Full confession; I dig Wednesday 13. I wanted to tackle this because I searched and did not find a single review for him on the site. That’s cool. I get it. His material is definitely more horror punk than metal. If this sums it up well for you, a good friend of mine, after we saw him live said; “He reminds me a lot of Alice Cooper back in the day.” Fair. That bill also had Static-X and Dope.

What you’re getting here is a new ep titled Necrophaze-Antidote, following up on the 2019 release Necrophaze. This is only a total of 4 songs, including 2 covers, so this should be a breeze to cover, right?

The first one is an homage to perhaps the best horror film of all time, entitled “Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks in Hell.” Hot, right? If you don’t know to which movie that is a reference, then you’re probably not even a horror fan. This is a quick burst of horror punk, which somehow makes the title/chorus catchy. Well done, yet not outstanding.

The following track, “Screwdriver 2,” a sequel to “Screwdriver,” which is a song by Wednesday 13’s previous band, Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13. It’s a quick horror punk burst of a little over 2 minutes, and it’s mostly chorus.

The truth is that the following track, “Devil Inside,” which is an INXS cover (can anyone check to see if they’ve ever been mentioned on the site before?) is also the high point of the album. This is one of those covers where I thought it sounded familiar as I was listening (without beforehand checking to see if it was a cover), then the chorus of course made me check. It’s good enough to where it’s faithful to the original, but Wednesday 13 also puts his own spin on it.

The last song on this EP is also a cover, specifically Gary Numan’s “Films,” and features Calico Cooper (daughter of shock rock legend Alice Cooper). As this track is mostly instrumental, one could wonder why it was chosen to cover. It’s just kind of there.

Look, the conclusion is that this is not exactly worthy of one’s first foray into all things Wednesday 13, and as a fan, I find it quite disposable. However, there’s a lot to love in his catalog. I highly recommend checking out Skeletons, Condolences, and the previously mentioned Necrophaze, which is the best album of his career. Pick that up and forget about this. If you’re into that horror punk vibe, I personally don’t believe there’s anyone out there doing it better than Wednesday 13, live show included.

[Visit the band's website]

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