The Girl Who Was... Death

The Girl Who Was ... Death is the debut album by Devil Doll. Its official release date was March 4th, 1989, but there was a pre-release of cassette tapes in December 1988. This was the second album by Devil Doll, but their first to be released to the public (the group's first release, The Mark of the Beast, had only one copy pressed, to be owned by the leading band member, Mr. Doctor). The album was entirely written by Mr. Doctor and is based on a television series by Patrick McGoohan called The Prisoner. The first edition of the album was pressed into 500 copies, but only 150 would survive Mr. Doctor's strange artistic vision. The 150 copies were handed out after a live performance of the album and the remaining 350 LPs were burned by Mr. Doctor after the show. In each album handed out was a unique inlay written by Mr. Doctor personally (some even in his own blood). The album would later be released under several different editions throughout the years (most notably by the band's official fanclub, now the only source from which to obtain any of the band's material).

Music style

Like all but two Devil Doll albums, The Girl Who Was ... Death contains only one track: the title track (another album has one musical track that is split into separate CD tracks). Being at an easily referenced length of 66 minutes and 6 seconds long, the song goes through many different themes and melodies, keeping strong to the band's progressive attributes. The album travels through several emotions with eerie tones and metaphorical lyrics. At 38:46 into the song, the music ceases and silence continues until the very end, where the album features the band's cover of the main theme from the television series that it is based on, The Prisoner. There are also some variations of this arrangement on other editions of the album, occurring during the 20 minute silence and outro.

This album would begin the explosive cult following of Devil Doll by its fans. Devil Doll would continue to release several more albums in the styling of The Girl Who Was ... Death throughout the 1990s.

Track listing

"The Girl Who Was … Death" — 1:06:06

The song ends at 38:46. After 25:25 of silence, a hidden track titled "The Prisoner" begins.

Personnel

Line up

Mr. Doctor - Vocals, Organ
Edoardo Beato - Piano
Katia Giubbilei - 2nd Violin
Albert Dorigo - Guitar
Sasha Olenjuk - 1st Violin
Lucko Kodermac - Drums
Bor Zuljan - Guitars
Jani Hace - Bass
Davor Klaric - Keyboard

Guests

Paolo Zizich - Backing vocals
Mojca Slobko - Harp
The "Devil Chorus", conducted by Marian Bunic