Gunfire 76 – Casualties & Tragedies

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Wednesday 13 has never made his love of 1970s rock ‘n’ roll bands like KISS, Alice Cooper and Ramones a secret, and Gunfire 76 is his stab at making that kind of rock music. Along with fellow ’70s child Todd Youth from label-mates The Chelsea Smiles he’s successfully brought all those influences together, with a little ’80s flair, into one truly retro, catchy rock ‘n’ roll record with updated production values. The stand-out highlight is the slower, brooding Cooper-isms of Something For The Suffering, but there are equal measures of Ramones’ raucousness (Nothing’s All I Need, One More Reason To Hate You), more crafted lyricism and guitar-work (Los Angel-Less) and straight-ahead KISS rockers (Let’s Kill The Hero, Rocket To Nowhere, What Did You Expect?). Cooper is the strongest influence of them all (see especially closing “ballad” Get Me Through The Night), but hints of the others are prevalent at times, and above all Wednesday and Todd do an excellent job of making a coherent record of original songs in a well-used style. The live show should be immense fun, where the band will no doubt play most of these songs, and perhaps either some Wednesday 13 solo material or even some covers by the bands whose influence can be most strongly felt on this material.

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Gunfire 76