Band:	Devil Doll
Album:	The Girl Who Was... Death
Style:	Progressive rock, Symphonic rock
Website:	http://www.devildoll.nl/
Release date:	1989
Guest review by:	Warman

01. The Girl Who Was... Death

Do you happen to like Progressive Rock? Or maybe Symphonic Rock? What about Gothic Rock then? Okay, I guess you probably enjoy music from horror films too? Did you answer "yes" on all four questions? Great, then here's an album for you! Or maybe I should say song? That's right. The album only has one single song. 66.06 minutes long! Isn't that the most metal thing you've ever heard? But Mr. Doctor (the artist and front man of this band) is actually cheating, I'll come back to that later.

Every note and all the lyrics of the song are written by the Doctor himself. Based on "The Prisoner", an old television series if you didn't know that. Okay, it's not that interesting really. I'm here to tell you about one of the most original, haunting and greatest albums of all time: "The Girl Who Was...Death".

After you've pressed the "Play" button you'll hear a quiet, shy and careful melody which instantly grabs your attention. No electrical instruments, just an orchestra which slowly builds up to a more majestic sound. We hear choirs in the background and more and more instruments decide to join in. There's no way you can think of anything else than an old black-and-white horror movie during this. After one of the most powerful intros ever the music breaks down and in comes Mr. Doctor. Right away you'll react to his vocal style (sprechgesang). Every note he hits, every whisper and every breath he takes will amaze you. After his vocal solo accompanied by a lonely piano comes my favourite part of the whole Devil Doll discography. I don't know how many times I've listened to that beautiful guitar melody and those lyrics can't leave my head. But that's not the end of it, we also get to hear the most amazing violin solo of all time.

The song continues this way. Some instrumental parts either with or without vocals followed by vocal solos by Mr. Doctor (but always that piano in the background). Here and there we have some tracks for the choir to sing. It may sound boring, but this is music that's impossible to describe, you have to hear it for yourself.

Oh, I almost forgot the "cheating" part. 66.06 minutes? Yeah right! After around 40 minutes it's completely silent for over 20 minutes. Just at the end we get to hear a sample from "The Prisoner". Every Iron Maiden fan will cheer when they recognise those quotes.

Give this album one chance, that's enough. At least talking out of my own experience. It was love at first note. The album may be hard to find, even impossible for some. All the Devil Doll albums were released in limited editions on small labels. Today the fan club owns all the rights to the material and they don't really release large amounts of the albums. Do I have to say it's one of my most beloved albums in my collection?