Album Review

Wednesday 13 - Undead, UnpluggedWednesday 13 – Undead, Unplugged

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

 Band Members

Wednesday 13
 Track Listing

1. Undead
2. Dead Carolina
3. Haunt Me
4. Nowhere
5. Morgue Than Words
6. Curse Of Me
7. Welcome To The Strange
8. Scary Song
9. We All Die
10. Ghost Stories
11. Transylvania 90210

 Band Related Links
Wednesday 13 Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?