Thirteen

***Thirteen*** is the second album by October Noir, originally released on October 1, 2019. The remaster version of this album was released on May 15, 2021. The songs on this album are described as having gothic and doom metal rhythms and riffs overlaid with autumnal melodies, leaving them with dark and haunted feelings. The title was taken from the role-playing game *Vampire: The Masquerade* and within it 13 Clans portrayed the writing of the lyrics.

## Production

The production of this album began just after the holidays of 2018–19. Before the production had gotten underway, the album title and the cover art were revealed on the official Facebook page. All of the writing, recording, mixing, and mastering took place in Tom Noir's residence. To go along with the title, it was proposing to have 13 tracks on this album, but due to time restraints and the length of those songs, it was cut down to 10 and the three missing songs will be released on EP or the next album.

The songs were remastered and reimagined one of its tracks "Her Dark Embrace"; they were released on May 15, 2021, 19½ months after the original release.

### Length

Although the album contains just 10 songs, it lasts a total of 1 hour 26 minutes and 48 seconds, that's 8 minutes and 40 seconds per track. Due to the tremendous lengths, 8 out of 10 songs had their lengths reduced by an average of 54 seconds in order to fit on the CD, whose length limit is 80 minutes, while all the digitally released tracks remain uncut.

## Title and cover art

The title of this album, *Thirteen*, was originated from 13 Clans featured within the tabletop role-playing game *Vampire: The Masquerade* by White Wolf that Tom Noir is fascinated with since childhood.

The album cover prominently shows the stone arch that is the entryway to the cemetery. It shows the bright orange moon shining on one spot on the pathway in an otherwise green darkness. To make the cover art creepier, couple of bats are shown. The tombstone is seen through the fence on the right.

## Musical style and lyrics

*Thirteen* continues the musical style left off from *The Haunting and the Powerful* with autumn-styled melodies and strong Type O Negative influences throughout. The keyboards produce the eerie tones that help flavor the music with haunted feelings that is associated with the month of October. The common genres heard on this album are gothic metal, doom metal, haunted metal, and gothic rock. The song lyrics on this album deal mainly with familial matters, love, loss of loved ones, bloodcurdling, and rising from the dead. All the lyrics are portrayed with the 13 Clans of Vampire. Choirs are heard on this album at adequate frequency, on par with some of TON albums.

### Songs

The first track of *Thirteen* is "Tombstones", which begins with clanky bangs from guitar played by Troy Lambert (the only track to feature him) before it gets to haunted doom riffs then later to hardcore riffs. "Burn" is about getting burned with drugs and dragged to Hell. "Spellbound" was released as the album's first single on September 12, 2019 exclusively on Primordial Radio and the accompanying music video is available. "Spellbound" has a riff taken from TON song "Summer Breeze", while "Little Drummer Boy" has riffs taken from "September Sun" and "We Hate Everyone". "LDB" is a metaphoric title that despite its title some of the lyrics deal with the matters of death.

"Symmetry" is about not wanting to be in a relationship fearing it could have bad consequences later in life. "Black Light" was actually written by Tom Noir back in the mid-2000s when he was in the early 20s then stored it in the vault for later use. Its lyrics is about antagonizing his girlfriend as a beast.

"Lavender" deals with dying days of Tom's grandmother, Mary (died November 2017), whom her favorite color is lavender. "The Veil" was played on Cranium Radio for the first time on September 16. "The Veil", in which session musician Nate Exx Gradowski co-wrote, has bird chirps incorporated in them. Although it has a spring-feel to this song, "The Veil" has lyrics about dead people rising from the graves to visit their family on Halloween. "Her Dark Embrace" was heavily criticized for sounding too much like "Haunted" from TON album *October Rust*. It is essentially a cover of the TON song but under a different title. The choir ending to the track segues to the closer "Cauterize", which has exclusive choirs and repeated lines of 'Heal me' and 'Feel pain'.

Five of the tracks in *Thirteen* are divided into cantos—one is split into two cantos, three are split into three cantos, and one is split into four cantos; the first canto is instrumental in three out of four tracks having three or four cantos.

## Tracklist

Full
1. "Tombstones" – 9:12
	* I. "Dreaded Stroll in the Cemetery" – 1:31 (0:00–1:31)
	* II. "No Way Out" – 4:34 (1:31–6:05)
	* III. "Corruption" – 3:07 (6:05–9:12)
2. "Burn" (orig. titled "Burning Bridges") – 6:51
3. "Spellbound" (orig. titled "A Sun That Never Burned") – 6:43
4. "Little Drummer Boy" (alt. titled "Rhythm of His Drum") – 9:12
	* I. "In Limbo" – 0:31 (0:00–0:31)
	* II. "No Fortune in the Price of Death" – 5:10 (0:31–5:41)
	* III. "Rhythm of His Drum" – 3:31 (5:41–9:12)
5. "Symmetry" – 7:49
6. "Black Light" – 5:35
7. "Lavender" – 10:41
	* I. "Ascension" – 1:01 (0:00–1:01)
	* II. "Lavender" – 6:31 (1:01–7:32)
	* III. "Pet Cemetery" – 3:09 (7:32–10:41)
8. "The Veil" – 10:56
	* I. "The Veil" – 5:53 (0:00–5:53)
	* II. "Damn the Sun" – 2:38 (5:53–8:31)
	* III. "The Veil (reprise)" – 1:36 (8:31–10:07)
	* IV. "Wisteria" – 0:49 (10:07–10:56)
9. "Her Dark Embrace" – 12:09
	* I. "Her Dark Embrace" – 9:31 (0:00–9:31)
	* II. "Free Me" – 2:38 (9:31–12:09)
10. "Cauterize" – 7:36

Cut (to fit on CD)
1. "Tombstones" – 8:08
2. "Burn" – 6:50
3. "Spellbound" – 6:30
4. "Little Drummer Boy" – 8:48
5. "Symmetry" – 7:04
6. "Black Light" – 5:35
7. "Lavender" – 10:18
8. "The Veil" – 9:32
9. "Her Dark Embrace" – 11:16
10. "Cauterize" – 5:30

Below is how the tracklist looked before it was finalized in late July 2019.

1. "Lavender"
2. "Little Drummer Boy" (alt. titled "Rhythm of His Drum")
3. "Her Dark Embrace"
4. "Cauterize"
5. "Symmetry"
6. "Hey Vanity" (did not make it to the final tracklist, was replaced by "The Veil")
7. "Black Light"
8. "Burning Bridges" (since re-titled "Burn")
9. "Spellbound" (orig. titled "A Sun That Never Burned")
10. "Tombstones"

## Personnel

* **Tom Noir** – vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, piano, organ, writing, engineering, mixing, mastering, production
* Troy Lambert – guitar on "Tombstones"
* Daniel Stickz Bryant – drums

**Session musician**

* Nate Exx Gradowski – writing on "The Veil"