The Girl Who Was... Death

Devil Doll is a project by Mr. Doctor which has received a decent amount of popularity and acclaim over the years. This release, his first one, came way back in 1989. And considering the year, I should give a 100 for its high level of experimentation right away. But then, there are some flaws and since you probably already know the pros, I’ll try to focus on the negatives.

First of all, the genre, it’s more symphonic ambient than anything. Composing 1 song of 66 minutes for only that isn’t the best of ideas if you ask me. The song simply alternates between instrumental sections and lyrical parts. The instrumental sections fail to keep you interested since they are loaded with atmosphere rather than riffs or any actual written music. The parts where he sings, he only does that with a simple piano tune running behind for 5 odd minutes, which again makes it a little boring.

What I’m saying is, that the arrangements, time signatures, tempos and the overall song structure don’t have anything worth praising. It’s all just like a terribly dragged horror movie score. Another shocking point to be noted is that there are absolutely no acoustic passages and hardly any distorted guitars. Basically, there’s a very low amount of ‘metal’ to be found. If you are the kind of person who is satisfied just with an orchestral feel, this one is for you, but if you’re looking for some progressive metal, you’ll be disappointed.