S.P. is not the first band in Rock and Roll history to cover Promised Land. This song is too great for it not to have been previously covered. The late and unreal legendary Elvis Presley covered this song, found on his 1975 album Promised Land. Rock icon The Grateful Dead have covered this song, (it was a staple in their live sets), plus other Rock luminaries such as Meat Loaf, James Taylor and Dave Edmunds have covered Promised Land on album too.
W.A.S.P. has me burning up with an extreme Heavy Metal fever. Their new studio album, Babylon, is the total Old School Heavy Metal package. I am so excited about this new W.A.S.P. album, I need to calm down. Alright, if you have never purchased a W.A.S.P. album in your life and you are into Metal, do the right thing and buy Babylon. Veteran W.A.S.P. fans should understand why I am pumped up about Babylon… it is the quintessential Heavy Metal album for 2009. Am I saying it is the best Heavy Metal album of 2009? I am sure leaning in that direction for certain. Remember, this is Heavy Metal, no strings attached. Blackie Lawless has proven once again he is not about to back down, cow tow or change for anyone. Blackie Lawless has my total Metal support and praise for his convictions, which he so eloquently states within the liner notes of Babylon.
I will always believe, that it is extremely hard to cover a song of this magnitude, without tripping up somewhere along the way. Nothing beats a Hard Rock Classic, especially one from Deep Purple. David Coverdale will forever have the notoriety of originally vocalizing Burn with Deep Purple. David Coverdale’s vocal signature on the original version of Burn, plus his historical importance to Heavy Metal is immeasurable, in my most honest Metal opinion. Fast forward to 2009 and Burn is resurrected from the archives of Hard Rock history, thanks to W.A.S.P.. Blackie Lawless maintains the signature keyboards of Burn, reestablishing the importance this instrument has within this song. Doug Blair on lead guitar, cements himself as an asset, to the Heavy Metal identity that is W.A.S.P., on this amazing cover song. Burn returns and rises like a flaming phoenix, with Blackie Lawless unleashing this song’s power and exposing it’s grandeur for all Heavy Metal time.
Ah, Lita Ford. Reflecting on the 1980’s would not be quite the same without her being in the Heavy Metal world. Lita Ford proved back in those glorious ’80’s that she was more than just eye candy, she really did shred on the guitar for her albums. Plus, Lita Ford’s vocals always had the harmonic, Heavy Metal diva flare happening. Lita Ford even did a very sappy duet with Ozzy Osbourne, Close My Eyes Forever, that I honestly could never stomach back in 1989 and my opinion has not wavered since. Well, it is 2009 and Lita Ford is back, uh, yeah. Wicked Wonderland is her new album, the title really sums it all up quite well. The lyrics throughout this entire album are wicked indeed… with nuances, imagery and flat out references to sex and lust galore. I want to taste your goddess flesh and I penetrate you are two lines taken from the song Indulge… pretty hot stuff if you are a young dude that can’t buy a date for Saturday night. Lita Ford should have known that the majority of her audience buying Wicked Wonderland are the Old School Heavy Metal crowd and we are no longer eighteen and pissed off at our parents anymore.
Reign Fall lyrically expresses the ghastly imagery of what happens to those who cannot think for themselves, wasting away at the mercy of ones very own doing. Reign Fall, as well as every song on The End Of Tomorrow, is a throwback Metal feast of melodic speed crashing into riffs that are beyond run of the mill. Al Ravage reminds me thoroughly of a young Rob Halford, (Judas Priest), intertwined with a young Paul Dianno, (of early Iron Maiden). Hey, I am by no means putting Al Ravage in this heroic class of Heavy Metal vocalists… (not yet anyways), what I am pointing out is Al Ravage can sing Heavy Metal with marked influences and originality combined. Ravage knows they are Old School, using this phrase so much doing a review may sound very redundant, yet for any veteran fan of Heavy Metal from yesteryear, you know just how juicy it can get when a new album excretes all things good about the glory days of Metal… The End Of Tomorrow is an unleashed monster of what I am talking about here.
I really, really, really like In This Moment… especially the vocal talent of Maria Brink. I bought The Dream last September of 2008, man, what an album. Collectively speaking, In This Moment put out one incredibly melodic Heavy Metal album of songs, with The Dream. Sure, In This Moment took on a more mainstream Heavy Metal sound, yet it hooked me line and Metal sinker. On June 30, 2009, In This Moment released The Ultra Violet Edition of The Dream
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