The darkest Glam Metal band of the 80‘s, W.A.S.P. Founded by frontman Blackie Lawless, guitarists Chris Holmes and Randy Piper and Drummer Tony Richards. The band soon established a reputation as a ferocious live act, thanks in large part to Lawless' habits of tying a semi-naked model to a torture rack and throwing raw meat into the audience. And with the release of their self-explanatory independent EP, Animal (F**k Like a Beast), W.A.S.P. became impossible to ignore.

Capitol Records signed the band, and with anthems like, "I Wanna Be Somebody" & "L.O.V.E. Machine" leading the way, their self-titled 1984 debut was an instant success. W.A.S.P. took their horror show on the road, and their momentum continued to build with the following year's The Last Command, which featured new drummer Steven Riley.

Later that year, the band gained even more prominence as one of the biggest targets of Tipper Gore and the PMRC, ironically the incident would cause more publicity than actual results, it served to make W.A.S.P. a household name.

The band toned down their act for 1986's Inside the Electric Circus, Lawless switch to guitar and hired bassist Johnny Rod. The blood and guts were largely gone, and despite releasing a strong live album entitled Live...In the Raw the following year, the band's popularity began to plummet. The all-time low arrived with the release of Penelope Spheeris' heavy metal "rockumentary," The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years. An expose about the L.A. metal scene, the film's most dramatic and depressing sequence showed an inebriated Chris Holmes drinking himself into a stupor in full stage gear while lying on a float in his mothers swimming pool. In a movie filled with debauchery and decadence, this scene was by far the scariest.

1989's Headless Children was a return to form, but it couldn't revert the band's slump and W.A.S.P. disbanded soon after. Lawless eventually returned in 1993 with The Crimson Idol, a concept album. The band resurrected the old shock rock antics, the following year W.A.S.P. released a greatest hits album First Blood...Last Cuts. The resilient Lawless returned once again, luring guitarist Chris Holmes back into the fold and recruiting bassist Mike Duda and drummer Stet Howland for 1996's Still Not Black Enough. This lineup continued to tour and record for a number of independent labels, with their albums including 1997's K.F.D., 1999's Helldorado, and 2001's Unholy Terror. Holmes left the band again as W.A.S.P. recorded Dying For The World and a pair of concept albums known as Neon God: The Rise & Demise, part I & II, with new guitarist Darrel Roberts.