W.A.S.P. will be returning with a new studio album entitled Golgotha next year, one that founder and frontman Blackie Lawless says will sound similar to 2009’s Babylon and 2007’s Dominator.
“We’re about three weeks away from finishing the next one, so it will be out next year and it will be called Golgotha,” Lawless announced at a Sweden Rock Festival press conference. “Golgotha is Hebrew for place of the skull and it’s the hill where Christ was crucified. It’s interesting when you see a lot of bands going around using Satanic images, or images of death and things like that, and I’m thinking all they need to do is look at the source cause it’s right there. If you want death, there’s enough to go around there.”
As for what fans can expect musically from Golgotha, Lawless says, “It sounds… probably more similar to the last two that we’ve done. We’ve been working on this thing for four years now, and I don’t know if you guys heard but I had a little hiccup last year, and that delayed recording for about a year. I broke my leg — that too was an interesting trip (laughs). There’s one thing I learned when I was doing The Crimson Idol. If you make a record over too long of periods of time you have to be very, very careful because the record you start out making is not the record you end up finishing because you’ve changed so much as a person over a three or four year period. You’ve got to be very careful to hold onto that vision. But from what I’m hearing so far, and it’s not completely mixed yet, but it has definite overtones of the last two records.”
Lawless also addressed his decision to stop playing the W.A.S.P. classic Animal (Fucks Like A Beast by saying, “”I look at it like this. I’m a representative of the most high God, and I have to be very careful about the things I say and do. I’m gonna answer one day for the things that I’ve done and I wanna make sure that when I do, that my slate is clean. But equally as important as that, I think, is I’ve been given an opportunity to stand in front of people and you’re either gonna say something positive or you’re gonna say something mindless –there is no in between. You’re either one or the other. And I’m just trying my best, and I’m not saying that I’m doing it all the time, but I’m trying my best to say something that I think could help somebody’s life.”
Watch video from Blackie’s Sweden Rock Festival press conference below.
additional source: sleazeroxx.com
87 Responses
Alice Cooper has been a born again Christian for decades, and I don’t have a problem with it. In fact, he has only gotten better with age. Blackie has a right to do and be whatever he wants. The only thing I don’t understand is, if you are going to follow the bible, then really, REALLY follow it. Case in point, the bible clearly states that men should not look like women. wearing makeup is very cool, I love it, but again…the long hair too. I am NOT supporting the biblical view, in fact I despise organized religion. It also states you should not purposely associate with anyone that can offer temptation. The music business is THE WORST place to be in for that. I think these guys who espouse God and his word should understand that you cannot have it both ways. If you want to serve the Lord, you cannot wallow in the mud with the pigs. But hey, just an observation over here. On a lighter note, James Duda is one of the best bassists I have ever seen/heard. I remember him when he was in a local CT band Sequin Ruij in the late 80’s. Guy has balls the size of Mount Rushmore. I was happy to see him make it out of CT, because the CT scene for music sucks to high heaven.
A person who cannot handle experiencing the world is someone who has a weak faith. A Christian is someone who should go out into the world and not hide from it. The Bible doesn’t say anything against artistic expression.
Babylon was a great album, saw them on that tour and it was great as well. WASP is and always was a bit deeper than just the image and attitude, and if that’s all you noticed you missed what separated them from the crowd, it wasn’t raw meat and cod pieces. Blackie is a great songwriter, and Blackie IS WASP, if he wants to write more meaningful positive songs good for him.
Guys, guys, W.A.S.P. was way more than mere shock rock, they were political satire. Blackie’s political statement as to man’s treatment of women depicted in his stage show with the rack. Blackie is an ACTOR for God’s sake. He portrayed unsavory characters in an attempt to get people to think about how society chews people up and spits them out. His raping of the nun was his statement on man’s appropriation of religion. He has stopped performing “Animal” because so many have mis-interpreted his vision. Blackie is an auteur. He employs a technique called method acting, in which he inhabits the characters. He becomes them, much like a Brando (contrast him with Halford who is a classical dramatist like Olivier).
I COULD HAVE BEEN SOMEBODY CLOWN BEEN SOMEBODY TOO
I COULD HAVE BEEN A CONTENDER BEEN A CONTENDER TOO
THAT NIGHT AT THE GARDEN THE HEADLESS CHILDREN
INSTEAD I’M JUST A MANIMAL WHICH IS WHAT WHAT I AM
I GOT A ONE WAY TICKET ON A HELLDORADO
DAMN IT CLOWN YOU WAS BROTHER YOU SHOULDA LOOKED OUT FOR ME
IT WAS YOU CLOWN THE DEVIL’S HELLION
IT WAS YOU.
Comparing Blackie to Brandon is no joke the best thing that I have ever heard in my life. Clown, I have always thought you capable of mad brilliance but you have now shown brilliance that transcends heavy metal. Blackie doing the method.
Brando not Brandon
This is where I disagree. Having seen and watched a lot of the old W.A.S.P. concert footage, I would say that Blackie and gang were misguided on satire and irony. Blackie, despite his intentions, is a literalist. Which is why people have taken him and the band, well, so literally. I think the band’s ulterior motive, especially in the beginning and most certainly with K.F.D., was to offend. And, offensiveness does draw attention. Blackie does admit, in many interviews, that he and the band were often surprised that the audience “didn’t get it.”
Blackie is anything but a “literalist.” (That’s not even a word). And you say he is one “despite his intentions.” Well, how could he be one if his intentions are to not be? It’s the audience and the media that takes him literally. You, somehow, have put the artist as the culprit for how he is perceived. Notice he stopped doing those stunts because people didn’t get it. So, then, how could he have wanted to be taken literally?
Sorry to do this to you Clown, but ‘literalist’ is a word. But I agree, one is either a literalist, or not. Kinda like being pregnant. But Jenna I do agree that WASP’s intentions were to offend and gain attention, but not the attention they ultimately got. Like I said earlier, if you ‘got’ WASP, you were rewarded with fantastic music. If you didn’t get them, you were shocked, disgusted and wrote them off as sexual freaks, or sexual perverts as Blackie put it in Live…In the Raw. I’m just happy the guy is around and still putting out music. He’s done some phenomenal stuff over the years that has been grossly under-appreciated even by the metal audiences. But their loss has been our gain. I still remember the scene in Decline of Western Civilization when Holmes is drinking vodka in the pool with his mom watching. Have no idea how real or staged that was. But as a younger metal listener, that blew my mind at the time.
Well said.
Having said that, I think Blackie should seriously consider working with an outside producer. Can you imagine what “Mutt” Lange could get out of him? He needs to break out of his comfort zone. “Sounds like the previous two albums,” this is not a good thing.
Forget “Mutt” Lange, he is small potatoes. I’m thinking Coppola or Elia Kazan. I SAW THE STATEN ISLAND CLOWN CRAWLING ALONG THE EDGE OF A STRAIGHT RAZOR. CRAWLING. SLITHERING. THAT’S MY DREAM. THAT’S MY NIGHTMARE. Clown, you have opened the door to a new reality for me with this Brando thing. The only thing that I prefer to KISS as entertainment is Brando movies.
CLOWNFATHER, CLOWNFATHER, WHAT AM I GONNA DO?
YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN!!! WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU?
Thanks Richman.
Blackie says some really dumb stuff about the Catholic Church though. The bad vs. the good, they’ve done more good, it’s not even a close call. The Pope kills Christians? He says this crazy stuff and doesn’t offer any source to back it up…the Pope is just a CEO of a company, he’s no God.