Inside the Electric Circus

Inside the Electric Circus is the third studio album by American heavy metal band W.A.S.P., released in October 1986^[3] through Capitol Records; a remastered edition featuring two bonus tracks was reissued in 1997 through Snapper Music.^[4] The album is the band's first to feature singer and bandleader Blackie Lawless playing guitar, having switched from bass to rhythm guitar.^[4] It reached No. 60 on the US Billboard 200 chart,^[5] where it remained for 19 weeks.^[6]

Inside the Electric Circus
Studio album by W.A.S.P.
Released	October 1986 (1986-10)
Recorded	July 1986
Studio	Pasha Music House, North Hollywood, Los Angeles
Genre	Heavy metal shock rock glam metal[1]
Length	47:57
Label	Capitol
Producer	Blackie Lawless
W.A.S.P. chronology
The Last Command (1985) Inside the Electric Circus (1986) Live... in the Raw (1987)
Singles from Inside the Electric Circus
"9.5.-N.A.S.T.Y." / "Easy Living" Released: September 1986[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	5/10[8]

Greg Prato at AllMusic gave Inside The Electric Circus three stars out of five, calling it "[an attempt] to grow musically with each successive release".^[7] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considered the album "slightly more simplified and hard rock-based" than previous works and reminded in his review how Lawless "in retrospect considered this record a failure."^[8]

Lawless himself has been critical of Inside The Electric Circus, going as far as to name it his least favorite W.A.S.P. album, calling it a "tired record done by a tired band".^[9]

Metal Hammer included the album cover on their list of "50 most hilariously ugly rock and metal album covers ever".^[10]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"The Big Welcome"	Blackie Lawless	0:51
2.	"Inside the Electric Circus"	Lawless	4:06
3.	"I Don't Need No Doctor" (Ray Charles cover)	Jo Armstead, Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson	3:28
4.	"9.5.-N.A.S.T.Y."	Lawless, Chris Holmes	4:50
5.	"Restless Gypsy"	Lawless	5:02
6.	"Shoot from the Hip"	Lawless	4:44

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
7.	"I'm Alive"	Lawless	4:24
8.	"Easy Living" (Uriah Heep cover)	Ken Hensley	3:13
9.	"Sweet Cheetah"	Lawless, Holmes	5:18
10.	"Mantronic"	Lawless, Holmes	4:12
11.	"King of Sodom and Gomorrah"	Lawless, Holmes	3:52
12.	"The Rock Rolls On"	Lawless	3:57
Total length:			47:57

1997 remastered edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"Flesh and Fire"	Lawless	4:37
14.	"D.B. Blues"	Lawless	3:24

Personnel

W.A.S.P.

• Blackie Lawless – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, producer
• Chris Holmes – lead guitar
• Johnny Rod – bass, background vocals
• Steve Riley – drums, background vocals

Production

• Duane Baron, Alex Woltman – engineers
• Hans Peter Huber, Kevin Lehue – additional engineering
• Michael Wagener, Garth Richardson – mixing
• George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York

Charts

Album

Chart (1986) Peak position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[11] 94 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[12] 84 Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[13] 16 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[14] 17 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[15] 35 UK Albums (OCC)[16] 53 US Billboard 200[17] 60

Singles Year Single Chart Position 1986 "9.5.-N.A.S.T.Y." Finnish Singles Chart[18] 18 UK Singles Chart[19] 70 1987 "I Don't Need No Doctor" UK Singles Chart[19] 31