I must admit that I never was too head over heals for Punk Rock bands, especially coming from the U.S, probably because of the tee-hee-yay-yay extremely cheerful gayish vocals and rhythm most of these bands had (and have). I always thought that if I wanted to listen to something cheerful I'd put some Gamma Ray or Stratovarious on. Nevertheless I remember listening to Murderdolls about a year ago (or more) and there was something there that stood out of the pile of maggots. Maybe it's Wednesday 13's dirty voice...maybe that's why I also think his debut solo work, Transylvania 90210: Songs Of Death, Dying And The Dead, is pretty good!
Straight out of Horrorwood, Wednesday 13's Punk Rock meets the grungiest sounds of Metal effort marks his first solo shot apart from Murderdolls. In early 2002 Slipknot's drummer, Joey Jordison decided to do something slightly (uhm) different and transformed into the guitarist of his new side-band, the Murderdolls. Joining Jordison would be guitarist Tripp Eisen (Teeze, Roughhouse, Lovesick, Dope, Rejects and Static-X), bassist Erik Griffin and drummer Ben Graves. In August 2002, the Murderdolls released Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls through Roadrunner Records. Previous to that Wednesday 13 was in a band called Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 (what a name, huh?) and released The Late, Late, Late Show (1996),  Night Of The Living Drag Queens (1998), Songs From the Recently Deceased (2000), Viva Los Violence (2001) and last year's 6 Years, 6 Feet Under the Influence. In his solo band, Wednesday 13 brought in guitarist Ikky, from his previous band I just mentioned, Kid Kid on bass, formerly lead vocalist and founder of Lunatic Candy Kreep, with Ghastly on the drums.
You could say that Transylvania 90210: Songs Of Death, Dying And The Dead reminds me quite a lot of the Murderdolls but that's natural since Wednesday 13's got a very characteristic voice plus he roams the same scary musical paths in all the bands he sings in. If I'd characterize this music, I'd rather use a term like B-Movie Horrorwood Rock rather than Punk Rock meets Metal. Why? Because all the songs evolve around this issue, horror. From the atmosphere to Wednesday 13's screechy and dirty vocals. Produced and directed by Mr. 13 himself, Transylvania 90210: Songs Of Death, Dying And The Dead could easily be a horror b-movie's soundtrack or it could even stand as something profound...like a Horror album concept kind of thing.
Maybe this kind of music doesn't appeal to all the Rock/Metal fans yet I do think that if you're a horror movie maniac like me (combined with a taste for Rock/Metal in general), you would probably observe that this kind of music, this way of presenting it...has nothing to do with the typical, prom night American Punk Rock kind of thing.
...keep reminding yourself 'It's only a recording'...
- Album Highlights: House By The Cemetary, God Is A Lie, Haunt Me, I Want You...Dead (best track on the album), Buried By Christmas and Rot For Me.