This album marks a complete change of sound for the band. The songs were longer, more complex, and featured lyrics about more than just driking & sex. Chris Holmes was never much of a lead guitarist, but on this disc even he steps up and delivers well.
This album is heavy and dark (nicely broken up by "Forever Free," a great ballad). Was it the addition of Banali, who's clearly a stronger drummer that made the difference? Who can say, really? At the end of the day, this album took WASP to a new level. If you don't have this and you're any kind of WASP fan, do yourself a favor and pick this on up.
Right off the bat, "The Heretic (The Lost Child)" kicks into high gear and sets the pace for the record. Track 2 is a rocking cover of the Who's "The Real Me," which received heavy rotation on MTv back in the day. The Headless Children is packed from beginning to end with interesting songs that make you wonder what happened to the simple rock songs these guys used to churn out.
WASP was a band that always rode just under the crest of the Glam Metal wave of the late 1980s. They were too antisocial to gain much radio play and too heavy for many Glam fans. The hairspray, makeup and songs about girls alienated many other metal fans. However, WASP made too much noise to be ignored.