Kev Rowland I must be honest; I wasn’t excited when I realised there was a new album available from Wednesday 13. While I quite liked what he did in Murderdolls, his horror glam shtick has been done by other people much better than this, and with better songs as well. I can’t say I was disappointed when I heard it, as it was exactly what I expected with repetitive riffs, some electronic sounds here and there, and a feeling of “I’ve seen this movie before”. I was surprised to see some guests on here though, and while Alice Cooper didn’t push himself too hard on the title cut, Cristina Scabbia definitely added something to “Monster”. Jeff Clayton provided some powerful words to “Be Warned”, which was just him speaking and some delicate spooky piano for accompaniment, and was easily the best original number on the whole album even though it was only just an introduction to the next song, “The Hearse”.

The final song on the album sees Alex Laiho (Children of Bodom) joining in the fun as they work through the W.A.S.P. classic “Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)”. It says something when to my mind the best thing on the album is a cover of a song more than 30 years old. The production is solid, sound is good, but the band really sound as if they are going through the motions. I have seen some rave reviews about this album on the web, but this really isn’t for me. Next.

Kev Rowland Wednesday 13 released five albums with Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, but it was when he joined forces with Joey Jordison from Slipknot in the latter’s side project Murderdolls that most people became aware of him. Their 2002 debut album, ‘Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls’ redefined the horror punk genre, and when they went on hiatus in 2004 he started his solo career, releasing albums that saw him hailed as the bastard son of Alice Cooper and The Misfits. He even found time for an outlaw country project, Bourbon Crow, and a one-off glam metal act, Gunfire 76, before Murderdolls reconvened in 2010. After the ‘Women And Children Last’ album and tour, they again went on hiatus and he revived his solo career, and his latest album ‘Condolences’ is now on the player.

He has moved away from punk, and now this is much more straight forward heavy metal, although still with huge swathes of Alice Cooper influences. Part of that is down to his vocal style, as Wednesday 13 sounds as if he has been gargling whisky before laying down the tracks, providing a rough rawness that works well with the music which also owes a great deal to early W.A.S.P.. He says that he feels that there are no longer any boundaries for him, and that he can perform whatever style he now wishes to, but to be honest there isn’t a tremendous deal of variety among the songs on offer. This is a basic album, with little to lift it to anything special, with the result being that while I may not walk across the room to take it off the player as it’s okay, I may not actually have put it on in the first place. He’s good at what he does, but just not what I want to hear.

Stephen Joseph Poole, the real name behind the mask of Wednesday 13, is one of the core members of Murderdolls, along with Slipknot's Joey Jordison. After Murderdolls went hiatus, Poole decided to form a solo band under his nickname and released "Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying, and the Dead" during summer 2005. I don't know if glam metal is really fit with his music cause one thing for sure is that Wednesday 13 is heavily influenced by horror punk god, The Misfits, while they twist the music with some heavy metal stuffs, yes probably glam metal is an acceptable term, although please don't imagine any type of Winger, Poison, or Trixter stuffs inside.

Most of the songs here are uptempo with distorted bass and thick downtuned guitars, couple of slower tunes (the title track and "A Bullet Named Christ") and I don't want to call it ballads as it looks like it's an unsuitable term. Looking through the glasses of classic glam metal, Wednesday 13 is definitely a whole different beast and can become a bad food to consume for many old guns. No addictive hooks, no flashy solos, no harmonic vocals, and no heartfelt ballads.

Songs like "Look What The Bats Dragged In" (Poison already got the copyright for "Cats" I guess lol) exploded with an electrifying rhythm, pretty interesting but still passable to me. "I Walked With A Zombie", the first single, is like a metalized version of pop-punk anthem from bands like Blink 182 or Bowling For Soup, good but not great. "Bad Things", the second single, has a flat and uninspiring riffs, very much the same with "Haunt Me" or "The Ghost of Vincent Price". The best thing they can give me is "God Is A Lie", built on a melodic and accessible pattern, this is my favorite song out of the entire album.

This is definitely not my cup of tea and I'm sure I don't have the capacity of judging this album bad. Probably if you're into punk, nu metal, sleaze, and industrial at the same time, you'll appreciate this more than I am, but if you ask me, a single star is the best I can give.

Bomb Brigade The mastermind behind The Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 and Maniac Spider Trash brings you his eponymous debut in the form of the cleverly named TRANSYLVANIA 90210. Having previously covered many of his own songs from his earlier library,alongside Joey Jordison (Slipknot)in The Murderdolls,Wednesday 13 returns to fine form here with a seething collection of horror rock panache.13 seems to work best when he ingeniously twists titles (i.e.LOOK WHAT THE BATS DRAGGED IN/LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN)and crafts words,in his own inimitable style,into something from a B-Movie nightmare. POST MOTEM BOREDOM is a clever little B-Movie intro,that'll take you back to every Z grade horror film that you ever caught on 42nd Street,or,if you weren't living in New York City in its cult film heyday,at the midnight movies.That tracks propels you forward and fires you directly into the breakneck pace that is LOOK WHAT THE BATS DRAGGED IN.BAD THINGS finds Wednesday at his fist-pumping finest.The song wreaks of all things that should be embraced by any fan of sleaze rock,glam,heavy metal,goth rock,or whatever other label you'd like to place on it;it's just great music.It is utterly amazing what Wednesday does with merely a few guitars and a keyboard on the title track of this disc.The ambiance conveyed by the song TRANSYLVANIA 90210 instantly marks the song as an all-time classic of gutter rock.Wednesday almost tricks the listener into thinking he's hearing more than is actually there;an entire heavy metal/goth orchestra,if you will.A few nods to Manson and Cooper along the way,and Wednesday concludes this disc with the powerful and tempo driven A BULLET NAMED CHRIST. This guy can be so easily written off as mere fluff,a Marilyn Manson wannabe or a latter day Alice Cooper,and is severely unrecognized for the creative brilliance that he should actually be credited for.Just look at the way Wednesday changes suits for his work from one month to the next on more projects than most other artists could even ever conceive of.Whether it be the classic 1970's glam sleaze vibe of Gunfire 76,the camp of his Frankenstein Drag Queens,the straightforward,no apologies rock of the Murderdolls,or the backwoods,outlaw country music of Bourbon Crow,the man is an underrated genius...A mad scientist of rock n' roll. If Wednesday continues making albums of this extraordinary quality,he'll soon find himself living in the very same zip code that this disc is aptly named after.

Bomb Brigade SKELETONS finds Wednesday at his horror-spewing,sleaze-spitting,gutter-rocking best.This is the essential album for every Wednesday 13,Murderdolls,Gunfire 76 fan to own. From the bombastic opening crunch of SCREAM BABY SCREAM (perhaps a titular nod to the 1973 AIP blaxploitation film SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM?) to its finale,this is one powerful punch in the gut delivered from the master of this type of entertainment. 13 delivers his patent rythymic rockers without fail in the guise of FROM HERE TO THE HEARSE and NOT ANOTHER TEENAGE ANTHEM,and kicks you below the belt when you aren't paying attention with the furious PUT YOUR DEATHMASK ON (sheer brilliance in its relentless pace...this song would be right at home on a Slipknot album) and his ode to THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE,ALL AMERICAN MASSACRE.At the time of its release,Wednesday had said that this album was somewhat autobiographical for him and that SKELETONS and MY DEMISE were the one-two punch that this album is based around,giving the listener a somber peek into Wednesday's sometimes mundane existence.13 even sheds light on what appears to be a bout with depression,as is evident in the self-reflective lyrics of his comparing himself to a fly having its wings pulled off in MY DEMISE,and going on to sing that he'll "never get out of this life alive".If this is the end result of putting aside the Paxil and Zoloft for Wednesday,then he should consider never picking his happy pills back up again,as he has attained his artistic zenith. This guy embodies the spirit of B-Movie cult horror and camp classic rock n' roll and delivers nothing short of pure brilliance with this album.Wednesday 13 for President!