Wednesday 13 - Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying, And the Dead - [Roadrunner Records]

2006-01-14

Wednesday 13 is a strange line-up that is being led by the Murderdolls vocalist. At most times, the band plays Hard Rock, puts on make-up like Marilyn Manson(although on their last few shows in the Netherlands they dressed up as Kiss when they took the stage) and sings about death in the most funny and peculiar way possible. Wednesday 13, like Marilyn Manson, is named after her vocalist who also plays the guitar, and alongside him there are Kid Kid the bass player, Ghastly the drummer and Pig on the lead guitars.

Wednesday isn't a freshman when it comes to the music world. He started off with a band called Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, and after everything for it he was summoned by the Murderdolls. In that band he was at first their bass player, but when they realized the potential this guy has they promoted him to lead singer. Everybody knows about the success of the Murderdolls, but ever since the end of 2003 the Murderdolls were brought to a halt because the band's founder, the drummer Joey Jordison, went back to his original band, Slipknot, for recordings and a world tour. Wednesday, who meanwhile disbanded his original band secluded himself, and a year ago he emerged with a hundred songs from which fourteen were selected for this album.
The album displays old-fashioned Hard Rock, with a hint of Twisted Sister and Alice Cooper. It also throws in the mix some Punk(as can be heard on God Is A Lie), a little Metal, cartoons and horror movies, and if you think that's crazy, you haven't heard anything yet. On I Walked With A Zombie, which has a clip too, the band claps all of a sudden to accompany Wednesday's singing, and thus adds the fun dimension to Rock. Bad Things is next, also a song with a clip, and it sounds like a heavy Alice Cooper wishing all the worst to someone he hates. House By The Cemetery sounds like a soundtrack for a horror movie. Haunt Me is another Alice Cooper-like song where we find Wednesday's call for his love to return on Halloween. The parodies on death and the horror movies continue on Transylvania 90210, the theme song of the album. It's a kind of mix between Dracula(movies and music), death(plastic caskets are mentioned here frequently) and Beverly Hills 90210.

I Want You Dead is without a doubt the most Metallic song of the album(only Rot For Me and The Ghost Of Vincent Price can compete), with a blend of Thrash Metal and Nu Metal which reminds us of Wednesday's old band, the Murderdolls. Wednesday's sick sense of Humor returns on Buried By Christmas, where he asks for a casket with pads and velvet. Pig's excellent solo is also worth mentioning here.
The next song is one of the most controversial songs on the album. Elect Death For President sees Wednesday composing an election campaign for death, and without intention, he writes a political song that is not what he is best known for.

The album ends with the song A Bullet Named Christ, a song with a supposedly spooky environment that draws the listener into the dark, and with the piano sounds and Wednesday's whispering voice you really can turn off everything and go to bed.

Nir Haviv