History Music / DevilDoll

* ConceptAlbum: All of them, though the most straightforward of these is probably ''The Girl Who Was... Death'', which is essentially Series/ThePrisoner in music form.

** Most versions of ''The Girl Who Was... Death'' end with a cover of the theme from Series/ThePrisoner 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.

** 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''; ''Dies Irae'''s credits explicitly list a few of the other sources that Mr. Doctor drew from.

-->''"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."''
--->--Mr. Doctor, in the advertisement that led to the band's formation.

-->''"This is a painting, not a graphic work."''
--->--Mr. Doctor, on why only one copy of ''The Mark of the Beast'' was pressed.

After 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 the 1967 TV series Series/ThePrisoner. 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.)

* LostForever: The original ''Dies Irae'' recordings, except for ''The Lost Tapes'' as mentioned above.

* ShoutOut: Mr. Doctor's influences -- from film, music, art, literature, and so on -- are referenced repeatedly in the music, lyrics, and artwork of each album. He claims there are hundreds of such references -- [[GeniusBonus good]] [[ViewersAreGeniuses luck]] finding them all!

* TheYugoslavWars: Most of Devil Doll's albums were recorded against the backdrop of these conflicts, and the Tivoli Studios fire which destroyed the original ''Dies Irae'' recording is suspected to be the result of residual political unrest, though this was never proven.

* DoingItForTheArt: Mr. Doctor only cares about the act of creating music, not about commercial success (he refused to be paid for any Devil Doll albums, though he made sure the other musicians were) or getting any kind of recognition or popularity.
** Apparently the Doctor is independently wealthy and is free to do these kind of things.

* FanNickname: Mr. Doctor is also known as "The Man." Presumably not ''[[TheMan that]]'' Man. Or [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear That Man]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: As mentioned above, the two songs on ''Eliogabalus'' were intended to be released in their original, much longer versions.
** ''Dies Irae'' comprises some 700 minutes of recorded music whittled down to one album.

Not to be confused with the 1936 film directed by Creator/TodBrowning which is this band's namesake, nor the [[Film/DevilDoll 1964 film which has its own page]] on this wiki, nor with the female-fronted American band of the same name.

* ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' - A soundtrack to the 1928 silent film of the same name; unreleased due to Mr. Doctor cutting ties with the group that commissioned it.

-->''"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."''
--->--Mr. Doctor, in the advertisement that led to the band's formation

--->--Mr. Doctor, on why only one copy of ''The Mark of the Beast'' was pressed

Not to be confused with the 1936 film directed by Tod Browning which is this band's namesake, nor the [[Film/DevilDoll 1964 film which has its own page]] on this wiki, nor with the female-fronted American band of the same name.

Devil 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.

After 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 the 1967 TV series ThePrisoner. 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.)

In 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.

Later 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.

Since 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".

* ''The Girl Who Was...Death'' (1989)

* ''The Lost Tapes'' - What remains of the original ''Dies Irae'' recording sessions
* ''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
* ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' - A soundtrack to the 1928 silent film of the same name; unreleased due to Mr. Doctor cutting ties with the group that commissioned it

* ConceptAlbum: All of them, though the most straightforward of these is probably ''The Girl Who Was...Death'', which is essentially ThePrisoner in music form.

* CoverVersion: Several:
** The unreleased ''Mr. Doctor Sings Hanns Eisler'' album
** Most versions of ''The Girl Who Was...Death'' end with a cover of the theme from ThePrisoner 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.
** ''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.
** ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'' opens with "March on the Drina", a Serbian war song.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The lyrics of the ''Sacrilege'' albums contain the line "pure purity".

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Mr. Doctor was never addressed by his real name, at least until 2007 when an interview concerning his book of 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.
* FanNickname: Mr. Doctor is also known as "The Man". Presumably not ''[[TheMan that]]'' Man. Or [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear That Man]].

* 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.

* ShoutOut: Mr. Doctor's influences - from film, music, art, literature, and so on - are referenced repeatedly in the music, lyrics, and artwork of each album. He claims there are hundreds of such references - [[GeniusBonus good]] [[ViewersAreGeniuses luck]] finding them all!
** ''Dies Irae'' is a tribute to 'George Harvey Bone,' a character from the movie ''Hangover Square'' whose music is supplied by the composer BernardHerrmann. Mr. Doctor's first book was a thorough analysis of Herrmann and his music.
** 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 Psycho appears in ''Sacrelegium''. ''Dies Irae'' contains a few bars from ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''; ''Dies Irae'''s credits explicitly list a few of the other sources that Mr. Doctor drew from.

* 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''.]]

** 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 Psycho appears in ''Sacrelegium''. ''Dies Irae'' contains a few bars from TheManWhoLaughs; ''Dies Irae'''s credits explicitly list a few of the other sources that Mr. Doctor drew from.

* ''The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms'' (1996)

* 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. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel It works]].

* MeaningfulName: "Mr. Doctor" is a reference to [[TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde Mr. Hyde and Doctor Jekyll]]. He also really does have two doctorate degrees, in criminology and philosophy.

* ''The Lost Tapes'' - what remains of the original ''Dies Irae'' recording sessions

Not to be confused with ''Film/DevilDoll'', the film which is this band's namesake, nor with the female-fronted American band of the same name.

In 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 My Mind'' (or ''The Black Holes of '''the''' Mind'', depending on where you look on the internet); 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.

In 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 was a rearranged version of ''Sacrilegium'' with around 30 more minutes of music.

* ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' - A soundtrack to the 1928 silent film of the same name

** ''Dies Irae'' is a tribute to 'George Harvey Bone,' a character from the movie ''Hangover Square'' whose music is supplied by the composer BernardHermann. Mr. Doctor's first book was a thorough analysis of Hermann and his music.

Not to be confused with DevilDoll, the film which is this band's namesake, nor with the female-fronted American band of the same name.

** ''Dies Irae'' comprises some 300 hours of recorded music whittled down to one album.

In 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 was a rearranged version of ''Sacrilegium'' with around more minutes of music.

* MeaningfulName: "Mr. Doctor" is a reference to [[TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde Mr. Hyde and Doctor Jekyll]].

* ScientificProgressGoesOi: Mr. Doctor really does have two doctorate degrees, in philosophy and criminology.

Not to be confused with {{DevilDoll}}, the film which is this band's namesake, nor with the female-fronted American band of the same name.