ANKH TV

Babylon – Promised Land

“Promised Land” is one of the most atmospheric and emotionally charged tracks on W.A.S.P.’s 2009 album Babylon. Blending heavy metal with introspective and almost spiritual undertones, the song reveals a more reflective side of the band while remaining faithful to the album’s dark, biblical framework.

Musically, “Promised Land” unfolds at a measured, mid-tempo pace, allowing its melody and mood to take center stage. The guitars are powerful yet restrained, supporting a dramatic structure that builds tension rather than relying solely on aggression. The arrangement emphasizes atmosphere, giving the track an epic, almost pilgrimage-like feeling.

Lyrically, the song explores the idea of a “Promised Land” not as a physical place, but as a distant ideal—salvation, truth, or redemption that always seems just out of reach. Blackie Lawless delivers the vocals with a sense of longing and gravity, reflecting themes of faith tested by suffering, disillusionment, and personal struggle. Rather than offering clear answers, the song poses questions about belief, hope, and the cost of searching for meaning in a fractured world.

Within Babylon, “Promised Land” acts as a moment of contemplation amid chaos, balancing the album’s harsher, more confrontational tracks. It highlights W.A.S.P.’s maturity as songwriters, showing that their power lies not only in raw force, but also in emotional depth and thematic weight.

Dig it I left my home in Norfolk Virginia
California on my mind
Straddled that Greyhound
Rode him in the Raleigh on across Caroline
We had motor trouble it turned into a struggle
Half way across Alabam
And that ‘hound broke down and left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham
Raleigh bought me a through train ticket
Ridin’ cross Mississippi clean
I was on that midnight flyer out of Birmingham
Smokin’ into New Orleans

Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Just help me get to Houston town
There are people there who care a little ’bout me
And they won’t let the poor boy down whoo
Sure as you’re born they bought me a silk suit
Put a luggage in my hands
And I woke up high over Albuquerque
On a jet to the promised land
Workin’ on a t bone steak a la carte
Flyin’ over to the Golden State
And the pilot told us in thirteen minutes
He would send us to the terminal gate
Ah swing low chariot come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone
Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine

Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin’
And the poor boy’s on the line
Workin’ on a t bone steak a la carte
Flyin’ over to the Golden State
And the pilot told us in thirteen minutes
He would send us to the terminal gate
Swing low chariot come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone
Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin’
And the poor boy’s on the line whoo

Babylon Album Playlist