Women and Children Last... And Revenge Was the Main Course

Personnel: Wednesday 13 (vocals, guitar, background vocals); Joey Jordison (guitar, drums, percussion, background vocals); Roman Surman (guitar, background vocals).
Recording information: Perfect Sound Studios, Los Angeles, CA (04/2010).
Photographer: P.R. Brown.
Trash metal? Horror metal? Punk metal? B-movie metal? It's hard to settle on a single description for the Murderdolls. But after hearing their sophomore effort, 2010's Women and Children Last, any of the four aforementioned metallic subgenres would do the trick. It's been quite a layoff since the 'dolls released their full-length debut, 2002's Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls, but fans never gave up hope about the possibility of a sophomore effort. Eight years later, they finally got their wish. And despite original member Tripp Eisen having exited the band, core members Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison remain onboard, and their musical and visual hybrid of the Plasmatics, Mötley Crüe, Marilyn Manson, and Slipknot remains very much intact. The proof can be heard throughout Women and Children Last, especially on such tracks as the album-opener "Chapel of Blood," and the very Crüe-esque "Summertime Suicide." And while we're on the subject of the Crüe, non other than Mötley guitarist Mick Mars lends some six-string work on a pair of tracks here -- "Drug Me to Hell" and "Blood Stained Valentine" -- which only further confirms who one of the Murderdolls main influences are. Some will say that the horror shtick may get a bit predictable after a while (take a gander at such song titles as "Homicide Drive" and "Hello, Goodbye, Die," and you know precisely what lies ahead). If you were figuring that the Murderdolls were going to expand musically upon what they laid down on their debut album, Women and Children Last will prove your assumption wrong -- they're sticking as close to their original vision as possible. ~ Greg Prato