Til death do us party!
Wednesday 13 returns with his follow up to the well received 'Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying and the Dead' with the equally morbid 'Fang Bang'.
There are elements of everything in this release, Wednesday 13 has always worn his influences proudly on his sleeve and this is no different. Take one part Misfits, some early Wildhearts (think 'Splattermania'), several doses of Alice Cooper mixed with Twisted Sister and you're just about ready. Underneath it all is just good old solid rock and roll, there's nothing fancy about it, no day long solos, just balls out rock with plenty of punk attitude and on that level it works very well.
There are plenty of big choruses, plenty of big guitars and rather predictably most, no wait, all of the songs are about death or something closely related to death. The lyrics are rather obvious and it does get a little repetitive after a while but if you take it for what it is then Wednesday 13's latest album is just fine. There are some humorous moments such as "Let me wipe those maggots from your eyes... rigor mortis has been kind to you and left you in a sexy pose" and it's all done rather tongue in cheek. It's not exactly intellectually challenging, quite the opposite at times and there are a couple of weak tracks but it's solid enough overall.
The stand out moment is probably 'Haddonfield', a great chorus that is reminiscent of The Wildhearts that is followed by equally strong tracks 'Too Much Blood' and 'Till Death Do Us Party'. There's a surprising but welcome Hammond style organ part in 'Die Sci-Fi' and it finishes the album on a high note.
The bonus track is a cover of Motorhead's Ramones tribute song and it's no surprise that it only appears as a bonus track as it's a poor version and not a patch on the original (check it out on the 1916 album!).