Metal’s favourite doll killing maniacs have injected some uber-attitude into the scene with the release of their second Roadrunner album Women and Children Last. Murderdolls’ driving duo Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Wednesday 13 (whose band goes by the same name) have put together an album that brings horror-punk-metal to the masses with a vengeance.
Women and Children Last is permeated with the “scum, filth, anger and greed… chaos [and] darkness on a violent binge” that is mentioned in album opener The World According To Revenge. The vision of Joey Jordison (guitar, drums) and Wednesday 13 (vocals, guitar) is realised with the boisterous bellow of speedy guitar riffs and accelerated punk drumming with a touch of metal bashing along the way, which is set to “ piss people off and shake things up”. Jordison went on to tell Kerrang! that “Everything is such a product or a fucking formula these days… Fuck formula! Fuck the norm! (Kerrang! Exclusive! Murderdolls are back). And goal achieved: Women and Children Last is pure, perfect, unadulterated pandemonium.
Summertime Suicide and Drug Me To Hell pay homage to the ‘sex, drugs, rock & roll’ attitude of twenty years ago, and the ‘Dolls even make a summertime suicide something fun to put on this year’s to do list. Being drugged to hell doesn’t seem like a bad idea either. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Wednesday 13 uses the sordid tone of his dilapidated vocals to up the filth to the max in Homicide Drive – with “lollipops and lunatics sucking on your crucifix” satan claps his hands with glee as the ‘Dolls declare that “salvation is such a scam”. And who wouldn’t want to be a Blood Stained Valentine married in a Chapel of Blood? My Dark Place Alone will get heads a-banging with some groove-heavy guitaring and Death Valley Superstars screeches the motto of a lost generation “you don’t need luck when you don’t give a fuck”. With full stops replaced with “motherfucker/ing” and rhyming lyrics with dauntlessly catchy choruses par for the course; Women and Children Last has a way of getting into one’s head and under one’s skin.
If metal had a band and an album that paid tribute to the god of popular culture; Murderdolls would be that band and Women and Children Last would be that album.
Murderdolls are scheduled to play alongside Korn, Skindred and Ozzy Osborn at this year’s Ozzfest in London at the at the O2 Arena on 18 September. The ‘Dolls have also recently announced a pre-Ozzfest 2010 London show at the Garage on 17 September.
