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.