Just when the detractors thought this hellishly inspired creation was laid to rest for good when "First Blood Last Cuts" came out some ten years earlier, take another look! This latest chapter for a band that's changed face enough times to give Linda Blair a stiff neck, roars yet again with their latest "Best of" collection that spans the first fifteen years of their turbulent and twisted career. Rather than closing the chapter, "The Best of the Best" is only the first part in what's scheduled to be a two-part series as the thirteen previously released tracks on here are amongst their best but there are so many more waiting in the wings.

Staying consistent with the dark concept that they first developed in their beginning and reestablished with 97's "KFD," the graphic images and stills that grace the latest release are the perfect compliment for the band that's known for its highly visual live exploits and gruesome tactics! The first of the two new tracks appears first as Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" comes blaring through the speakers, given the full shock treatment that even the diva himself might have trouble approving of. In following, we're led down a bloody and sequentially consistent path through the W.A.S.P. album history. The highlights from their self-titled first album, considered by many as one of the purest metal albums ever, begin with the infamous "Animal (Fuck like a Beast)," and here it is some fifteen years later and its relevance still remains! "I Wanna Be Somebody," "Love Machine," and how about the inclusion of "Show No Mercy," the little known B-side to the original "Animal" single! One of the best songs they've never done! "Sex Drive" from "The Last Command" finds its way on board-and rightfully so-among the usual staples, "Wild Child" and "Blind in Texas" while the lone representative from arguably their worst album, "Inside the Electric Circus" needles its way on in the form of "9.5 Nasty." The concentration here is definitely on the earlier material as for matters of space consideration, a lot of the better cuts from "The Headless Children" and "The Crimson Idol" have to hang loose till the next one. Not to mention their darkest and most extreme work to date, "K.F.D." There's really nothing included here that anyone would pose an argument against, it's pretty straightforward and predominantly heavy. In between "Chainsaw Charlie" and "Helldorado" is sandwiched the last of the two new tracks "Unreal." This one's a basic filler left over from the "Still Not Black Enough" sessions, finally completed and consistently predictable with their Townsend-patterned time period.

One thing about a collection like this for a band that's generally never gone the same route twice is that it allows you to hear all the little subtleties, good or bad that each new album brings forth and its painfully obvious that the brand new tracks still sorely lack the punch of their earliest work… More guitar tracks! More riffs! Less production, more punch! With the earlier tracks having already been digitally remastered for their catalog reissuing of a couple of years ago, the sound is still surprisingly fresh all things considered... and how much of Lawless's patented screaming are you prepared to handle? "The Best of the Best" is a painful history lesson for the dark and deranged among us who are driven to buy records purposely because they're labeled with "explicit content" stickers an is a fitting lead-in for a band long overdue to get out there and tear it up live.