GUNFIRE 76 ‘Casualties & Tragedies’ (Wednesday 13, LLC) RATING: 7.5/10

By GREG MAKI

KISS, New York Dolls, The Stooges—probably not the first bands that come to mind when you hear horror-rocker Wednesday 13 (formerly of Murderdolls, now a solo artist). Those influences have always been there; they’ve just been hidden by ghouls, corpses and movie monsters. So, needing a change of pace, Wednesday stripped those trappings away for his latest project, Gunfire 76, a pure rock band whose debut album, Casualties & Tragedies, is a lot of fun from front to back.

Gunfire 76 feels like a significant departure for Wednesday (reflected in the spare album cover, the punk-rock aesthetic of the liner notes and Wednesday’s new look—are those blonde streaks in his hair?), but the music itself is not such a radical change for him. It’s certainly more upbeat with a good-time vibe; if Wednesday’s earlier music is the ideal soundtrack for a Halloween party, you might want to blast Gunfire 76 at your summertime cookouts. Vocally, Wednesday goes for a smoother tone that allows him to be more of a singer than ever before, but his voice is unmistakable. The point is, subtle changes go a long way to creating a band with its own identity.

Casualties & Tragedies, with six songs co-written by Todd Youth (Murphy’s Law, D Generation, Danzig, Cheap Trick, The Chelsea Smiles) is no frills, no nonsense, and I’ll follow that cue for this review. Highlights include the title track, “Something for the Suffering,” “Tell You Like It Is” and “Get Me Through the Night.”

Wednesday 13 has diversified his resume in recent years, with the Southern rock/country side project Bourbon Crow and now Gunfire 76. There’s no way of predicting what he’ll do next, but whatever it is, I want to hear it.