Overview
Upon its original release, 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 Fifteen", songs that the group determined to be morally objectionable. Capitol Records subsequently bowed to pressure and pulled the song. The band released the song on an independent label in the UK as a single in 1984, and it was reinstated on the album's 1998 reissue.
The song "I Wanna Be Somebody", released as the album's first single with accompanying music video, achieved such success that it was ranked No. 84 on VH1's list of the "Top 100 Hard Rock Songs" of all time.
Several of the album's songs have been covered by other bands. "Sleeping (In the Fire)" has been covered by Tiamat and Anders Manga, "Hellion" by Children of Bodom, "L.O.V.E. Machine" by Fallen Man, Lullacry, Fozzy and Alghazanth, "I Wanna Be Somebody" by Sentenced, Catamenia, Witchery, and Gates of Ishtar, and "The Torture Never Stops" by the death metal group Torture Division.
The song "Tormentor" was heard in the films The Dungeonmaster (1984) and TerrorVision (1986).
Read more about this topic: W.A.S.P. (album)