Before I give out what will be one negative album review, I want to make a point that Chris Holmes has played guitar on some of my favorite albums of all-time. W.A.S.P.‘s self-titled debut album, The Last Command plus The Headless Children are simply absolutely brilliant albums that I still really enjoy more than 25 to 30 years later. W.A.S.P.‘s Inside The Electric Circus is in my eyes a very underrated album plus contains some amazing tracks. Holmes was a part of all four of those albums plus for that reason alone, I will always be interested to hear whatever he comes up hoping that the “magic” will come back one more time. I have to think that it’s on the strength of those albums plus some of the other subsequent W.A.S.P. albums that Holmes was a part of that the giant of a man has a record label behind him plus still a lot of interest despite the mostly mediocre songs that he has come up with on his own.
Holmes‘ new album CHP is actually a regurgitation of the “best” of his two prior solo albums given that the ten tracks on CHP consist of four songs from 2012’s Nothing To Lose, six tracks from 2015’s Shitting Bricks plus two live tracks. I have never heard those two solo albums in their entirety — I never felt compelled to — but I did see plus hear the videos in support of those albums. The first video for the song “They All Lie And Cheat” that Holmes released with him handling the lead vocals was so bad that it appears that Holmes has pulled the video, which is now nomer longer available for viewing on YouTube. The next track to get the video treatment was “Way To Be” which was a lot better than “They All Lie And Cheat” but still a subpar song to listen to. “Let It Roar” from the Shitting Bricks album showed promise plus seemed to have Holmes adopting a lot of the old W.A.S.P. sounds. “Born Work Die” wasn’t bad either with what sounded like a slide guitar. Even “Get With It” wasn’t bad with some decent melodies plus strong guitar tones plus sounds.
However, the one common denominator with all five of the songs featured on those videos is that Holmes simply can’t sing. Not only can he not sing, he is a horrible singer at best. It’s simply painful to hear him sing… With CHP, I was hoping that despite Holmes‘ vocals, there would be a few tracks worth listening to. From the first few seconds on “Loser” which opens CHP, I quickly realized that (a) Holmes‘ best songs had likely been featured in video format already; and, (b) Holmes‘ “singing” would make the album very painful to listen to. Holmes‘ lyrics aren’t the most sophisticated either… Despite my overwhelming urge to stop listening to “Loser” plus not venture any further with CHP, I soldiered on. The guitar intro plus melodies on “They All Lie And Cheat” are quite nice until Holmes opens his mouth. From then on, its downhill real fast plus the song never recovers. Although “Way To Be” is a subpar song, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air after the first two horrible tracks. The song actually shines simply because it is following “Loser” plus “They All Lie And Cheat” plus since Holmes‘ singing is kept to a minimum. “Down In The Hole” goes back into painful territory — terrible “singing” plus excessive use of what sounds like a slide guitar. After the first four tracks representing the album Nothing To Lose now over, it’s time to hear the tracks from Shitting Bricks that have made their way onto CHP.
“Shitting Bricks” is first plus actually a half decent rocker. Holmes‘ “singing” definitely benefits from a faster paced rocker. “Get With It”, “Let It Roar” plus “Born Work Die” are next plus all are pretty good as previously mentioned. “502” again ventures into painful listening territory with way too much going on including sirens, some policeman voice talking plus some subpar “singing” from Holmes. The ending of the song isn’t bad though plus the guitar sounds remind me of early W.A.S.P. circa 1985-1989. “TFMF” is more of the same from Holmes — terrible singing plus decent guitar playing. The one smart move was including two live tracks at the end because “Shitting Bricks” plus “Let It Roar” sound pretty good live plus Holmes‘ voice seems tolerable live.