255. W.A.S.P. / Dying For The World. 2002. 4/5.

W.A.S.P.’s previous album “Unholy Terror” had been an exercise in balancing the song writing and the styles they had been composed in over their previous three or four albums, in order to regain a perspective of what the band was hoping to achieve. You can hear the episode dedicated to that album on Season 1 of this podcast. Blackie has been quoted in several arenas as saying that each album is a snapshot of what he was feeling emotionally and in his life at the time it was written, which he used to explain the differences in each album since the band’s early releases. It also helps to try and explain how “Dying for the World” came to be created, and the emotions that lay behind it.
September 11, 2001 needs little explanation, nor to explain why people's emotions sometimes ran off the rails following the event. W.A.S.P. was on tour in the United States when the events of the day occurred, and so close enough to have the full horror play out in front of them. For Blackie Lawless, a native of New York City, seeing the planes fly into the World Trade Centers became a life-defining event. There were plenty of triggers there, but it seems as though the most prevalent was rage. And he used that to his advantage when it came to his song writing. In the linear notes on the album, Blackie tells the story of how during the first Gulf War, he received thousands of letters (remember those?) from men and women in the armed forces, who related how they would blast heavy metal songs at their enemy when they were about to launch an assault, so that they would know they were coming. Early WA.S.P. songs were a part of that. And so, his thoughts as transcribed in those linear notes in regards to this album were as follows:
“...why not give our guys a fresh batch of new songs to go into battle with. Something that will inspire us and scare the fuck out of them. Think of this album largely as a collection of songs to ‘go kill people with’. Fuck political correctness. That went down with the Trade Centers. As the line says in the song “Stone Cold Killers” “my god will kill your god”.
Whether or not that is the kind of thing he should be spouting on the inner sleeve of an album is open to question, but it gives you a firm view of exactly what was running through his mind when he was composing the songs for this album.

This sounds like a W.A.S.P. album from the moment you put it on, which allays any fears that it may have diverged again as other albums have. And as has already been established, there is a lot of emotion in the lyrics on the album which then directs the way the music is written for each track. The tracks that are inspired or driven by the events of 9/11 are where the majority of the album comes from, and thus are the impetus of “Dying for the World”. The opening track “Shadow Man” becomes the first song that references black hearts within its lyrics, a recurring theme for Blackie in describing those who would perpetrate such an act, but does it also describe himself and his anger at those people? Blackie says that “My Wicked Heart” is sort of a prayer asking for forgiveness for his anger, before he goes ahead and expels it. “Hell for Eternity” is a spraying of anger and hatred, that is actually quite restrained in its recording. I can imagine Blackie writing this and screaming it at the walls. Ditto for “Revengeance” and “Stone Cold Killers”. These are simply just songs about releasing the pure vitriol that built up in Blackie’s heart.
However, is has to be said that this album for what it is worth also must have been therapeutic, and outlet for Blackie to get out all of his anger and frustration. The song “Hallowed Ground” resulted from Blackie visiting Ground Zero at the World Trade Centers a few weeks after the incident. The emotions he felt on that day were then transferred to this song once he returned home, composing it that evening. And the song respects those feelings he had after that visit. It is interesting however, that in the linear notes Blackie goes on to say - “After that song my emotions of reverence soon turned to full blown anger. “Shadow Man”, “Hell for Eternity”, “Stone Cold Killers” are the reflections of that. If “Hallowed Ground” was my wake, then the big payback was “Revengence”. I think that one title says it all”.
Interestingly enough, not all of the anger or songs on “Dying for the World” centre on 9/11, which actually gives the album more relevance than if they had. The song “Trail of Tears” was inspired by Blackie listening to The Beatles album “Revolver” over and over, but lyrically was inspired by the enslaving of the native American Indian nations by the US. Because of his Native American heritage, here was the second part of his life that he drew inspiration from to compose for this album, and his anger over the senseless loss of life over the displacement of these people something he was still reflecting on at the time. And “Black Bone Torso” touches on the continuing revelations about who he calls the child molesters (priests) in the Catholic Church. Given his religious upbringing, something he had strayed from but was on the way towards re-embracing, this was the third part of the life that contributed to the conflict on this album and in Blackie Lawless himself.

This was a rite of passage for Blackie, who wrote all of the album in his own words. And the songs are strong because of the conviction behind them. The band sounds great, Darrell Roberts on guitar, Mike Duda on bass and Frankie Banali on drums all doing their job well.
I bought this not long after its release date, as I had with all W.A.S.P. albums since the 1980’s. As a band they grabbed me from the start, but the albums had begun to swing wildly with each release. Whereas I enjoyed the tone of this album from the start, there was a distinct difference, in that there was none of the tongue-in-cheek humour on any of the songs here that W.A.S.P. had generally incorporated into parts of their albums in the past. The subject matter here was straight up serious, no puns, no relief, just for the most part anger and aggression, and no relief from it. As an album, that made it great to put on if you were really pissed off after a long day, but made it difficult to put on if you were just looking for an album to listen to in any other company. For me that didn’t really phase me, I’m happy to listen to it anytime, but the sheer belligerence of the material here must have pigeon-holed it for some fans. It was a different feel, one that did take some getting used to. The other part of the album that stuck out to me was the similarity to parts of some songs here to those from other albums, and in particular from The Crimson Idol. Two instances stick out immediately, the bridge in “Stone Cold Killers” especially, and then the several similar parts of “Hallowed Ground” that correspond to “The Idol” form that album. It’s only a small thing overall, but in being drawn to those similar riffs and harmonies it still grates with me a little to this day.
I still enjoy this album. It needs to be played in a closed environment to get the full effect in my opinion. Playing it in open air without volume does not give the full effect of the songs as they are written and performed. Headphone, or sitting in front of your stereo and letting them hit you rather than waft around you will allow you to feel Blackie’s anger, and after all that’s what drives this album, so you should be in a position to receive it.