Nice cover of Sunset & Babylon, Keef.

An excellent comp and for the longest time this was the only W.A.S.P. I owned on CD, still pop in my CD player once in awhile.

I don't have the compilation CD (yet), but the single is a very cool piece in my collection. I think I own mp3's of the rst of the demo tracks as well.

"I'm the queen of the global dream and I rule a declining nation
I sit and watch all the violent screams from the throne of your desperation
I killed them all and I stole their land; enslaved the blacks and slaughtered the red man
In God we trusted and I gave birth to would be kings to rule the earth"



STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH was the first album W.A.S.P. released on their new label, Raw Power/Castle, in August 1995. Again, while it was in the works this album had been announced as Blackie's solo debut, but was eventually released under the W.A.S.P. banner. I suppose by this time, it didn't matter what name was on the cover, as W.A.S.P. has always equaled "Blackie Lawless" anyway. Once again the bulk of the album was recorded mainly by Blackie himself, with help from the same cast of back up players that he used on THE CRIMSON IDOL (i.e. Bob Kulick on guitars and Frankie Banali/Stet Howland splitting the drum duties). STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH pretty much picks up where CRIMSON IDOL left off, often sounding like a continuation of that album.

STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH is not an out-and-out "concept" record (i.e. it doesn't have a set "storyline") but it has several central themes, the main one being mistrust of Government (covered in "Scared to Death" and "Goodbye America") and a continued fascination with loneliness and abandonment issues, carried over from THE CRIMSON IDOL (in fact, the final track, "No Way Out of Here," even name-drops "Idol's" main character, Jonathan Steel, when Blackie cries out "The mirror cracked in a million pieces; and so did I 'cos Johnny's me!"). Aside from the upbeat "Rock N Roll to Death" (repeated from the FIRST BLOOD LAST CUTS disc) that breaks the mood for a couple of minutes, STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH was the most downbeat, depressing record of W.A.S.P.'s catalog thus far. Hell, even the cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love" sounds damn near suicidal. In the CD booklet there's a note from Blackie explaining that much of STILL BLACK was inspired by the death of his mother and some experiences he had while out on the road for the CRIMSON IDOL tour. Heavy stuff, man.

"Black Forever/Goodbye America" was the single from this album, released in two parts. Part 1 of the single featured the non-LP songs "Skin Walker" and "One Tribe," while part 2 featured covers of AC/DC's "It's A Long Way to the Top" and "Whole Lotta Rosie."


Though it was released in Europe in 1995, STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH didn't make it to U.S. shores till 1996, and when it did, the album had an entirely different track list from the original Euro version. While the European pressing had only 10 songs, the U.S. disc had 13, omitting the ballad "Breathe" and "No Way Out of Here," but shoehorning several of the aforementioned B-sides from the British single into the running order, plus a new cover of Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down." I only have the original British pressing (if anyone's got a copy of the U.S. one for trade, holla!) but looking at the track list of the U.S. version I'd say having all those cover songs crammed in there would probably mess with the album's "flow" and overall feel in a big way. Maybe the U.S. office (or Blackie himself?) thought the album was too depressing the way it was and shuffled the tracks around.





STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH was more or less ignored when it was first released back in the 90s but over the years its reputation has grown. Nowadays many fans consider it to be one of the band's most "underrated" offerings.

Still Not Black Enough was the last of the back catalog that I bought on cd (the U.S version). I got it through ebay even though I had seen it in the National Record Mart a couple of times.When they were going out of business I went to pick it up and it was gone, naturally.

The music on it is actually pretty good. The title track,Skinwalker and I Can't are the standout tracks for me. I wouldn't mind getting the European version of the cd but I doubt it's worth it just for one song.

This is an excellent album but one I do not spin very often, the dark depressing subject matter was very sobering and admire the fact that Blackie Lawless was not limiting himself to what was excepted him to sing about.

If the last two albums where Blackie Lawless's 'Pete Townshend phase' this was easily his 'Roger Waters phase', with his ranting against the goverment, authority figures and abandonment, this could have easily be consider the metal world's The Wall, I am not saying the material sounds anything like Pink Floyd, I am only comparing the subject matter.

I plan to spin this album when I get home tonight.

As far as the latter day stuff goes, Still Not Black Enough is probably one of my favorite WASP albums. It had received many, many, many spins from me. I like the dark, depressing aspect of it.

I was one of those that bought this then shelved it for awhile. After pulling it out later I realized it's a great listen, the band with Blackie sounds tight and while dark it is a pure WASP album with a message. Manny makes a good point about the subject matter being a reflection of Waters.

Don;t have this one - sounds like I should look for it....

The Headless Children is one of my favorite albums, excellenty written and executed. The Crimson Idol is the last W.A.S.P. record I really got into, solid all the way through. After this, I only really know what they did as singles.

Still Not Black Enough gets my vote as the most underrated/overlooked WASP album!

"You f**king SUCK!"


After several albums that were basically Blackie Lawless solo works, 1997's K.F.D. brought W.A.S.P. back to life as a "full band" situation. Prodigal guitarist Chris Holmes returned to the fold after being away for a number of years, and the lineup was filled out by bassist Mike Duda and drummer Stet Howland. K.F.D. (the initials stand for "Kill, F**k, Die") turned out to be one of the most controversial albums in the W.A.S.P. catalog and is still hotly debated among fans to this day. Some think it's the rawest, heaviest W.A.S.P. album since the debut, while others (myself included) think it's a messy, irritating misfire that found the band (unsuccessfully) trying to "modernize" its sound and recast itself as a Marilyn Manson style techno-terror outfit.

The best way to describe K.F.D. is to say that it's the sound of pure hatred and anger preserved on tape. Both Lawless and Holmes had just come out of bad relationships prior to recording this album (Holmes had split up with Lita Ford, and Blackie's longtime girlfriend had apparently told him that she was a lesbian) so they were "ready to kill everybody." Thus, the making of K.F.D. probably served as cheap therapy for both of them by letting them get their frustrations out in the studio. If you thought STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH was Lawless' darkest work to date, K.F.D. makes it sound like "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" by comparison. Titles like "Kill Your Pretty Face," "Wicked Love" and "My Tortured Eyes" should tell you that they weren't exactly in a sunshine-and-bunnies kind of mood. This is an album that damn well earns its "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" sticker!

All of that would have been well and good with me (we all know that Blackie usually comes up with his best stuff when he's pissed off) but the production on K.F.D. absolutely sucks. It's echo-ey, clanky, and filled with unnecessary "industrial" overtones. I still think the "drums" were provided by machines, despite Howland being credited for them. I can remember when I went to the record store to buy this disc, I put it in my car's CD player for the ride home, and about two minutes into the title track, my brother piped up from the back seat "What's with this Nine Inch Nails sh*t?"

Though I was stoked for K.F.D.'s release at first due to the news of Holmes' return and the glowing reviews I read in magazines, I found it to be a stone cold disappointment from the very first spin. There were a couple of songs that were passable (title track, "Take The Addiction," and "Killahead") but the rest just gave me a migraine. The disc hung around my house for almost a decade collecting dust because I never listened to it, till I finally traded it off (to SpectreFate, if memory serves) a couple of years ago. I just never could get into this album. Thankfully, the sound heard on K.F.D. proved to be a one-off and the band returned to more "traditional" pastures on future albums.

The tour for K.F.D. took the album's theme of horror and death on the road, as the show's centerpiece featured Lawless slaughtering a live pig on stage (!!!) every night during the song "The Horror." Needless to say, this brought out a storm of protest from PETA and other animal rights groups, which was probably Blackie's plan all along. If nothing else, K.F.D. got people talking about W.A.S.P. again for the first time in a number of years.




Useless trivia: when the title track was released to radio stations as the first single, the song was edited as "Kill, Kill, Die" for obvious reasons. Also, the Japanese version of the album omits the tracks "Fetus" and "Little Death" and replaces them with an exclusive track called "Tokyo's On Fire."

I only got this album about 2 years ago, so any controversy or hype or negativity had long since died down. Listening to it without any expectations, I quite enjoy it.

I'm not a huge Manson fan, but I like some of his early work, so that style doesn't bother me much. Could I do without all the NIN/Marilyn Manson influence? Sure. Just listen to Double Live Assassins and you'll hear tunes from this album stripped away of most of their industrial overdubs. The songs sound just as good with just guitar, bass and drums. If anything, the industrial overtones will make this album seem a bit dated in the long run. It will be a harsh reminder of the mid-90's alt-metal movement, just like glossy keyboards in the 80's.

As it stands, I think this is just another fine album in the WASP discography and gets plenty of spins from me.

I like the album alot , like MG stated strip away the industrial overdubs and the songs sound great, I am a fan of Manson and NIN so like MG it did not bother me that much, even if I thought it was bit obvious that he was riding on the wave of popularity of NIN.

Blackie's sounds pissed and angry and at times I felt he was trying to hard to sound angry etc but overall I like the songs and the album, I have not spun it in awhile so I going to give it a spin over the weekend

'K.F.D.' sees the return of Chris Holmes, and the addition of Mike Duda on bass. Needless to say, this was also a return to the shock rock, and W.A.S.P.'s live show was never more outrageous then it was to be on the tour for this album. Blackie decided to put Marilyn Manson and the likes in their place, showing them how it's supposed to be done. It's a bit sad then that this album sounds more like he's copying Manson, rather then coming up with something of his own. Sure, the songs are still very much in Blackie's trademark sound, but the production just ruins it for me. "Little Death" would be an awesome song, hadn't it been for the industrial production. And when was repeating the f-word a hundred times over become so overtly shocking? Stupid, is more like it! 'K.F.D.' is not the bands worst moment, and as said, we get treated to some great tunes here as well, but this is not the way I want to remember the band, so I rarely put this CD in the player. My copy comes in a nifty digi-pack, where half of the front opens up, so it looks like you're opening the refrigerator pictured on the cover, to reveal what's inside.

Killer tracks: Kill Smurf Die, My Tortured Eyes, Little Death, The Horror

I bought K.F.D. as a new release after reading a couple of good reviews in magazines. Imagine my surprise when I heard the industrialized music coming out of the speakers. As already stated,there are a few good tracks here (which would have sounded better as regular music) but it just isn't a top notch album. I have to say it is the band's worst output.I'm glad they didn't stick with this sound.

Blech, let the other freaks do their style of shock and you stick to yours Blackie. The only industrial I ever liked was some Zombie and a band called Generation. This was a big, angry, dump and I hate it still.

Yeah, Alice dabbled in it but somehow it's less grating to me from him, feels more like Zombie's sound then NIN.