A companion piece to 2019’s well-received Necrophaze, Antidote is a four-track EP of horror-themed mayhem that will bring a smile to the most cadaverous of ghouls. A mere fourteen-minutes in length, it sees Wednesday 13 having a (monster’s) ball as he unleashes a series of tawdry tales backed by typically tasty riffs.
Oh, come on, who doesn’t love a good “your mom” joke? Wednesday 13 certainly does, and so the EP kicks off with three minutes’ worth of them on Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks In Hell. Set to a soundtrack of prime Motley Crue, with a dash of G’n’R thrown in for good measure, there’s nothing here that you haven’t heard before (hell, it’s the eighties all over again), but it’s impossible to deny the cheeky panache with which Wednesday 13 tears into the song, and it makes for a suitably goofy opening number. A heavier track, Screwdriver 2 – The Return is built around a pile-driver riff and gang-chant vocals. At only two minutes in length, the band still manage to pack in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it solo, and it makes for an EP highlight, thanks to its smash ‘n’ grab approach. The longest track, Devil Inside opens with rolling thunder percussion and then shifts through the gears from Danzig to Twisted Sister and back again with sinister glee. It’s catchy as hell (as, indeed, are all the tracks here) and it feels a good deal shorter than the five minutes for which it runs. The EP ends with a crushing cover of Gary Numan’s Films, here given an apocalyptic makeover of which Gary would surely approve. It features a guest spot from Alice Cooper’s daughter, Calico, who adds a touch of ethereal class to the otherwise bludgeoning proceedings; and it marks a suitably fitting end to the filmic approach taken on the Necrophaze album.
At four-tracks and fourteen minutes, Necrophaze – Antidote is a short, sharp blast of Wednesday 13 that will prove irresistible to fans of its parent album. Wednesday 13 is at his debauched best here, from the gleefully irreverent Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks In Hell to the well-executed cover of Gary Numan, all of which makes this a more than worthy addition to any hard rock collection. 8/10
