Calabrese
13 Halloweens


4.5
superb

Review

by Alk3Misfit13 USER (3 Reviews)
December 2nd, 2011 | 7 replies


Release Date: 2005 | Tracklist

Review Summary: The sound of the Misfits and Alkaline Trio if they had a child that was named Lucifer.

Ah, Calabrese. As the apparent successor to the Misfits and self proclaimed greatest horror punk band, they would catch me by surprise in several ways. First off they really aren't that original in many ways. They takes the "whoa's" of the Misfits a little too far and add the powerchords and imagery of B-horror movies to all of their songs. So what makes them so good. The reason why I come back to this album over and over is that they are very good at what they excel at. Catchy melodies, palm muted chords, and the whoa's never get stagnant even though they are repeated throughout the entire album. Which leads me to Thirteen Halloween's, the debut album from this Arizona band.

The album starts off with Zombie I which was a good choice to start off the album for several reasons. A. It combines everything good about Calabrese, which is the infectious melodies coupled with the dark instrumentation albeit simple instrumentation. It also has good horror movie lyrics which would remind me of listening to Walk Among Us. Resurrection follows with an excellent spoken passage from a horror movie along with a excellent chorus. I won't explain it but another interesting aspect of the band is mixing in horror movie sound clips to add to the song's lyrics. The whole first half of the cd is superb, culminating in Midnight Spookshow which in my opinion would have been their first single if they were a bigger band.

The only thing that brings down the rest of the album is the songs at the end. Shrunken heads could have been a lot better and the beginning reminds me of Come Alive off their second album. The only problem for me is that Come Alive is a whole hell of a lot better, ironically, since Shrunken heads was created first. The only songs up to par from the first half in my opinion was Eyes Down with its great verse. Thats not to say the latter half of the album is bad but only inferior in quality.

So is this album as good as the Travelling Vampire Show, their second full length? No. Is it a worthy cd for people interested in horror punk or just punk in general? Yes. Calabrese and Blitzkid in my opinion are forging the next path of horror punk into the future. Yes, the Misfits would hopefully be proud after all.


user ratings (30)
3.8
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
Acanthus
December 3rd 2011


9812 Comments


Punctuation could use some work, as could the explanations/wording:

The reason why I come back to this album over and over is that they are very good at what they
excel at.


I can see where you were trying to go with this review, son you might be able to fully get there.

Yazz_Flute
December 3rd 2011


19174 Comments


There's a sexy girl at my school whose last name is Calabrese.

That'd be weird if she read this.

Eclecticist
December 3rd 2011


3863 Comments


You're reviewing needs some work but you clearly can describe what you hear although I have listened to this album in particular over 20 times and have never heard the 'Alkaline Trio' in the music. Personally I am a huge Calabrese fan so I fully support what you attempted to do here, they are an incredible band.

BallsToTheWall
December 3rd 2011


51592 Comments


Great band.

Digging: Fulci - Tropical Sun

Alk3Misfit13
December 4th 2011


5 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Thanks for the feedback. First review, so I'm trying to get the hang of it. I just have to get back to my days of writing papers for my AP english class to fix the puncts and sometimes awkward writing/ explanation.

Alk3Misfit13
December 4th 2011


5 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

And the reason I used alkaline trio is back when they were good circa Goddamnit! and Maybe I'll Catch Fire, they had a dark overtone to most of their songs i.e. Maybe I'll Catch Fire.

xfearbefore
November 10th 2014


2050 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Fun band, jammed "Resurrection" a lot this Halloween season.

Digging: Little Willie John - Fever



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