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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devil_doll_mr_doctor.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:For Mr.Doctor, this is as normal as it gets.]]
3
4->''"A man is the less likely to become great the more he is dominated by reason: Few can achieve greatness -- and none in art -- if they are not dominated by illusion."''
5-->--Mr. Doctor, in the advertisement that led to the band's formation.
6
7->''"This is a painting, not a graphic work."''
8-->--Mr. Doctor, on why only one copy of ''The Mark of the Beast'' was pressed.
9
10Not to be confused with [[Film/TheDevilDoll the 1936 film]] directed by Creator/TodBrowning which is this band's namesake, nor the 1964 film ''Film/DevilDoll'', nor with the female-fronted American band of the same name.
11
12Devil Doll is a band formed in 1987 by the enigmatic "Mr. Doctor." Their music incorporates many varied styles of music into extremely long compositions. Despite never seeking any kind of mainstream recognition or major label distribution, they have developed a cult fanbase numbering in the thousands all over the world.
13
14After recruiting two separate line-ups for the band -- one in Venice, Italy and the other in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then Yugoslavia) -- the band's first album, ''The Mark of the Beast'', was recorded in late 1987. A single copy of the album was made, which is owned by Mr. Doctor and the album has never been re-pressed (see second page quote). Soon after, Mr. Doctor began work on a second composition, ''The Girl Who Was... Death'', inspired by [[Recap/ThePrisonerE15TheGirlWhoWasDeath an episode]] of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''. The band's sound technician, Jurij Toni, agreed to work on the new album, on the condition that there was produced "a painting for him and some graphic works for us." Mr. Doctor agreed to this, and 500 copies of the album were pressed, each with a unique insert made by Mr. Doctor, some with his own blood. Around 150 of these were given to the audience after the second live performance of the album; the remaining copies were destroyed by Mr. Doctor afterward, with the rationalization that everyone who was interested already got a copy. (It was later reissued in various editions, as were all subsequently-released albums.)
15
16In 1989, work began on three new Devil Doll releases: ''Mr. Doctor Sings Hanns Eisler'', featuring interpretations of several of Eisler's works; ''The Black Holes of the Mind''; and ''Eliogabalus''; the latter two were intended to be released together as a double album. However, for budget reasons, ''Hanns Eisler'' was never released, and ''The Black Holes'' (renamed ''Mr. Doctor'') and ''Eliogabalus'' had to be edited down so that each would fit on a single side of vinyl; these two were released as the ''Eliogabalus'' album in 1990.
17
18In 1991, the Italian and Slovenian line-ups of Devil Doll were combined. The next album they released was titled ''Sacrilegium'', in 1992. In 1993, the band released ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'', the soundtrack to Mr. Doctor's experimental film of the same name (which in turn was inspired by the video clips the band displayed during shows,) which was a rearranged version of ''Sacrilegium'' with around 30 more minutes of music.
19
20Later in 1993, Devil Doll again entered the studio to record ''The Day of Wrath - Dies Irae''. However, the studio caught fire during a mixing session. Mr. Doctor and Jurij Toni escaped -- the former unharmed, the latter with some injuries that required hospitalization -- but nearly all of the recorded music was lost, except for a single unmixed tape Toni happened to have in his pocket. Mr. Doctor had copies of the unmixed tape, along with the sheet music for the composition, given to the band members, under the name ''The Lost Tapes''. In 1994, Mr. Doctor decided to re-record the album, whose name was now shortened to ''Dies Irae''. It was released in 1996 and to this day is the last Devil Doll record to be released to the public.
21
22Since the release of ''Dies Irae'', comparatively little information about the band exists. It is known, however, that several other albums have been recorded. In 2004, the Devil Doll Fan Club started a mailing action to get Mr. Doctor to release more of Devil Doll's music. Numerous fan letters were collected and bound into a book, titled ''A Thousand Letters to Mr. Doctor'', which was then sent to him. Mr. Doctor responded by giving the fan who started the mailing action his own personal copy of ''Sacrilegium'', along with a unique artwork bearing the word "Astonished."
23
24According to a 2008 magazine interview, Mr. Doctor is still writing and recording music with Devil Doll, but is not interested in releasing it.
25
26Much more in-depth information can be found [[http://www.devildoll.nl here]].
27
28!!The band's last known line-up:
29
30* Mr. Doctor - Vocals, organ, celesta, accordion
31* Francesco Carta - Piano
32* Sasha Olenjuk - Violin
33* Bor Zuljan - Guitar
34* Jani Hace - Bass
35* Roman Ratej - Drums
36* Davor Klaric - Keyboards
37* Michel Fantini Jesurum - Pipe organ
38* Numerous guest musicians appear on each album as well.
39
40!!Devil Doll albums released to the public:
41
42* ''The Girl Who Was... Death'' (1989)
43* ''Eliogabalus'' (1990)
44* ''Sacrilegium'' (1992)
45* ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'' (1993)
46* ''Dies Irae'' (1996)
47
48!!Other albums known or rumored to exist:
49
50* ''The Mark of the Beast''
51* ''Mr. Doctor Sings Hanns Eisler''
52* ''The Lost Tapes'' - What remains of the original ''Dies Irae'' recording sessions.
53* ''The Day of Wrath'' - Soundtrack to Mr. Doctor's second film, using 90 minutes of music from the ''Dies Irae'' sessions; a planned 1997 release never materialized.
54* ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' - A soundtrack to [[Film/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher1928France the 1928 silent film of the same name]]; unreleased due to Mr. Doctor cutting ties with the group that commissioned it.
55* ''The Carnival of Souls''
56* ''Five Murderous Suites''
57
58!!Associated tropes:
59
60* TheCameo: A young Mr. Doctor can be seen in one of the stalls on the cover of ''Eliogabalus''.
61* ConceptAlbum: All of them, though the most straightforward of these is probably ''The Girl Who Was... Death'', which is essentially ''Series/{{The Prisoner|1967}}'' in music form.
62* CoolShades: There are several pictures of Mr. Doctor sporting them. Another band member speculates in an interview that The Man had them custom-made, as he'd never seen shades like them anywhere else.
63* CoverVersion; Several:
64** The unreleased ''Mr. Doctor Sings Hanns Eisler'' album.
65** Most versions of ''The Girl Who Was... Death'' end with a cover of the theme from ''Series/{{The Prisoner|1967}}'' as a hidden track. The original pressing has this at the beginning of the album instead, with a different outro (not available on any other version) as the hidden track.
66** ''Mr. Doctor'' ends with an accordion version of the traditional Slovenian song "Vsi So Venci Bejli," which later appears on ''Sacrilegium'' and ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'' as well.
67** ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'' opens with "March on the Drina," a Serbian war song.
68* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The lyrics of the ''Sacrilege'' albums contain the line "pure purity."
69* EpicRocking: Every Devil Doll song released is upwards of 20 minutes long. The only two songs that don't take up an entire album were originally supposed to.
70* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Mr. Doctor was never addressed by his real name, at least until 2007 when an interview concerning his book of [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} UK]] PunkRock singles, ''45 Revolutions'', revealed that his real name is [[spoiler:Mario Panciera]]; however, considering the air of mystery that has always surrounded the band, some fans think that this isn't his real name, either.
71* HiddenTrack: One on every album except ''Eliogabalus''.
72* IAmTheBand: Mr. Doctor basically ''is'' Devil Doll.
73* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Every publicly released album has at least three or four different editions, and at least two of each of these are extremely limited, including massive hand-made box sets for the band members limited to 10 or so copies.
74* LooksLikeCesare: Mr. Doctor, as you can see above.
75* ManOfAThousandVoices: Mr. Doctor, full stop. He's even credited as this in the ''Dies Irae'' booklet.
76* MeaningfulName: "Mr. Doctor" is a reference to [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Mr. Hyde and Doctor Jekyll]]. He also really does have two doctorate degrees, in criminology and philosophy.
77* MindScrew: While every song/album does tell a coherent story, good luck figuring out just what the hell the story is.
78** MindScrewdriver: Or just read [[http://www.devildoll.nl/interview1.html these]] [[http://www.devildoll.nl/interview2.html interviews]].
79* NightmareSequence: Part 12 of ''Dies Irae'', aka "Incubus," which consists of short snippets of numerous longer pieces assembled at random to give the feeling of a nightmare. It works.
80* NoExportForYou: Or indeed anyone. Less than half of Devil Doll's recorded output has ever been released.
81* OminousLatinChanting: In ''Sacrilegium'', ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'', and ''Dies Irae''.
82* OminousPipeOrgan: Shows up in most compositions.
83* PsychoStrings: Appears quite a bit, most notably in the "Incubus" of ''Dies Irae''.
84* ShoutOut: Mr. Doctor's influences referenced repeatedly in his art. He claims there are hundreds of such references -- [[GeniusBonus good]] [[ViewersAreGeniuses luck]] finding them all!
85** ''Dies Irae'' is a tribute to 'George Harvey Bone,' a character from the movie ''Film/HangoverSquare'' whose music is supplied by the composer Music/BernardHerrmann. Mr. Doctor's first book was a thorough analysis of Herrmann and his music.
86** Much of ''Dies Irae'''s lyrics are a reworking of "The Conqueror Worm" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe.
87** Snippets from various horror soundtracks are inserted in a few of the albums, usually in a manner that doesn't draw attention to them. The end of the famous Shower scene from Film/{{Psycho}} appears in ''Sacrelegium''. ''Dies Irae'' contains a few bars from ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs'', snippets of ''The Innocents'' and ''Night of the Hunter,'' and quotes Corman's ''The Masque of the Red Death''; ''Dies Irae'''s credits explicitly list a few of the other sources that Mr. Doctor drew from.
88** The booklet from the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition bag set]] includes a number of film recommendations straight from The Man himself.
89* SopranoAndGravel: Usually Mr. Doctor does this trope all on his own, but occasionally there is a second vocalist to act as the soprano to his gravel.
90* TheStinger: The hidden track at the end of ''Sacrilegium'' and ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'' reveals that [[spoiler:Mr. Doctor's character is being ''buried'']].
91----
92-->''See how her hair drifts dreamy and gentle as river grass,''
93-->''and see the fresh, new mouth,''

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