Album/EP

Wednesday 13 - Necrophaze (Album Review)

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

/10

Sep 30, 2019

7 min read

Wednesday 13 - Necrophaze
Released: 27th September, 2019

Lineup:

Wednesday 13 // Vocals
Roman Surman // Guitar
Jack Tankersley // Guitar
Troy Doebbler // Bass
Kyle Castronovo // Drums

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Let me just say for the record. I love Wednesday 13. I have probably seen him on every single live show he has done in Australia and will continue to do so because well he is just fucking awesome on a live front, even if he doesn’t play any songs from Calling All Corpses these days (my favourite album).

So it brings me great joy to review the latest album from Mr Motherfucker himself, aptly titled, Necrophaze.

The album opens with the title-track and honestly, If you’ve got Alice Cooper on your album, it’s probably going to be awesome and while the man does not sing himself, it’s all very much in line with the way Vincent Price once narrated the Cooper’s classic album Welcome To My Nightmare. The song just goes straight for your throat and won't let go until the very final note rings out.

From here on its various topics covering serial killers, horror films and various other topics you’ve come to expect from Mr Motherfucker himself. Now that’s not a slight in the least because compared to the last few albums. The songs are just better. ‘Bring Your Own Blood’ is the kind of goth, horror, metal party anthem where you’re most inclined to drink whiskey in the graveyard somewhere and paint the walls of your local church in your blood. Probably.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1iZ6KHx7KQ&w=640&h=360]

One could argue this album borrows heavily from the Rob Zombie Halloween bag because it does feature heavy narration at the beginning of the songs. But when you have songs that slap hard as ‘Zodiac’ in your arsenal. Who fucking cares. If anything, the constant narration in the songs often holds the entire album together.

Standout track ‘Monster’ introduces the vocals of Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil fame and it really elevates this song with the way she and Wednesday utilise their different vocal stylings to create some unique interplay between them both with the result being a catchy serial killer anthem for your listening pleasure. It’s creepy and haunting all at the same time and easily the best song on the entire album. Hopefully, we see more of this in the future!

Look, the rest of the songs are just your typical Wednesday 13 fare. But I cannot stress this enough, I think the songs are just better this time around. Songs like ‘The Hearse’ and ‘Tie Me A Noose’ exemplify this perfectly, they have the heaviness of the later Wednesday material, but the electronics this time around are just more interesting and interwoven within the song itself and it hits fucking hard. It’s going to go off live. Then you have the slower songs such as ‘Life Will Kill Us All’ which is more geared towards the live show crowd, it’s just got that anthemic, I’m wasted at a show kinda feel and the chorus is geared towards being sung at as high a volume as humanly possible. It’s no ‘I Love To Say Fuck’ but it’s fine.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6kIpbyvBA&w=640&h=360]

The album ends with ‘Bury The Hatchet’ and it some ways it recalls the more punk leanings of Wednesday 13. It’s just fast, hard and dirty, the way you want good sex to be most of the time. It does not let up from beginning to end and there’s no better way to end this album.

On Necrophaze, Wednesday 13 has presented a heavy, hard-hitting album, full of goth horror anthems primed for the live experience and arguably his best album since The Dixie Dead, long-time fans and newcomers will find something to enjoy on the latest horror show from the band

Now go out and get your grave on baby.

PS. I’m aware there is a cover of the W.A.S.P. song ‘Fuck Like A Beast’ but yeah. It fucking sucks. It’s torture people in a military base bad. So I’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist and maybe you should too.