This is the first part of an intricate heavy metal concept story that is described on the band's official website as: "The Rise tells the story of an abused and orphaned boy who finds that he has the ability to read and manipulate people. By utilizing his gifts, he is able to build a following whose devotion and allegiance create a loyalty so intense that he is poised to become a dark Messiah for the 21st Century." It sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel and it is equally intriguing, ambitious and involving.

Official website: waspnation.com
Tour information: waspnation.com/tourdates.html

Track List
1. Overture [3:32]
2. Why Am I Here [:34]
3. Wishing Well [3:33]
4. Sister Sadie (And The Black Habits) [6:18]
5. Underature (AKA Rise, The) [2:28]
6. Why Am I Nothing [:58]
7. Asylum #9 [4:40]
8. Red Room Of The Rising Sun [6:02]
9. What I'll Never Find [:50]
10. Someone To Love Me (All I Need) [7:42]
11. X.T.C. Riders [4:33]
12. Me & The Devil [:52]
13. Running Man, The [4:19]
14. Raging Storm, The [5:45]

Musicians:
W.A.S.P.: Blackie Lawless (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums);
Darrell Roberts (vocals, guitar, drums)
Mike Duda (vocals, bass)
Frankie Banali (drums, percussion)
Stet Howland (drums)

The idea of blending metal with horror is not a new one (Dee Snider of Twisted Sister has been fascinated with this concept) but W.A.S.P has taken the concept beyond a couple of songs to a multi-album project. One positive (or negative, depending on one's perspective) thing about W.A.S.P is that they — er, I mean, frontman and skunk-white, stripe-haired Blackie Lawless because he is pretty much the only one left from the original band — are still playing hardcore 80's heavy metal.

W.A.S.P doesn't have a thrash metal tempo and/or sound, rather they are more like a cross between Krokus, Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister and Black Sabbath. Personally, I lost track of W.A.S.P musically after the first three albums. They went darker all the way around, which I didn't think was possible, and as an early fan I lost interest. Apparently I wasn't the only one, because there was a move to smaller, independent labels (Sanctuary Records, which published Neon God, has been publishing some outstanding music from 80's hard rock acts). I have always been more into W.A.S.P music — the songs — than their bizarre circus act. However, from what I've heard of albums since Inside The Electric Circus Blackie hasn't run out of ideas. Commercially they are too much like other better known bands mixed together, I think, to reach any huge commercial success but with the release of Neon God taken as a whole (as listeners need to do to fully appreciate it) W.A.S.P is unique and worthy of deeper consideration or a second look at the very least.

Some brief history on W.A.S.P for those who are uninitiated and/or new to them. W.A.S.P pushes the envelope both in the content of their songs (profanity, violence, extreme and sadistic topics, death, devil references, sacrifices, torture, abuse in multiple forms, etc) and often sings about innocence being victimized. They are best known commercially for their songs: L.O.V.E machine, I Wanna Be Somebody, Wild Child, Blind in Texas and others. On the inner vinyl of their first self-titled album, in tiny text, these words explain their initials: (W)e (A)re (S)exual (P)erverts. More recently for their last studio album, Dying for The World, they were inspired by letters received from troops who fought in the Gulf War who had reported marching into battle piping W.A.S.P lyrics. After the unspeakable horror of 9/11 W.A.S.P prepared this "special" CD for the brave men and women waging war against terrorism that was specifically engineered for and as "going out and killing people music." W.A.S.P makes famed shock jock Howard Stern look like an altar boy.