Wednesday 13 – The Horror Writers

If there is one good thing to be said about being down with a broken neck, it is that I have plenty of down time to watch a few new videos and get a review in on the good ones. Luckily for me, one of these that showed up in the mail last week was my preorder for Wednesday 13’s new live concert DVD, Scream Britain Scream.

Filmed at the Koko Club in London, England, while on the “Spook and Destroy” tour on Halloween 2012 this provided the perfect setting for a Wednesday show.

As always I have to say that this is the tightest version of Wednesday’s band that I have ever heard in his history. Roman Surman, Jack Tankersley, Troy Doebbler, and Jason “Shakes” West fill the musical void that is live videos since this one actually sounds like a live show!

Other than the band, which seems to be having fun with the performance, the sold out audience in attendance is captivated from beginning till end of the 19 songs. W13 and the boys hold up the energy that is expected from a rock show where others would have dropped off after the third song. Opening with “Rot for Me” and moving though staple W13 numbers such as “House by the Cemetery”, “My Home Sweet Homicide”, “Gimme Gimme Bloodshed”, “Rambo”, and the encore numbers of “I Love to say Fuck”, and of course “Bad Things”. Of course there is the harder and jams such as “Put Your Death Mask On”, and “All American Massacre” just in case you feel that you need to mosh the shit out of your media room.

If you have ever seen W13 live, you will know that even though this show was meant for video, it is not anymore over the top than any of his other shows that were not recorded. W13 puts out the most high energy performances despite the venue size or date. But this one show in particular captures that statement on film for any nay-sayers that may have the balls to exist!

For the true fans, the boys have included a few clips of the backstage antics and the after show fan meetings. “Did you ever get those socks, Wednesday?”

Also, we have to hand it to artist, D.A. Frizell, who provided another ghoul-iscious offering of cover art. As a side note, Wednesday also gave the chance to 13 lucky fans to have their names on each undead Brit’s helmet via ebay auction. Now we all know this helps out with productions costs but can you really think of a better way to get closer to your fans than to be able to have one say “Hey, you my name was printed on ghoul #13’s helmet?” I think not.

If you are starting up a band, take note, this is what a rock show is supposed to look like! For the love of Goth, don’t stand there catatonic and don’t stare at your feet for an hour and a half! This is a sure hit to any fan of horror rock. It is gritty, catchy, and high energy packed the way that a good rock show should be!

Fair warning!!! I don’t care how catchy the songs are, please remember that it isn’t a great idea to head bang to Wednesday 13 while your neck is broken!

5/5 Bloody Jack-o-lanterns

You can find more of Wednesday 13 here:

www.facebook.com/officialwednesday 13

wednesday 13 (officialwed13) on Twitter

or buy the official merchandise at:

http://morguethanmerch.com/

Renfield Rasputin needs more Vicodin.

The long awaited acoustic album, UnDead Unplugged, from Wednesday 13 has arrived! Finally fans have a chance to hear their favorite songs in a stripped down, pure, simple versions with the assistance of Mr. Jack Tankersley.

Clocking in at a little over 38 minutes with one new and ten previous released tracks, the album fails to disappoint. He has done acoustic country albums, remixed his previous released songs, and recently wrapped up an acoustic tour of jolly old England, so an acoustic release was inevitable. However just as you think that you have Wednesday 13 penned down, he pulls something like this out of his hat that people would not expect from the future king of horror rock. Wednesday’s sense of humor threads through all his albums, in which this time he parodies the original Whitesnake album cover!

Do you want to know what makes a great song? It is not the production; it is not the type of instruments used during tracking. It is if the song can hold up as an electrical version as well as it being played acoustically. If a song is written well, it will transform easily with little changes to the arrangement. Wednesday proves that much of his catalog ranging from his early days as in FDQ “Scary Song”, the days of Murderdolls “Welcome to the Strange” and “Nowhere”, as well as his newer auras “Ghost Stories”, can all wear the acoustic label because-they are great fucking songs that are well written! Period!

Recorded in his office/beat laboratory/dojo/Transylvania Studios, with help from Jack TankersIey engineering, and Brent Clawson mixing/mastering. The sound is up front in the speakers but yet so dynamic and well rounded. Seriously, I cannot stress how clean the tone is! This shit sounds better than a lot of acoustic songs that were recorded in 64 track digital studios. The acoustic guitars are bright while the vocals are tucked nicely into the mix. The songs are visited on a couple of occasions by a keyboard where appropriate to fill in the mix of melody but not used as a crutch, which would defeat the purpose all together.

Highlights of the album include “Haunt Me”, “Nowhere”, “Curse of Me”, “Scary Song”, and “Ghost Stories”. Not that the others don’t fall into the acoustic mold, these just resonate with haunting and ethereal sounds from the speakers. The only thing I think could be cooler than this is if it were to be released on vinyl!

This album is best heard with the lights turned down and the music turned up. Freak, geeks, and ghouls of all ages, plug in your electric flicker light bulbs inside your Funkin pumpkins and settle down with this one on the CD player. You won’t be disappointed! I don’t usually give such a high rating to a new release of previously released songs, but…

4.5/5 Jack-o-lanterns

You can dig up (see what I did there?) more dirt on Wednesday at:

www.facebook.com/officialwednesday 13

wednesday 13 (officialwed13) on Twitter

or buy the official merchandise at:

http://morguethanmerch.com/

Renfield Rasputin writes horror, plays in several Texas bands, keeps this site above water, and can be followed on Twitter where you can tell him to your heart’s content how much he sucks.