I have always been a firm believer that Wednesday 13 have never really been treated with the respect they deserve to be. I’ll openly admit that I fell in love with the band the very first time I heard ‘I Walked With A Zombie’. That led me to their finest album to date – their debut album – but that may have changed now as their latest album – Necrophaze – is brilliant and may have just claimed that top spot.
The reason that Necrophaze works so well is that the band manages to bring together everything that has made them so special over the years. While a track like ‘Life Will Kill Us All’ obviously comes from the emotional situation the band found themselves in after the death of close friend Killjoy earlier this year there are other tracks to be found here that are pure Wednesday 13 fun. ‘Bring You Own Blood’ and ‘The Hearse’ are catchy as hell and are the perfect playlist partners for ‘I Walked With A Zombie.’ The fact that Wednesday 13 can mix heartfelt tracks alongside fun tracks like that just shows how much the band has evolved over the years.
As a band it feels like Wednesday 13 are also doing more to vary their style throughout the album as well. Opening track ‘Necrophaze’ feels like an infusion of the traditional Wednesday 13 sound with some pure industrial metal (with help from the legend himself Alice Cooper), while ‘Bury The Hatchet’ boasts a more punk sound… with lyrics to match. Then there is the brutal cover of W.A.S.P’s ‘Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)’ (which also features vocals from Alexi Laiho from Children Of Bodom) that closes that album out. If the band is asking if we would like more tracks like that in the future… then the answer is ‘yes please.’
That willingness to experiment also sees the band use the vocals of Christina Scabbia on the brilliant ‘Monster’ while the clear best track on the album is ‘Zodiac.’ With lyrics revolving around the zodiac killer case, a style that makes it feel like a horror movie and a sound that makes it feel like Rob Zombie is somehow involved this is a side of Wednesday 13 that just makes you fall in love with them all over again.
Necrophaze is a brilliant album that shows that Wednesday 13 are just getting better and better with age. With the now traditional feel of an old horror movie lingering around the album and a willingness to push their sound this is an album that is going to become a firm favourite for their most hardened fans.
4/5 Stars
