EP REVIEW: Necrophaze – Antidote – Wednesday 13
Everything that can be done musically, has already been done. However, that doesn’t mean the scene doesn’t have a constant flow of fresh perspectives taken from different angles to make it feel as if everything is new, up and coming, and exciting; this genre mixed with that genre gives way to sub-genres; this artist mixed with that artist births a lovechild; and that band mixed with this band creates a Frankenstein Monster of originality. One artist that is dipping his black nail-painted hands into the cookie jar of rock and metal delights is the North Carolina-born WEDNESDAY 13, back with a four-track EP titled Necrophaze – Antidote.
Since dabbling in numerous musical outfits on and offstage for years prior as part of MANIAC SPIDER TRASH, FRANKENSTEIN DRAG QUEENS FROM PLANET 13 and fronting MURDERDOLLS, Necrophaze – Antidote incorporates a wealth of knowledge and experience into one circus of exhilarating horrors, complete with the soundtrack to the agonising screams of knife-throwing, fire-eating, and body-sawing.
From the school playground to the workplace lunch room, jokes about our mothers have been making us feel uncomfortable and provoking us to see red for millennia, like a bull and matador, and will more than likely be having the same affect on us for much longer still. If you are the type of person to brush off insults like a speck of dust on the shoulder of a well-ironed shirt however, then opening track Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks in Hell will be a welcomed gag (pun-intended) on your otherwise dreary and uneventful Friday night. With the glam metal and punk angst of HANOI ROCKS and the vocal grit of ALICE COOPER‘s nightmare allure, the appeal of this acceptable ridicule will not be lost on you.
Hard rock swagger and gravelly guitar notes soaked in distortion stumbles around in Screwdriver 2 – The Return. The monotonous lyric “screwdriver” acts as the musical embodiment of repetitively sticking “it in your head,” as the lyrics attempt to coax you into doing just that.
Devil Inside utilises nu-metal guitar work and sinister tribal drum beats that emphasise confrontation, sparking up comparisons to UGLY KID JOE’s God Damn Devil. The vocals take on a sleazier edge, slithering like the imminent threat of a snakebite amidst the lyrics: “Here comes the man, look in his eyes/ Fed on nothing, but full of pride.” Following on from a metalcore inspired breakdown, electronic white noise crescendos in and out as the track fades away into the corners of darkness.
Keeping with the horror fiend-ROB ZOMBIE aesthetic, soothing white noise and bass lines allow us to let our guard down and revel in a moment of vulnerability in Films, if only for a brief and fleeting second as sharp string sections begin to create an ongoing uncomfortable atmosphere. The common narrative of a drama queen and difficult-to-work-with character claims that they “don’t like the scenery, pull it all down,” in a continuously occurring twisted episode of exposure and fragility.
WEDNESDAY 13 holds their cards close to their chest, the magic trick of Necrophaze – Antidote dumbfounding those who may not have been paying close enough attention to the doppelgänger’s and tricksters that manipulate what our senses may pick up on.
Rating: 6/10
Necrophaze – Antidote is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.
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