SACRILEGIUM

DEVIL DOLL has to be one of the most bizarre, frightening, confronting and satisfying bands in existence. Their music is a chilly assault on your senses possessing unique tonal atmospheres and very ecletic epic songs. There is simply no way to explain in details the feelings and emotions DEVIL DOLL's music possesses. 'Sacrilegium' begins with a bang, soaring organs and seventies prog slowly overtaken by a demonic choir chanting some sacred rites. Then, Mr. Doctor, the high priest of DEVIL DOLL, begins his serpentine recitation, of mysteries and tales of horror with his warbling raspy falsetto. I personally find "Sacrilegium" to be themost theatrical (if that is possible) of all the DEVIL DOLL recordings and really acts out in a vaudevillian manner. Truly possessed and haunting art rock. The unusual and unpredictable music of DEVIL DOLL is an elaborate tapestry of styles, a surreal exploration of the unknown territory that is the 'theatre of the mind'. Intense and dramatic, the DEVIL DOLL experience spans the broad spectrum of music and emotions. Essential music for your expanding brain.

Perhaps their best effort, not completely original, but by developing the music ideas, finding their achievement within the following "Dies Irae" two years ago (without regarding of the album "The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms"). They demonstrated a good skill and a definite personality as well!! Besides they took care of the arrangements and some interesting music colors too, a bit better than the majority of the other issues!! Moreover you can find a certain maturity and the right balance between such classic prog and dark metal: well I don't get crazy for this particular music genre, so you could also erase one star if you're not too much into this "Gothic" style...make your own choice!

The start to a beautiful composition.

If you ask me, this version is much poorer in terms of arrangement than its re-released version, although much of the music is the same. The biggest difference being the procession at the end where a man seems to have been buried, perhaps alive as there is a beating heart. I much prefer the extended and more gripping version of this "song".

The first 5 minutes of this album should be able to grip you, and if it can't, then its unlikely that this music is for you. The first 5 minutes has pretty much every element that Devil Doll has become known for. It is bombastic, dark, ethereal, and much of the like, with Mr. Doctor's peculiar vocal antics. Call Devil Doll the prog antithesis of the bright and cheery Genesis.

If my rating seems low given my liking for the music, let it be of note that I rarely if ever listen to this, given the superiority of the following release. Just shows how much good music can be affected by placement.

Welcome to Sacrilegium, the fourth album of one of the best prog-rock bands of the 90's!

Every Devil Doll is a whole and complete experience by itself. The style of the band was more or less the same throughout its whole career, but that means that every album has thousands of influences, styles and colors very well mixed and intertwined with Mr.Doctor's unique style of singing. Sprechgesang, to be exact.

And Sacrilegium is no exception!

It is another excellent composition by the mastermind Mr. Doctor, who was also in charge of the production of this record full of intricated passages, obscure lyrics, and their typical heavy metal guitars mixed with Gregorian chants, classical music, folk, cabaret, Bernard Herrmann's influenced passages and even tango.

Everything fits in Devil Doll's music and the result is just incredible!

Best Tracks: Sacrilegium has only one long song, just like every Devil Doll album with the exception of Eliogabalus.

Conclusion: the third Devil Doll opus is maybe not so surprising as their debut The Girl who was Death and not so outstandingly good as their last and best album Dies Irae, but it's another excellent record by one of the most unique, personal and unrepeatable prog bands in history.

My rating: ****

Despite Devil Doll having no bad releases, at least for me, there will definitely be a 'least favorite' amongst the masterful discography that Mr. Doctor has accumulated. For me, this least favorite comes in the form of Sacrilegium, their 1992 record. This is easily the weirdest that Devil Doll has ever gotten. While I consider them to have always been an avant-prog band, Sacrilegium is certainly where they pushed the limits through the gothic prog medium that they mastered.

This is where they return back to their single song epic ideals, with a 40+ minute track that weaves through macabre fusions of dark classical and symphonic prog methods. The suite is very abstract, which I think does make the listening experience a tad confusing, especially coming off from more streamlined pieces of The Girl Who Was...Death and Eliogabalus. This is the big reason why I am not quite as into this one as all the other Devil Doll releases, as even though I do appreciate the more artsy direction that Mr. Doctor is going for here, and with pretty great parts throughout, I kind of wished the layout of the album didn't feel like going through a confusing spiral in tone and structure.

But, don't fret, as this album is still immaculate in a lot of ways. Despite the confusion, the music is still genuinely top notch. There are a lot of moments that remind me of Univers Zéro's Hérésie, as well as some pretty big classical scores like Igor Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps, and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, creating this dynamic mixture of rock in opposition and more classical in grained roots that I really enjoy.

You cannot forget about the gothic rock too. While that element is certainly more toned down in comparison to previous releases, the genre still flourishes quite well in the more guitar driven parts. Sometimes the album reminds me of some of the weirder practices that groups such as Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and The Cure have practiced, making for quite the detailed experience.

Also, with this being more of a direct rock opera, about a man recounting his rather miserable life in his own coffin, I can talk about how amazing Mr. Doctor is as a voice actor. He most certainly can really make his voice sound like completely different people to the point where sometimes I wonder if he had hired some people for certain characters on this album. He knows how to really explore dread between multiple different persons with his voice alone. It's like hearing interviews between different people based on their experience with death, but sung over by Mr. Doctor himself, doing his impression on them.

While Sacrilegium may not be my all time favorite record that Devil Doll produced, the fact that even my least favorite is still of this high quality proves a lot to the beauty that Mr. Doctor can craft not only for himself, but for his listeners. Another high recommendation from me in this band's catalog. Again, I think this band has NO bad releases.