1107. W.A.S.P. / The Last Command. 1985. 5/5

Their debut album is right up there with one of my favourites of all time, and when I was really becoming obsessed with the band at the end of high school and into university, it was that album and this one that I had on high rotation. The release of The Headless Children pushed this into the stratosphere but until that time these first two albums were what took up a lot of my listening hours. And while on the surface it is easy to say that W.A.S.P. has better albums out there than The Last Command that would be to ignore the time when it was released and how it fit into the metal scene as it was at the time.

I absolutely loved this album when I first got it, and for a while rated it as better than the debut album such was the constant rotation I gave it. Eventually I came to realise that the genuine anthemic qualities of the previous album on songs such as “I Wanna Be Somebody”, “Hellion”, “On Your Knees” and “L.O.V.E Machine” outrank those on this album, but if you judge the songs on consistency over both albums then The Last Command could possibly still win by a nose.

You aren’t coming into these early W.A.S.P. albums for the lyrics, though Blackie eventually became more intense when it came to this part of the artform. The lyrics all through are fun and still fun to sing even for those of us now well entrenched in middle age. The chanting choruses that encourage you to sing along are the winners here, especially when tooling around town in the car. None of it is highbrow stuff but as a teenager it was all fun and games.
“Wild Child” is the out-and-out hit of the album, and opens it up in style. More melodic than headbusting it still carries itself well after all these years. It could have signalled a much different direction for the album as a whole if the lads had carried on in the same vein, but the follow up of “Ballcrusher”, “Fistful of Diamonds” and “Jack Action” all restore the general vibe of loud and violent themes and music to the fore.
“Widowmaker” is one of the best on the album, mostly because it is still a heavy song but has a different atmosphere from the other tracks. It is not melodic musically like “Wild Child” but has a chorus of melody vocal lines throughout that introduce a variation in theme on the album, much like “Sleeping in the Fire” did on the first album. As the change up song on the album it is particularly effective. “Cried in the Night” tries to do a similar thing but although it is still a great song it isn’t as effective as “Widowmaker” is in this instance.
“Blind in Texas” was one of the singles from the album, and is very much the quintessential W.A.S.P. track form this era. Belligerent, loud and lyrically simple and to the point, this drunken anthem leaves nothing to the imagination. It’s hard and heavy with a great guitar riff and is everything that W.A.S.P stood for in the mid-1980's.
The title track “The Last Command” stood for me as my own anthem for a number of years during this time, the at-times angry and confused teenager trying to find his place in the world, and happy to use this song as my flagbearer. Even today I can put it on and remember how I felt when I would play this over and over again, and how it lifted me up, in the same way as “Department of Youth” and “Youth Gone Wild” used to. “Running Wild in the Streets” used to speak to my youth at the time as well and is still a favourite, while the album closer “Sex Drive” is again so typical of the W.A.S.P standard that even though it might sound laughable almost 35 years later it is still one I can – and do – sing all the words to.

Looking at this album in 2019 – a year that I could not even conceive of when I first bought this album – it has certain flaws that are easy to hear and point out. One even wonders how many of these songs Blackie would now deem to play live in concert given his born again Christian status (answer – very very few). It is an album of its time, filled with sexual and violent innuendo that was frowned upon at the time, and would probably just be tut-tutted now by parents for its childishness than its themes. But beyond all of that, when I put it on my stereo and turn the volume up to eleven, this is still for me a brilliant album. I probably don’t love it as much as I did back in my youth, but it still helps me remember how I felt about the album back then. W.A.S.P. was a juggernaut, and this line up of Blackie Lawless, Chris Holmes, Steve Riley and Randy Piper is arguably their greatest. Maybe kids coming into it today would not find as much in it to enjoy, but with so much emotional baggage tied up in it for me it is one I will always love.

Best songs: “Wild Child”, “Widowmaker”, “Blind in Texas”, “The Last Command”, “Jack Action”.

Rating:  “Hear the call we are the Last Command”.  5/5