Review by Daniel for Wendy O. Williams - WOW (1984)

By 1984, there could no longer be any doubt that the strength of the commercial US hard rock & glam metal scenes was having an impact on some of the sounds we were hearing coming out of the metal underground. And that was especially evident with this debut solo album from Plasmatics front woman Wendy O. Williams. I’m sure that some of you would be familiar with the third & most celebrated “Coup d'état” album from the New York punk metallers & the mild success of that record saw the band heading out on the road in support of the hugely popular KISS shortly afterwards which resulted in a strong friendship between the two bands. During the course of this tour, Wendy struck up a strong friendship with KISS bass player Gene Simmons which is not too surprising when you consider the reputation that Simmons has always had with the ladies. Well the story goes that following the tour the Plasmatics' label Capital Records elected not renew their recording contract which left them in a difficult position. But Gene ended up throwing Williams a lifeline with an offer to record & produce her next album. After much thought they decided it was best not to utilize the Plasmatics branding for the project for fear of legal repercussions so the record would eventually be known as a Wendy O. Williams solo project entitled “WOW”, although it does include input from the Plasmatics guitarist & drummer along as well as contributions from their mates in KISS. In fact, it’s worth noting that Gene Simmons plays bass throughout the recording under the name of Reginald Van Helsing.

Personally I think it’s a good thing that the album is separated from the Plasmatics material because it’s certainly a little bit of a departure from the more punky & aggressive heavy metal direction the Plasmatics had explored on their three albums to date. This time we get a more traditional hard rock album with a much more noticeable pop sensibility to the song-writing that’s unsurprisingly more in line with what KISS were known for at the time. There are definitely a few cuts here that could easily have been thrown onto a KISS album & no one would have been the wiser. Wendy’s punk rock roots have been completely swept aside & there’s actually very little legitimate heavy metal on offer either. KISS, AC/DC, Alice Cooper & Joan Jett are the artists that spring to mind with this one with Alice being particularly prominent in Wendy’s vocal delivery. The rhythm section keeps a solid base for the song-writing which is accentuated by an excellent production. The lead guitar work is really exciting for the most part & I find this element to be the clear highlight of the album.

Look, this is undoubtedly a good band with a charismatic front-woman but the problem lies predominantly in the simple, poppy song-writing. I feel like Wendy can do much better than this & I do get the impression that letting Gene Simmons run the show has been to the detriment of her creativity. In fact, the common consensus seems to be that "WOW" is a watered down version of the Plasmatics but I have to admit that I’d probably listen to it over “Coup d’etat”. Neither of them are up my alley though to be honest.