First Blood, Last Cuts

The phenomenon of metal acts calling it quits, only to have an almost immediate resurgence, has happened so many times throughout the genre's near 50 year history that it has become a tiresome cliche. Nevertheless, the dreary state of metal as both a commercial force and even a legitimate art form in the eyes of the public via 1993 was enough for even the most stalwart of champions to throw down their swords and embrace a world that seemed to no longer need them. In the face of fading prospects west of the Atlantic, most of the premier acts of the 80s either faced a full out paradigm shift for their respective sounds or total oblivion, while a few exceptions were allowed to endure mostly intact. The specific case of W.A.S.P. was among the few outliers in this context, as sole founder and band leader Blackie Lawless found himself unable to retire his band's longstanding career due to fan demand, despite seemingly wanting to given his original intent for The Crimson Idol to be a solo album under Lawless' name. He would make a second attempt at retiring the W.A.S.P. name following the tour for said album, the culmination of which was this rather brilliant and career-encompassing best of compilation dubbed First Blood, Last Cuts.

As far as compilations that finalize a long run with the same label go, this one proves to be among the more worthy of broad interest, as it goes well beyond simply presenting choice cuts from the band's past for the cash-strapped masses. It conforms to the formula of a typical best of comp by consisting largely of radio-friendly bangers, particularly insofar as the selections from what could be dubbed W.A.S.P.'s filthy trilogy (i.e. the first three LPs), yet provides a rather interesting twist by updating the production of most of the classics. The modernized sound isn't too far of a cry from the dense, live album inspired atmosphere that typified the songs in their original context, but features a less reverb-drenched and cleaned up mix that gives the song a good bit more bite and draws Blackie's sleazy screams and shouts closer to the foreground. The contrast might seem non-existent to the untrained ear, but the included tracks of "On Your Knees" and "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)" (finally featured on a larger scale album) are kept in their original 1984 mix, and the difference in overall power and impact existing between these two songs and the material that was given a 1993 mix couldn't be any more obvious.

Beyond showcasing how different the band would sound with mid-90s studio tech had these songs been released in '93 rather than '84-'86, the overall compilation gains a sort of cohesion of sound that gives it a studio LP feel, as the transition into the material off The Headless Children and The Crimson Idol is all but seamless. Naturally the contrast between eras remains from a songwriting perspective, as the stylistic intricacies that came into the equation on The Headless Children and the epic scope of songwriting that dominates the included songs off The Crimson Idol (despite the spoken intro being chopped off of "Chainsaw Charlie") could suggest a different band that simply happened to share the same lead vocalist. To add a final wrinkle, a couple of exclusive songs make an appearance on this outing in "Sunset And Babylon" and "Rock And Roll To Death" that provide a certain level of foreshadowing for where Blackie was headed in his then soon to be active solo career. The songs themselves lean heavy in the hard rock direction, conjuring up early bluesy rocking vibes of Chuck Berry and other 50s contemporaries with a heavily distorted gloss that runs parallel to older bangers like "Blind In Texas", but has a certain level of depth and lyrically macabre content that fits in with a 90s perspective.

In retrospect, First Blood, Last Cuts stands as more of a farewell nod to Capitol Records than a full on retirement of the W.A.S.P. name. Technically speaking, the band was considered split up for a period of two years following the release of this compilation, but the culmination of Blackie's work during this time period would ultimately be yet another W.A.S.P. album, albeit one that was fairly appropriate to the time period to which it was born. In contrast to a hefty swath of best of compilations over the years that followed the example of Black Sabbath's We Sold Our Souls For Rock 'N' Roll and simply threw together a plurality of top selling singles and a few choice cuts from past LPs with no exclusive content, this isn't something that is wholly obsolete to the present day metal consumer, be it the stalwart W.A.S.P. fan or the newcomer. Apart from the jolting shift in production value between the remixed vs. original mix content from the earlier years, there aren't any glaring flaws to speak of. It follows a fairly similar formula to Motley Crue's Decade Of Decadence compilation, and thankfully in like fashion, was not the final word for this band despite the massive changes going on at the time.

The first and best W.A.S.P. copilation. Quietly released in 1993 by capitol records amongs the alternative and college rock boom of the early nineties.\
It covers all the best songs out of the first five albums, some remixed to make them sound more nineties and a few unreleased gems too.

Out of the 14 already released songs, 5 were the remixed ones; Love machine, I wanna be somebody, Blind in texas, Wild child and I don't need no doctor; making this an unique album. On some songs like "L.O.V.E. machine" and "I wanna be somebody" the echo sound of the drums and vocals was eliminated. Which is a good thing because it gives the song a different flavor than the one from the original album. Chainsaw Charlie is an edit version without the spoken intro. The songs "Sunset and Babylon" and Rock and roll to death were unknown songs up until this release. The second was latter released on Still not black enough and the first features Lita Ford on guitars, she really slays on this one, believe me!.
The booklet is a four foot long collage of photos of album artwork, promo shoots and live performances from the past until present, all in black and white. Although a little boring, I would had prefered some liner notes, band history or maybe that the pics could be a little more clearer. Obiously this release was done without the band's (Blackie) input. Besides all that a real worthy release for anyone's collection and the perfect place to start if you don't have any of their releases.