Coup d'Etat (album)

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Coup d'Etat
Coup d'Etat cover
Studio album by Plasmatics
Released 1982
Recorded 1982
Genre Punk
Metal
Length 47:09
Label Capitol Records
Producer Dieter Dierks
Professional reviews
Plasmatics chronology
Beyond the Valley of 1984 (1981) Coup d'Etat (1982) Maggots: The Record (1987)

Coup d'Etat is the third studio album released by punk/metal band The Plasmatics in 1982.

In 1982, a deal was inked with Capitol Records and Dan Hartman offered to produce a demo of the album for Capitol with Rod at Electric Lady Studios, Jimi Hendrix's old studio, in NY. The whole album was arranged, recorded and mixed within a week, and would later become Coup De Grace. Dieter Dierks, who had just come off a number one album with the Scorpions, also expressed interest in producing.

Coup d'Etat was a breakthrough album that began to blend the punk and metal genres, something that would later be done time and time again by bands such as S.O.D., Anthrax, and the Cro-Mags by the end of the 1980s. Wendy also broke ground for her unique singing style; she pushed her vocals so hard she had to make trips into Cologne in Germany, where the album was being recorded, each day for treatments to avoid permanent damage to her vocal cords.

The song "The Damned" was covered by German Thrash band Destruction on the Mad Butcher EP in 1987. During the 1990s, Beavis & Butt-Head showed the video often.

Despite the band's rise in fame, the band was dropped by Capitol Record shortly after the album's release.

In 2005, Rock Candy Records re-released the album with expanded liner notes, bonus tracks, and a re-master of the entire original album.

The original demo of the album was released in 2000 and again in 2002 by Plasmatics Media, Ltd, under the name Coup De Grace.

[edit] Track listing

  1. Put Your Love In Me
  2. Stop
  3. Rock N Roll
  4. Lightning Breaks
  5. No Class
  6. Mistress Of Taboo
  7. Country Fairs
  8. Path Of Glory
  9. Just Like On TV
  10. The Damned
  11. Uniformed Guards (work-in-progress recording) *
  12. Put Your Love In Me (Demo) *
  13. Stop (demo) *
  14. Coup d'Etat Radio Ad (previous unheard) *
  • Bonus Tracks from 2005 Re-issue

[edit] Reception

The LA Times called Coup d'Etat the "best slice of...heavy metal since the last AC/DC album," adding that, "Williams makes Ann Wilson and Pat Benatar sound like (the folk singer) Judy Collins". The newspaper's question about whether a 'male-dominated' heavy metal audience would "accept a female screecher" underscored how ground breaking what Wendy was doing was. This was previously entirely male territory. As far as the sheer power of the vocals, the Aberdeen Press from Janis Joplin's home state said that Wendy was "doing vocally what nobody since Janis Joplin" has done, while a review in Cream Magazine called it a "breakthrough" record, Wendy "an aggressive female," the review went on saying it was "kicking down traditional barriers". Wendy's "physicality...is (now) coming out of her voice." The Cream review, by Cyril Blight, attacked the sexism of those who "can't handle" or 'even resent the very idea of a woman like Wendy Williams singing rock and roll with ferocity-which is to say the same qualities they would applaud if they were coming from a man, providing there was a man around today with the balls to do that."

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