The Neon God, Pt. 2: The Demise

W.A.S.P. circa 2004 was clearly "the Blackie Lawless show," as Lawless remains the only original member left in attendance (in addition to — as always — handling the lion's share of the songwriting). A mere five months after the appearance of The Neon God, Pt. 1 comes The Neon God, Pt. 2: The Demise, an album that explores similar sonic terrain as its predecessor. Although W.A.S.P. is best known for its theatricality and sleaze metal anthems — after all, this was the group that gave us "Animal (F*ck Like a Beast)" — leader Lawless tends to think on a grand scale. And besides, this isn't the first time he's explored the concept album domain, as evidenced by such previous efforts as 1988's The Headless Children and 1993's The Crimson Idol. The Neon God, Pt. 2 tends to work best on the tracks where Lawless manages to incorporate the expected W.A.S.P. ingredients — while also working in the story line — especially the hard rockers "Resurrector" and "Clockwork Mary." While it's admirable that Lawless flexes his songwriting muscles on concept works like this, most W.A.S.P. fans would probably agree that he's best off when he's cranking out anthems about "love machines" and "being blind in Texas."