Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Murderdolls

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 12 September 2010

Matrix, Bochum, Germany
11th September 2010
Murderdolls

Joey Jordison is probably best known as the man behind the drummer’s mask of American bad guys of SLIPKNOT. But in 2002 he gathered lots of attention with the release of the first MURDERDOLLS album ‘Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls’. Another prominent member of the band is Horror Punk sensation WEDNESDAY 13 taking over the vocal duties. They quickly acquired a large fan base and since the release of their debut album are considered one of the most important representatives of horror punk. After a dormancy period, they decided to come back and in 2010 released their second album ‘Women and Children Last’. MURDERDOLLS is Wednesday 13 (lead vocals, keyboard, guitars, bass), Joey Jordison (lead guitar, backing vocals), Roman Surman (rhythm guitar), Jack Tankersley (bass) and Racci Shay (drums, percussion). http://www.murderdollsband.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/murderdollsband

Music & Performance
Apparently, the MURDERDOLLS were bigger than we thought, because when we arrived at the venue, there was a large queue already waiting to get in and accordingly cosy it got in the tube later on. But before the show actually started, there was a lot time left we spent with waiting and chatting a bit. Then, the time had come and the piled-up excitement of the numerous fans broke over the band when they entered the stage to get the balls rolling at full speed with ‘Chapels of Blood’. There are times when you need to do encouragement within a show; here the mood went instantly from zero to hero with heavy head banging still being the mildest form of showing the appreciation for this band who themselves were no less energetic in their performance than the crowd down with us. Eager bouncing was on plan for the next high-speed offering ‘Slit My Wrist’ that upon announcement by talk master Wednesday 13 was welcomed with blusterous screaming.

We all know the children’s song of “Old MacDonald”. The MURDERDOLLS have done some little tweaking to that rhyme and made it an “Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-Oh my God”. The crowd knew that one inside out and chanted it for Wednesday and the band, starting their next track ‘Twist My Sister’ with that right away. In-between the exhausting procedures of performing songs, he’d be taking the time to talk a little with the audience and making a smooth transition to the next song with that. According to him, the song ‘Summertime Suicide’ was based on a true story happening many, many years ago. To announce the song ‘Die My Bride’, all the friends they were at the show would have to raise their fists, shake them and scream “Die”, preferably at the top of their voices and what can you say it was indeed very loud! A couple more minutes into the set, he had a little conversation with Joey about what he wanted to play and they decided upon new songs, so the next song was ‘Death Valley’ and kicked some ass.

Slowly but steadily we were approaching the end with ‘Rock’n’Roll (War Endings)’, but sure as hell that wasn’t to be the end, because the fans did want to see more and just ignored the “Mad Manager” who told them to wrap up already after the first song of the encore. So they gave their devotees a little pack of more encores, ending with ‘I Love to Say Fuck’, and not only the band loved to say the f-word loudly. During the song, Wednesday also was dancing around with a black umbrella, having four big letters on it. Guess, which ones? Well, that was the end of a rousing spectacle for everyone, but even though the music isn’t exactly my thing, the performance had style and they rocked more than I expected.

Setlist
01. World According / Intro
02. Chapels of Blood
03. Slit My Wrist
04. Twist My Sister
05. My Dark Place Alone
06. Drug Me To Hell
07. Summertime Suicide
08. She Was A Teenage Zombie
09. Die My Bride
10. People Hate Me
11. Death Valley
12. Blood Stained Valentine
13. Pieces of You
14. Nowhere
15. Welcome to the Strange
16. 197666
17. Rock’n’Roll (War Endings)
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18. Dawn of the Dead
19. Hybrid’s Moment
20. Dead in Hollyweed
21. I Love to Say Fuck

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.2 / 10