Ah Wednesday 13. This generation’s Alice Copper returns with the follow up to 2022’s excellent Horrifier and it’s another top-notch slab of day-glo theatrical horror – part House Of A Thousand Corpses part Schools Out – offering a harder rocking, less introspective counterpart to its predecessor. Produced by guitarist Alex Kane, who clearly knows how to get the best out of Wednesday, Mid Death Crisis is one of those park-your-bullshit-at-the-door-and-rock kind of albums – the sort of thing that W.A.S.P. used to do so damn well, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun throughout.
As we have come to expect, the album kicks off with a brief, cinematic introduction that finds Wednesday intoning “there’s no such thing as monsters” over an oozing synth line. Of course, we all know that monsters exist, and Wednesday goes on to prove it with full-tilt rocker Decease And Desist. Hard-punning title notwithstanding, it’s a Wednesday classic that neatly combines the best elements of Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, the sneering vocal perfectly complemented by the track’s blistering riff. If that doesn’t do it for you (although, frankly, it’s hard to imagine how it couldn’t), then When The Devil Commands will seal the Faustian deal, with its hard-edged vocal, gang-chant chorus, and mid-tempo riff.
Keeping the pace taut, Rotting Away drops the industrial shenanigans to deliver the sort of thrills that made The Crimson Idol so special. A genuine Sunset Strip anthem, it sets the pulse racing, and it’s great to hear Wednesday and his band having so much obvious fun. Next, Taime Downe (Faster Pussycat) drops in to lend a hand on the gloriously unashamed No Apologies, a song that packs in all the attitude you might expect of such a collaboration. Finally, Decapitation rounds out side one on a high, with the sort of bruising punk anthem that Duff liked to riff on during the Use Your Illusion tour (see: Attitude), only to throw in a wonderfully incongruous doo-wop bridge that will leave you grinning from ear to ear.
Opening side two, In Misery is one of the album’s rare missteps. A little too reliant on a simplistic chorus, it doesn’t help that the line “I’m in misery, in misery with you” recalls Metallica’s ill-advised “I’m madly in anger with you” hook, and it works about as well. Fortunately, the explosive Blood Storm is waiting in the wings and, from its mid-tempo, Dio-esque introduction to its gang-chant verses, it’s a blast. The awkwardly titled Xanaxtasy keeps the album moving neatly forward with a straight up Alice-rocker complete with a chorus that’ll live rent-free in your head for weeks. Rather more surprising is the emotionally charged I Hurt You – a rare glimpse into Wednesday’s darker musings and one of the album’s most powerful tracks. Things get heavier on the grinding My Funeral, which is delivered with skeletal glee, before Sick And Violent wraps things up, Wednesday 13 essentially delivering his own epitaph in the form of a rampant rocker that leaves the album on a high.
Another strong effort from ghoulish shock rocker Wednesday 13, Mid Death Crisis is simply a lot of fun. A rollercoaster ride through a house of horrors with Wednesday stood astride the front carriage screaming at its inhabitants, it’s a short sharp escape from reality packed with hooks and an irresistibly swaggering attitude. Great stuff! 8.5/10
