Review Summary: Worth a listen because where else can you find lyrics like “I’d love it if you’d spin your head for me/Or vomit a beautiful pea soup green,/So beautifully/Across your stomach it said HELP ME”?
Women and Children Last is the second album from the glam-comedy-horror-metal duo Murderdolls comprised of Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison. Joey Jordison is without a doubt the more famous of the two, being the sticksman for Slipknot and a stand in drummer for some of the top metal acts out there including Marilyn Manson, Korn, Rob Zombie, Metallica and System of a Down. Wednesday 13 is slightly less well known by the mainstream, but is by no means any less experienced than his bandmate, having had his own group since 2004 and been a member of “Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13” from 1996 to 2001, with a brief reunion in 2005.
Joey Jordison claims, “I consider Women and Children Last the first Murderdolls record. The music is so much heavier now. Murderdolls haven’t lost the fun, crazy vibe, but the topics are smarter. Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls was like a sketch and this is the real painting.” As much as Jordison may wish this to be, many fans would disagree with him. The new album is certainly the ‘real painting’ as the production values are a lot higher, as Murderdolls have obviously been given a higher priority by the metal music juggernaut Roadrunner Records and are being thought of more as a band rather than “that guy from Slipknot’s side project”.
However, aside from the recording quality, the way Women And Children Last differs from the band’s debut Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls is how much fun it is to listen to. Gone from the new album are the camp horror lyrics and homicidal sense of humour, a prime example of this is a comparison of the opening songs from both albums; Beyond The Valley starts with Mozart’s Seranade No.13 in G Major before being brutally cut short by what sounds like someone snorting a line of coke and erupting into a fast paced inferno of drums accompanied by a pumping guitar riff and Wednesday 13’s unique vocals that sound like a man being tortured to a tune, performing a song that you cant help but get sucked into. Never have I wanted to dance so much to a song about a man wanting to slit his wrists. This contrasts well to the opening of Women And Children Last, ‘The World According To Revenge’ which begins with a dark, gothic guitar riff and Wednesday 13 growling sinister vocals into the microphone with altogether more serious lyrics ending with maniacal laughter mixed into cries of pain.
The main musical style of this album is what you would expect from a horror metal band, one or two riffs per song that do exactly what they are asked of but don't really push any musical boundaries and in some cases can become a bit boring, powerful up-tempo drumbeats but what else would you expect with a drummer like Jordison in the band however he is not used to his full potential and at least one enjoyable solo per song. All this results in an album that doesn't disappoint but won't make any hairs stand up and will be forgotten before too long, were it not for some distinctive choruses the songs would all meld into one.
Women And Children Last’s tracks, for the most part, have serious lyrics that could even depress at points. ‘Summertime Suicide’ is about a man who finds the woman he loves dead with a suicide note next to her and decides the only thing that he can do is kill himself, lamenting that he could not be there to stop her (a nod to Romeo and Juliet perhaps?). Whilst the tracks are more mature in their content they are by no means any less catchy than previous releases and will have no trouble getting the most arrhythmic person headbanging along. However, they don’t have that sense of fun that was present in the last album, that element in them that makes you want to rip up the carpet and fashion a hat out of it.
The reason for this more serious direction is the input of Joey Jordison. All of the tracks on Beyond The Valley were written by Wednesday 13, most of them originally performed by his old band Frankenstein Drag Queens. By his own admission, he writes “campy horror lyrics”.
So, to sum up this album; it is by no means bad, with some fantastic tracks guaranteed to get your pulse racing that would not disappoint a fan of the metal genre and those who are new to the band, but those fans who loved the unique lyrics and party-metal feel of the old album may be disappointed by the band’s new direction.
