W.A.S.P. — Inside the Electric Circus (review)

W.A.S.P. — Inside the Electric Circus album cover Album · 1986 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Inside the Electric Circus" is the third full-length studio album by US heavy metal act W.A.S.P.. The album was released through Capitol Records in November 1986. It´s the successor to "The Last Command" from November 1985 and features one lineup change as guitarist and founding member Randy Piper has left to join L.A. Guns. Lead vocalist Blackie Lawless has taken over the rhythm guitar role, giving up his bassist role to new member Johnny Rod.

Stylistically the material on "Inside the Electric Circus" are a direct successor the hard rock/heavy rock sound of the two preceding albums. Not much have been changed here and it´s still lead vocalist Blackie Lawless and his rough voice and screaming delivery which take center stage in the soundscape...and that´s a good thing, because the instrumental part of the music really isn´t that interesting. The hard rocking riffs are relatively uninspired and the vers/chorus format of the songs make them predictable and formulaic. That is not unusual for this type of music, but when the riffs aren´t more memorable and sharp than they are here, the vers/chorus format becomes tedious and the songs a little hard to get through. It has often been said by the band themselves that they were burnt out and not particularly inspired while writing and recording the material for "Inside the Electric Circus", but while it may not be their most inspired effort, the quality of this album isn´t far behind the two preceding albums. So that probably says more about the general quality of W.A.S.P.´s music from this era, than it does about this particular release.

For the time it was released "Inside the Electric Circus" features a relatively well sounding production job. It could have been more powerful and more heavy, and they could have chosen a better sounding drum production and less reverb on everything, but I write that down to the production choices of the day, as many other releases from this era sounds a lot like this one. So upon conclusion "Inside the Electric Circus" may be a bit of a run-of-the-mill type album from W.A.S.P., where they didn´t mess around with the successful formula of the first two albums, but it´s still a decent quality release and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.
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