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W.A.S.P. to rock Moscow on Thursday night wrapping up their 2017 World Tour

The current tour marks 25 years since the release of The Crimson Idol, the band’s best album

Blackie Lawless Stoyan Vassev/TASS

Blackie Lawless

© Stoyan Vassev/TASS

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. The American heavy metal band W.A.S.P. is coming to rock the stage of Moscow’s Stadium Live club on Thursday playing its last gig of their 2017 world tour. The current tour marks 25 years since the release of The Crimson Idol, the band’s best album, Blackie Lawless, the vocalist, guitarist and leader of W.A.S.P. stated at a press conference in TASS news agency ahead of the concert.

"This is the 25th anniversary of The Crimson Idol’s original release. We had good experiences playing Moscow before and we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to end the tour here tonight. This is the closing night of Re-idolized tour," the musician said.

W.A.S.P. released The Crimson Idol in 1992. It is a concept album, which describes the story of Jonathan Steele, an abused child looking for love, according to the band’s website. Originally, a movie was intended to accompany the album but that did not pan out. Now, 25 years later the band is going to release that original film. Especially for this purpose the band had to re-record the album "as a contractual obligation", Lawless said adding that as the writer he is quite happy with the original release.

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"We did it for the soundtrack [re-recorded the album - TASS]. I know most writers feel that they never finish [with their works - TASS]. I am not one of those people," he said.

The new version of the legendary album is called Re-Idolized and will be released together with the movie in February 2018. When asked how the new version differs from the original one, Lawless said "it sounds more like a movie soundtrack."

"I listened to the old album and it was pretty intimidating when I thought how I would do it again. When we rerecorded it, we did about five mixes before we found the sound. I wish I could tell you it was a part of a big idea we had but it was not more than an accident," Lawless said.

The musician said that as the writer he always tried to write multilayered lyrics, which raises more questions than answers.

"I am trying to keep people think. I am not making the music as fast food," Lawless said.

"All art is designed to make people think. If it doesn’t make you think like pop music - I am not saying that anything is wrong with pop music - but it is not really art. Any art makes you think. That what I am trying to do," the leader of W.A.S.P.concluded.

How W.A.S.P. came to be

W.A.S.P. was formed in 1982 by Blackie Lawless, who is the band’s only remaining original member. The most popular interpretation of the band’s abbreviation is "White Anglo-Saxon Protestants," although Lawless always avoided giving a straight answer about the meaning of the acronym. Together with such bands as Motley Crue, Ratt and Quiet Riot the group was part of the Los Angeles glam rock scene in the early 1980s. At the beginning of their career W.A.S.P. gained notoriety because of their shocking behavior on stage. In 1992, W.A.S.P. released The Crimson Idol - a concept album, which is still considered to be their best, and one of the greatest concept albums of all times.

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