It’s a funny thing when you look back on – in the mid-1990’s, W.A.S.P. had released five brilliant albums and a live album. However, problems were an obvious concern for the band, and it appeared that it was going to be all over. Blackie Lawless would no doubt continue, but rumours abounded that it would be in a solo capacity.
Here then came First Blood… Last Cuts, a greatest hits compilation that had a couple of unreleased tracks thrown in, like any good record company will do to entice the buying of an album when the fans already have all the songs on it. The problem with that is that it stopped the album having a few more ‘greatest’ tracks on it! As an enormous fan of the band, especially up until this point of its career, there are so many deserving songs that have missed out here. Of course, that is because it is a single disc release, but when I went through all the songs I thought SHOULD have made it, I surprised myself with how many great songs they have.
On the other side of that, this is a great place to start if you are just trying to get into the band. You can probably give the last three songs on the album a miss, but the rest is gold. They are dripping with everything that makes W.A.S.P (of this vintage) such a great band. Raw and intense, no backward step, no apology.
Rating: Only loses points for the final three tracks, which are unnecessary. Other tracks could have been included. 4.5/5
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