Album Review: Wednesday 13 - The Dixie Dead

Ignoring the music momentarily, there's plenty to like about Wednesday 13. His work ethic, both on the road and in the studio, is admirable. He's always a blast to interview and interacts with fans via social media. Which is why it's disappointing that despite fleeting moments of quality, the sometime Murderdolls frontman's solo endeavours never really hit the mark. Perhaps we like the idea of him more than the horror-punker being a consistently strong songwriter.

Previous LP Calling All Corpses barely found a pulse and Wednesday clearly missed 'Dolls partner-in-crime Joey Jordison as a musical foil. This is a heavier-sounding improvement; chiefly because at least there's the equivalent of an EP of respectable tunes. Although the vocalist's tastes in horror are more obscure, cuts like groove-laden Get Your Grave On could wind up on the next season of True Blood. Rollicking Blood Sucker (“I'm a blood sucker, motherfucker” is tailor-made for T-shirt sloganeering) comes out of the gate sounding hungry for more than just bodily fluids, and the stomping title track's memorable and atmospheric Ghost Stories is infectious. The rest is rather tepid and sometimes forgettable; the title of Mötley spinoff Too Fast For Blood raises a chuckle, but that's all. There ultimately aren't too many songwriting tricks up the proverbial sleeves as again this record too often resorts to simplistic, overly repetitious choruses and riffage, without adequate genuine hooks to sink the teeth into. Cartoonish lyrics are goofy as often as they are endearing (tongue-in-cheek break-up track Fuck You (In Memory Of)).

Diehards will dig the adherence to a well-worn formula, but selected parts should have been buried and left alone instead.