Review by Phil Rozier for MPM
Just go right ahead and buy it! Don’t question it, don’t read reviews to find out whether you might like it. I’m telling you, you’ll like it. Just hit that download button right now! Then go buy the vinyl and listen to it again. Don’t dilly daddle, have you done it yet!?
But, if you do want to know why I’m so positive about this record, you could read on.
I am biased, for sure. But isn’t biased just another way for saying ‘I like something because…’ I like this record, and Wednesday 13, because they’re awesome! What’s not to like about a theatrical, fast paced, horror influenced, shock punk rock n roll party? Whack on the makeup, add some cool hats, get ya stage swagger on, and strap yaself in for one of the best live recordings I’ve heard for a long time.
Ok, lets’ stop drooling and bring it back down to earth again. If you’re a regular Metal Planet reader, then thank you! But, more importantly, you would have noticed the regular coverage yours truly has given to Wednesday 13. From reviewing the last album, ‘Mid Death Crisis’, to the following UK tour, which took me to Islington, to then following them out East to South End earlier this year on the pre Blood Stock Festival warm up show. Both those shows, and this live recording from Poland Rock in 2025, are pretty much the same set list. It was almost as if Wednesday himself thought ‘that Phil fella has been to a few of our shows, maybe I’ll make him a recording of one of them’. Well, if that is the case, ta very much Mr Wedensday!
So we crack straight on with this 15 track masterpiece, which is technically 14 songs and a bit of an opening tape intro. I’ve already got goosebumps. Last time I heard this opening tape I was crammed into a bar in South End on Sea. Shoved against the barriers, I was lucky enough to have a photo pass of this ‘pitless’ venue. Which means, with no photo pit, you are basically on stage with the band, feeling the heat and tasting the sweat. ‘Look at What the Bat Dragged In’ explodes onto the stage with that descending riff and palm muting. Loud, distinct, and accompanied by that crisp rasp of the vocal. Aggressive, angry, and yet playful at the same time, I think this band have got it all going on.
There’s no hanging about as we go into the equally chugging ‘Too Fast for Blood’. As a band, there’s always something to watch; whether it be Troy’s bass antics combined with that hair (check out the South End review, as I’ve actually eaten some of that hair!), or if the tubs is your thing, then red haired Mike Dupke is surely one of the greatest theatrical drummers on tour.
‘To say that I hate you, that would be too fucking nice…. I pray to God up in heaven, that he’d take your life’. Lyrics of the last studio records ‘Rotting Away’. Whilst obviously not deemed as a friendly vocal, the song is a punk fun high end joyful ditty that has crowds totally pumped. Who would have thought that praying for another’s untimely death could be so cathartic. ‘I can’t wait until you’re in your grave and rotting away’.
This live recording moves at pace and ‘I want You Dead’ and ‘When the Devil Commands’ absolutely thunder along. The speed and double kicks of the former, and then balanced by the heavy thudding of the latter create a ride that just keeps you motivated to carry on rockin’. With a good balance of crowd song, along with the clarity from the stage, Wednesday 13 himself is always the showman. It’s probably somewhere at this point in the show where his cape is lost and the red acrylic tie is being thrown aside. Who else can get away with wearing a cape and a tie to work? Not many, that’s for sure.
Aaaargh!!!! ‘As the day light died on the Summer Time Suicide!’. Screams from the crowd, and perhaps a little scream from me on this Friday evening whilst I enjoy my cup of tea, which taste surprisingly like red wine. This anthemic banger has the crowds soaring in volume across the Polish festival fields. Whilst a back catalogue classic from Wednesday’s initial outing in The Murder Dolls, this amazing song just gets better with age.
As the crowd is encouraged to raise their horns, shout for the devil, and ‘666’ is echoed across the audio, ‘197666’ is just another constantly moving rattler of a track. I feel like I could do with a breather, and timely too, as the dark voice of ‘There’s no Such Thing as Monsters’ is projected into the sunset before ‘In Misery’ builds from its ‘gentle’ start before creating a frenzy amongst the tens of thousands of shock rockers in the arena. One of my fav tracks from the last album.
From perhaps the darkest track on the recording, to maybe one of the most upbeat, ‘A Good Day to Be a Bad Guy’ is total crowd pleaser. After all, who doesn’t want a unison of rock fans shouting ‘It’s a Good Day, to be Fucking Bad Guy’. Clapping along, singing along, cheering, raising the horns, spilling your beer, and singing about hurting others. Sounds a pretty odd combination, and it’s not a socially accepted way to behave in most places. But, attend a Wednesday 13 show, and the evil macabre associated with antisocial behaviour, is somehow turned into a thoroughly welcoming party.
I’m kind of sad, as track 12, dedicated to the Godfather of Metal, Ozzy Osbourne, reminds us that whilst time is of the always, our allotted portion of that infinite measurement, comes and goes pretty damn quickly. And, to top it off, there’s only 2 tracks left of this raucously fun shock rock live event.
Track 13 takes us back over 25 years to the album ‘Transylvania 90210’ and ‘I walked with a Zombie’ is a proper party banger. Fresh, fast, crowd involving; it’s comedy on stage with arms out zombie walking. The whoah whoah whoah’s that see the song close, are just the perfect mix of classic rock blended with the less than common approach to that which is sits uncomfortably within us all.
I almost feel bad putting pen to paper, when I write things like ‘I Want bad Things to Happen to You’, but it’s just a song title, honestly! Even Wednesday himself asks the audience not to take it personally, as he roars the lyrics towards the close of the show.
Have you ever seen an umbrella with a picture of a hand giving it the finger painted on it? And then, imagine the umbrella being closed, and every time it opens, the finger extends creating comedy value. Sounds ridiculous when you try to explain it, but, add this little stage gag, to Wednesday, Troy, Mike, Roman and Jack’s chorus of ‘Fuck!, Fuck!, Fuck!’ and you’ve got the totally engaging way to end any show. Seriously, what’s not to like. I’m giggling outload at the thought of it.
And that’s it, it’s done. With hardly any tracks exceeding the 4 minute mark, this isn’t a theatrical prog rock of storey telling, flutes and spaceships. Leave that for others. Wednesday 13 as a band, have elements of Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Marylin Manson to name the obvious ones. Add in some pop punk, a huge amount of stage presence, imagery and theatrics, and then create songs about such darkness that others wouldn’t go near. It isn’t until you repeat the lyrics outload, you realise the depth and darkness to the influences, and yet, a Wednesday 13 show is nothing but a raucous, loud, punk fuelled night out. And this live recording has captured all of that, including the pop-up umbrella. It isn’t just a live album, its captured, for me anyway, a memory. I’m going to go and play it again.
If you want to experience the delights of Wednesday 13, then check them out on their UK tour later this year in December.
