Throwback Thursday: “Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying and the Dead” by Wednesday 13

“Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying and the Dead” was released in April 2005, the follow up to The Murderdolls 2002 debut album “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls” and Wednesday 13‘s major label debut. Saying “debut” is hilarious because Wednesday 13 had already released 6 albums under the moniker Wednesday 13 and the Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 before meeting Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison and forming The Murderdolls supergroup. The album itself is the same celebration fusion of snot-nosed punk, hard rock and glam-metal with camp horror film nuances and lyrics – otherwise known as Horror Punk. Whereas The Murderdolls album re-worked existing Wednesday 13 songs, “Transylvania” was all new material. The album is a fine balance of atmospherics and music that brings to mind black and white hammer horror films of the past while still keeping things fresh. You only need to look at the song titles to see the tongue in cheek nature of of the material at hand and that continues into the songs as Wednesday 13 demonstrates his ability as a song writer as well as a frontman and guitarist. If anything “Transylvania” proves that it was Wednesday 13 and not Joey Jordison who was the powerhouse behind The Murderdolls material. There are also lot of songs here that have subsequently translated well into acoustic numbers for the “Undead Unplugged” tours. Most of the album has a sing-a-long quality that will keep you coming back to it. It has a balance and flow that some of Wedneday 13’s subsquent material lacks and treads a fine line between all the different styles on show here. It’s a great album.

Tracklist

1. Post Mortem Bordom
2. Look At What The Bats Dragged In
3. I Walked With A Zombie
4. Bad Things
5. House By The Cemetery
6. God Is A Lie
7. Haunt Me
8. Transylvania 90210
9. I Want You… Dead
10. Buried By Christmas
11. Elect Death For President
12. Rot For Me
13. The Ghost Of Vincent Price
14. A Bullet Named Christ

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