After a 16 month battle with pancreatic cancer, Frankie Banali has passed away.
His best album, W.A.S.P.’s The Headless Children, will always be a cornerstone of this collection. Metal Health was the first hard rock album I ever acquired and it changed my life for good. To say Frankie was dedicated would be an understatement. His dedication led to a rejuvenated Quiet Riot and some excellent albums with James Durbin on vocals. Against the odds, Banali silenced the critics, myself included.
One of the hardest hitters in rock, Banali has an extensive resume including Hughes/Thrall, Heavy Bones and Faster Pussycat. He was one of those drummers you could identify just by his snare sound. A true original.
Now Frankie rides the wind, forever free. Rest in peace.
mikeladano.com 
Very nice Mike. Glad you posted a tribute! I forgot he played on a couple of the Hughes Thrall tracks, I have that one so I will pull that out as well.
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Frankie was the reason I bought The Headless Children as it was his drumming on The Real Me that made me buy it as I gave up on WASP after Last Command.
RIP Sir.
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Headless Children was such a great comeback record after two mediocre ones, and Frankie was a huge part of that. If I recall correctly he’s on some of Crimson Idol too, and I definitely prefer his drumming to Stet Howland’s.
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Very true
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I thought he played on ALL of Crimson Idol but I haven’t played it in many many years as I personally feel it’s overrated and not as original as Headless.
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You can tell which songs Frankie played on because they don’t have an idiotic number of drum fills like the Howland songs.
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THAT’s what I hate and THAT’s what Crimson Idol has too much of. I was hoping that was not Frankie.
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Well it’s the same on Kill Fuck Die, and that’s Stet Howland, right? Just a bunch of tom fills every single fucking bar. SAVE THAT SHIT! USE DYNAMICS! FUCK!!!
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More sucky news from the year of suck! R.I.P Frankie.
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Fuck suck.
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Shit. I dont know why but I though he would make it through this. :(
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I know what you mean. Because he was fighting so hard and still keeping on. But he had one of the worst cancers you can get.
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Fuck cancer. Gonna go review Headless Children!
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Yeah, I have worked a lot of pancreatic cancer cases during my training, and it was always horrendous.
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Another death in sucky 2020. Rest in peace Frankie
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The Headless Children is one of my favorite albums.
RIP
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I missed that, that’s sad news.
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