Devil Doll - The Girl Who Was... Death (1989)

As far as rock bands go, Devil Doll is one of those bizarre musical experiments that succeed in spite of the musicians' best attempts to destroy all evidence of their own existence. An Italian-Slovenian project, the band formed in 1987 with the mysterious "Mr. Doctor" at the helm signing most of the recorded music before burning whatever recordings he could get his hands on. The band has gained a strong cult following for its ultra-theatrical mix of gothic rock, classical and slavonic folk music, and of course, the antics of Mr. Doctor.

The Girl Who Was... Death is the first Devil Doll album that fans could actually get copies of. The first edition of the album was pressed into 500 copies, but only 150 were handed out after a live performance while the remaining 350 LPs were burned by Mr. Doctor. To make things weirder, each album handed out had a unique inlay written by Mr. Doctor personally, and as the story goes, some of these inlays were written in his own blood. To top it all, there's the cover: if the photo of Frankenstein's Bride screaming her lungs at you doesn't get your attention, you're not human, period.

The Girl Who Was... Death is based on the subversive TV series called The Prisoner about a British former secret agent who is held prisoner in a mysterious seaside village where his captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job. If you haven't seen the show, don't worry: the album is self-sufficient through and through. As the single track - clocking at 66 minutes and 6 seconds - develops its narrative by way of violins, metal guitars and eerie vocals, you get a sense of dark atmosphere that fully complements the band's back story, delivering pure horror at one turn and hilarious parody at the next. For all his weirdness, Mr. Doctor's "old witch" shtick actually works here, full of menace and melancholy as it rages all the way through. In short, the perfect album to listen to at night as you question the meaning of everything and nothing.

>>> Download The Girl Who Was... Death (and while you're at it, why not the whole of Devil Doll's discography?)

Triumph of Death!

The Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel the Elder shouldn't be new for you. After all, the famous painting is almost 500 years old and has been used for virutally everything despite how dark it is. No, the reason we're putting it on today is just to remind you that Danse Macabre is coming near its 25th episode, which will appropriately be devoted to the Grim Reaper personified and include a few surprises. Click on the picture to enlarge!

Final Destination (2000)

As the release date of The Final Destination gets nearer, one needs to sit back and reflect on how they ever got past the stupidity of the second film in this famed series about premonition-based death-evaders. The idea behind all three flicks we have seen so far is admittedly great, but maybe one was more than enough to get the point across. The only thing actually lacking from the original starring Devon Sawa and William Scott was a proper final face-to-face encounter with Death. Other than that, Final Destination is quite a satisfactory scary flick featuring sympathetic characters, tense scenes and a well-disciplined take on a concept which is likely to be used and re-used as classic horror stock in 10 or so years. Just don't mistake it for the much weaker sequels.

Episode 1: Invitation to Dance

"...where every Friday is Friday the 13th!"

The new show "Danse Macabre" on radio Kanal 103 (Skopje, Macedonia) kicked off in gory style on Friday, March 10. Hosted by Ivica Serdarot and a revolving door of übercool friends, from now on the show will be casting magic spells via FM radio every Friday at midnight.

"Danse Macabre" is the French phrase for the widespread concept/allegory known as the Dance of Death in the English language, Danza Macabra in Italian and Spanish, and Totentanz in German. La Danse Macabre consists of the personified death leading a row of dancing skeletal figures from all walks of life to the grave. In the late-medieval period, the concept was produced to remind people of how fragile their lives were. Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts, the earliest known artistic example found in a Parisian cemetery dating from 1424. 

As the visual image of Death personified, the Dance of Death is nowadays routinely tied to the horror genre and related events such as the annual celebration of Halloween. 

In this sense, the show "Danse Macabre" is a late night radio program with a horror sensibility, a program that pays its respect to the genre by focusing on all of its manifestations and quirks, having fun with its better-known monsters and creatures, introducing its more obscure representatives, and finally, discussing some serious current issues through the prism of the macabre. Oh, and there's some great music, too! :)

Playlist for episode numero uno

Starting from episode 2, blog visitors will be able to download entire show playlist, and if the gods of currently available technology allow us, we'll put entire shows available for download - but be warned! the show usually goes in Macedonian, hehe...

That's it for introductions. Check this space for regular updates, and stay swell in the meantime!