THE GIRL WHO WAS ... DEATH

There are a few bands that are quite the once in a lifetime experiences. King Crimson are certainly one of them, cementing themselves as true inspirators for music to come after the wave of The Beatles and Rolling Stones came and went. Same with Godspeed You! Black Emperor crafting the standard for post rock with new found ideals for minimalism, drone, and chamber. But some groups are less "once in a lifetime" in the whole sense of being very inspiring, and more just how bizarre, but still weirdly amazing they are, that they manage to become the talk amongst a town of whispers. One such bands of this caliber is the Slovenian--Italian project created via the mysterious Mr. Doctor, Devil Doll.

This band is quite the mystery, being a lot less like a physical showing of a band and more of an idea, but certainly one that you can see to be notable via word of mouth. They are such a mystery that their first album, The Mark of the Beast, which released supposedly in 1988, is basically non-existent as Mr. Doctor never sold more than one copy, and who knows where that single copy even is nowadays. We don't even know if that album ever really exists, we can only really guess via word of mouth. Nevertheless, this band has quite the cult following, and that following could be pointed to their TRUE debut album, The Girl Who Was...Death.

This was the first album I have listened to from Devil Doll, and I gotta say this is an album that holds nothing back to what ideas that Mr. Doctor wants to do. You get a nearly 40 minute track worth of highly invigorating gothic infused progressive rock that one can certainly pin point Anglagard or Discipline from getting their sounds from, as well as slight doses of dark heavy metal, cabaret, and classical. At first, this combination of ways is certainly a little jarring, and took me a bit to get used to on my first listen. However, I found what you get out of this album is all the worthwhile, with scary moments of avant-garde classicalisms that take into Univers Zero, or sometimes even Art Zoyd territories, with a gothic sound that is less like The Cure and more like the sounds coming out of a mortuary, and a whole lot of juicy progressive rock that edges on the soon to be ideals of the more grimey Opeth styled prog metal with the lavishness of the RPI scene. I'd say, with all it does, it works extremely well and creates for an experience of no other.

This record is also just a personal favorite of mine due to how unique it is. Obviously in prog rock we may never get an album like this again, but in Devil Doll's discography I think this one stands above the rest in terms of unlikeness. Certainly there is no bad Devil Doll album, in fact I consider all of them to be top tier, especially with how Mr. Doctor improved and changed up his styles into frontiers like avant-prog, operas, and even a tiny bit of industrial on The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms. But even then, I still think The Girl Who Was...Death just takes the cake, being this mysterious tour de force of music that not only intrigued my senses like a speeding truck, but allow me to see a mix of genres that were so wild put together that they managed to make Mr. Bungle sound almost commercial. No other album managed to make me feel the same feelings this album gave upon my first listens. This record certainly has become a very personal favorite of mine, and I am glad that I gave it a chance.

I don't really have any conflicts with this album, obviously since I think of this as a masterpiece. Though, I certainly do think Mr. Doctor's vocals do take time getting used to, but once you hear his voice it does become a lot better sounding after it comes back from the beginning, and it does quite fit the music he is crafting very nicely, at least I think.

This is an album that is not only a classic in my books, but one that I think any prog rock aficionado should at the very least check out. There are no bad places to check out Devil Doll, as they're an all around quality band, but The Girl Who Was...Death is the one I would suggest starting with. It's worth 100% of your time. Hell, even the hidden track is worth your attention. When a band manages to make even their hidden tracks good, they are certainly one to look into.