As soon as you begin spinning Skeletons, the third album by Horror Punker Wednesday 13, you will realize that the effort is far heavier than Fang Bang and more along the lines of his work as one of The Murderdolls. That's not a bad thing at all since that stuff was rather good but when he morphed its morbid style deeper into his love of zombies and other things that go bump in the night the end result was quite interesting. Skeletons comes across as the singers most personal album to date as well and instead of dealing with movie monsters and grave robbing transvestites he deals with his own personal demons and matters that vividly bring to the front his own bout with depression. It opens up with "Scream Baby Scream" and he welcomes us to creature feature number thirteen – the track is the perfect intro music for the dark ride into his psychotic psyche and seems to line out quite a bit about his identity and raison d'etre. "Not Another Teenage Anthem" is more along the lines of stuff we got from "Fang Bang" and I rather enjoyed it since he was letting the listener know that this was apparently not your typical walk in the dark alley that he always managed to guide us through in relative safety. He did the same with "From Here To The Hearse" as it is loaded with the twisted display of love gone horribly wrong and a perfectly typical W13 twisted bit of wordplay. The album's title track "Skeletons" really seems to open the closet doors on Wednesday's inner being quite a bit as he sings about talking to them and how they are continually exposing his darkest secrets. His line about "the only thing that is real is the feeling that he doesn't feel" is rather deep and showcases this as perhaps his most biographical track to date.
My favorite tune comes next with "My Demise" and it's a powerful Gothic slow rocker that might very well be one of Wednesday 13's best songs out of all his work. The mood of the song is quite dark and laden with despair but the chorus and main riff deliver a cryptic power. It's a tune that I hope he does live, because it sounds like it would be good in concert. Another winner is "No Rabbit In The Hat" and this tune is bursting with energy and I can see the audience going insane for this one live as well. "All American Massacre" has a little bit of that Southern Metal vibe to it and perhaps his Outlaw Country album "Bourbon Crow" was the root cause of this. The album was recorded by Wednesday 13 who plays all guitars and handles all of the vocals along with Nate Manor (bass) and Racci Shay (drums). In the live sense at the moment W13's band is complimented by the guitar talents of Jaysin Trioxin and Acey Slade while Johnny Chops pounds out the drums. It's safe to say that the hard core fans of W13 will enjoy the release because that is the kind of fan base that the singer has the luxury of having but I also felt that the casual and curious listener might did into this one as it is not as kitsch as some of his other work. This one is a whole lot more serious and brooding and while has some tongue in cheek references there is a lot more along the lines of serious overtones and music being delivered. The other important thing to note about the album is that it is the first release as an independent artist. Wednesday 13 chose not to sign any sort of record contract for this one so fans are all encouraged to grab a copy of this one via the provided legal means as doing otherwise really would affect the performers pocket instead of some massive corporation. The follow up to Skeletons will be an EP entitled Bloodwork and also be released independently. Make sure you catch one of his shows live as he is really an entertaining performer.
Track Listing
1. Scream Baby Scream
2. Not Another Teenage Anthem
3. Gimme Gimme Bloodshed
4. From Here To The Hearse
5. Put Your Death Mask On
6. Skeletons
7. My Demise
8. With Friends Like These
9. No Rabbit In The Hat
10. All American Massacre
11. Dead Carolina
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