Wednesday 13 - Horrifier
The idea of âshock-rockâ is nothing new, especially when itâs been a thing since the early 1960s, but popularized by Alice Cooper in the mid-70s, namely 1975âČs masterpiece Welcome To My Nightmare. Certain bands and artists incorporate elements of shock-rock from all walks of rock and metal, including Rob Zombie, Korn, Slipknot, Cannibal Corpse, and a lot more, but a band like Wednesday 13 takes on good old-fashioned 70s shock-rock. Iâve heard of Wednesday 13, who is also the name of the bandâs frontman and main member, but I never listened to them before. I just knew they were a shock-rock band, and their sound was really spooky and Halloween-inspired, so hearing a new album from them in the beginning of October should be a great idea, right?
Well, yes and no, but first and foremost, their new album, Horrifier, is a pretty good album. I enjoy it quite a bit, but itâs got some issues, namely that itâs just super generic. If you like Alice Cooper and/or Rob Zombie, youâll like this album, but thatâs all I can tell you. There are some nice moments, a song about the late Joey Jordison and his late mother, as well as songs about the Halloween franchise and the movie Christine, but the generic songs about Halloween itself, or spooky things, donât do anything for me, especially a song like âYouâre So Hideous,â which has some weirdly misogynistic lyrics, but the instrumentation is at least good.
Thatâs how Iâd describe most of this album, too; the instrumentation is good, albeit generic, but the lyrics range from pretty decent to being outright awful. I just donât have much of a desire to return to the album because of that. At leats the album is really short, only 39 minutes, so itâs not a long record, but if youâre willing to sit through a lot of generic tropes within shock-rock, youâll be okay with this album. On the surface, the album isnât half bad, and even when you dig into it, itâs still not bad, and itâs even kind of catchy here and there, but itâs just really bland. Itâs like, why listen to this album you can just listen to Rob Zombie or Alice Cooper? Iâd rather just listen to Cooperâs Welcome To My Nightmare or Rob Zombieâs Hellbilly Deluxe, because those will give me a better reaction. This isnât horrible, but itâs also nothing noteworthy, either.