Kommander of Kaos

Wendy O. Williams: Wendy O. Williams; T.C. Tolliver (background vocals); Greg Smith , Michael Ray .
Personnel: Wendy O. Williams (vocals); Michael Ray (guitar, background vocals); Greg Smith (bass guitar, background vocals); T.C. Tolliver (drums).
Additional personnel: Wes Beech (guitar).
Recording information: Airplane Hangar, Broccoli Rabe Studios, Fairfield, NJ (11/24/1984); Effenel Music Mobile Unit (11/24/1984); L'amour, Brooklyn, NY (11/24/1984).
Although best known as the death-defying leader of the Plasmatics, Wendy O. Williams issued several albums on her own during the 1980s. And while her earlier band was a certified punk outfit, by this stage of her career, Williams was zeroing in on the heavy metal audience -- Gene Simmons had produced an earlier album, while the singer was spotted hosting a heavy metal video show on the USA cable channel. So by the time of 1986's Kommander of Kaos, Williams was knee-deep in metal. Once more, Simmons' name makes an appearance on a Williams record (not as a producer this time, but as a songwriter -- "Ain't None of Your Business"), while Williams covers Motörhead's "Jailbait," and the main riff of the album's opening "Hey Hey (Live to Rock)" is quite reminiscent of Mötley Crüe's "Live Wire." While Kommander of Kaos was probably just as good as just about anything else that theatrical-minded metallists were putting out that year (W.A.S.P., Lizzy Borden, etc.), Williams was much more convincing as a Mohawk-ed punker. ~ Greg Prato