W.A.S.P. (album)
1984 studio album by W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P. is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band W.A.S.P., released on August 17, 1984. The album has been known under three different names; the spine of the original European vinyl release had Winged Assassins printed on it, while early cassette releases of the album had the name of the album's first track, "I Wanna Be Somebody", printed in bold letters on the cover. The album is officially entitled simply W.A.S.P., which it is typically referred to as. It was recorded in two and a half weeks at the Record Plant.
In 2018, Collin Brennan of Consequence included the album in his list of "10 Hair Metal Albums That Don’t Suck".
Overview
Prior to its original release, the controversial track "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)" was deleted from the album. The Parents Music Resource Center had labeled the song as one of its "Filthy 15", songs that the group determined to be morally objectionable. Capitol Records subsequently bowed to pressure and pulled the song. The band released it as a single in the UK in 1984 on the indie label Music for Nations, and the single subsequently became a highly sought after item in North America as an import. The 1998 reissue features the originally intended track list with the song reinstated.
“W.A.S.P. (album)” enters the record as 1984 studio album by W.A.S.P. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what album and studio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“W.A.S.P. (album)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, album and studio provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q925152. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1984, 2018 and 1998.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow W.A.S.P. (album) primary sources, W.A.S.P. (album) archive and album research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “W.A.S.P. (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.