Horror goth-punk veteran Wednesday 13 has had
an fantastic journey in the music industry and
has fronted bands such as Frankenstein Drag Queens
From Planet 13, Murderdolls, Bourbon Crow, Gunfire
76 and his own Wednesday 13 work which seems him
head out on the road with a different backing
band every couple of years to make the project
come across like his own solo work and since his
first album release with the Frankenstein Drag
Queens From Planet 13 back in 1996 Wednesday 13
has gone on to release more albums and EP’s
than the majority of musicians his age or older.
Back in May Wednesday 13 headed over to the UK
with Roman Surman and Jack Tankersley from his
solo band for an acoustic tour titled “Undead,
Unplugged” the tour was a complete success
and saw Wednesday 13 play a full on sold out tour
across many intimate sized venues across the country
and now after the success of the tour Wednesdau
13 is putting out his first ever acoustic album
‘Undead, Unplugged’ which has nicely
been named after the tour of the same name.
Now over the years Wednesday 13 has released the
odd acoustic song as a b-side or on EP’s
but he has never gone all out on the acoustic
front until now and it seems like he has put a
lot of thought into things as ‘Undead, Unplugged’
features 11 tracks and they span right the way
through his musical catalogue with Frankenstein
Drag Queens, Murderolls and his solo Wednesday
13 material and the great thing is all 11 tracks
fit the move from full on rock ‘n roll to
stripped back and acoustic.
As soon as I put ‘Undead, Unplugged’
on I was hooked as the chilled out acoustic guitar
sounds spilled out of my speakers as Wednesday
13 softly sung “Undead” over and over
again during the song ‘Undead’ which
is a short and sweet song that sets the pace for
the next spooky 35minutes.
‘Haunt Me’ sounds so much better acoustic
than it does in full band electric format and
that is because Wednesday 13 goes all out with
his beautifully husky vocals as he strums his
acoustic guitar with everything sounding so soft
and gentle with a big spooky theme thanks to the
songs lyrical content and the way Wednesday 13
executes the vocals.
One of the first songs I ever heard from Wednesday
13 was ‘Scary Song’ which he released
way back in his Frankenstein Drag Queens From
Planet 13 days and the song is included here and
is still a good sing-a-long song now as it was
all those years ago.
‘Nowhere’ is an acoustic cover of
the classic Murderdolls song and despite it being
majorly toned down from the original version of
the song it is still instantly accessible and
pretty damn catchy. ‘Morque Than Words’
is easily one of the best tracks on the album
and once again has perfectly transformed from
a full on fast paced electronic song to a beautiful
sounding acoustic song where Wednesday 13’s
vocals shine. ‘We All Die’ is musically
beautiful sounding yet lyrically a morbid affair
about dying. Whilst album closer ‘Transylvania
90210’ flows ever so well whilst leaving
a big spooky feel over it.
With ‘Undead, Unplugged’ I feel that
Wednesday 13 has had the perfect chance to recreate
some of his best songs and he has done it ever
so perfectly as for the 38minute running of the
album he has your full attention as you sit there
wondering what he has up his sleeve for each and
every song as let’s face it he has managed
to recreate each song in such an enjoyable way,
and from listening to his vocals in a more stripped
down natural way I can official say that Wednesday
13 would be the perfect horror story reader, if
only you could hire him for Halloween parties.
4.5/5
Review by Trigger
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