In celebration of the 25th anniversary of W.A.S.P.’s concept album The Crimson Idol, mainman Blackie Lawless and the current line-up of the band have re-recorded it, adding four ‘lost’ songs that didn’t make the cut first time around.
It also includes a film that was intended to accompany the originally album. If that leads you to expect a full-blown glam-rock movie musical, with a proper script and fleshed-out characters, you’ll be disappointed. Reidolized indeed illustrates The Crimson Idol’s concept of fictional rock star Jonathan Steele’s difficult childhood, rise to fame and spectacular fall, but essentially it’s a 50-minute music video, and it’s difficult to envision anyone other than hard-core W.A.S.P./Idol fans finding much enjoyment in it.
The album, however, is another story. The production is polished, Blackie’s voice is in top form, and the four ‘lost’ songs, which include the rousing The Lost Boy and power ballad The Peace, slot in perfectly.
Blackie must have thought that either The Crimson Idol was worth resurrecting or that it didn’t get enough attention the first time around. Either way, he’s right. This is the perfect chance for new fans to discover it and old fans to revisit a great piece of classic heavy metal.
