Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, south of Baghdad. It is also believed the origin of the four horsemen as depicted on the cover of the new W.A.S.P. album. For somebody who started his career with 'Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)', this is quite a deep subject matter. Yes, it has been touched before by Metallica, Lawless however seems to dedicate the entire album to it. They have done concept albums before.

 

With The Crimson Idol, they were at the pinnacle of their career. Every subsequent release always stood in the shadow of the early releases. None of them are really bad, it is just that it never matched albums like The Last Command. Speaking of which, this album opener ‘Crazy’ has a riff that is very similar to ‘Wild Child'.  Blackie’s signature voice and the band’s sound don’t really have the atmosphere you’d expect covering a theme as dark as the apocalypse.

 

However a galloping rhythm enters my room as the four horsemen are the theme on ‘Babylon’s Burning’. The lyrics are quite allegoric as it refers to the current age of panic. It is very reminiscent of the ‘Headless Children’ album. For a concept album however, just 7 original tracks and 2 covers is a bit poor. The decision to cover Deep Purple’s ‘Burn’ and  Chuck Berry’s ‘Promised Land’ puzzles me a bit. It is nicely done, but from the concept point of view it doesn’t really cover the Four Horsemen story. Not that it is really important, it is more important to make a good album. They have achieved that yet again, although it doesn’t really add anything to their impressive catalogue.

 

Rumours surrounding the band that this would be the last album and tour for W.A.S.P. has been around for quite a while. All things end of course, but I hope there is still one last album in them. Because as a farewell album it falls a bit short.