Barb Wire Dolls Album Review and UK Tour Preview

Barb Wire Dolls are the kind of band that it’s pretty hard not to admire. In an age when people are content to sit on their ass and wait for success to find them, Barb Wire Dolls got off theirs, sold everything they had and headed to America from their native Crete in 2010 to find it themselves. After 5 years of touring and a couple of albums, the band was noticed by Lemmy from Motörhead, who put them under his supportive wing. Now regarded as being one of the most exciting punk bands to have emerged in years, Barb Wire Dolls have forged a great reputation for their live performances. Fronted by Isis Queen (vocals), the band consists of Pyn Doll (lead guitar), Krash Doll (drums), Iriel Blaque (bass) and Remmington (guitar).

Desperate is the band’s third studio album and their first since signing with Motörhead Music last year. The first thing you notice as you work through the early part of the album though, is that it has more in common with early 90’s grunge than 70’s punk.  There are hints and flavours of Nirvana throughout the album, although this is no bad thing.  Desperate though, doesn’t have the kind of intensity you get from an Exploited record or the visceral energy of The Sex Pistols. Punk – in that sense – it isn’t.

That’s not to say that Desperate isn’t a good album.  It certainly is, and it features some cracking tracks which really stand out. Heart Attack and Darby Crash are songs where the band really put the hammer down and explode into proper rip-snorting punk territory. Best track on the album has got to be I Will Sail, though. Strangely, this is probably the least punky, least grungy track on the album, but it’s fantastically written and performed.

Now here’s the thing. After listening to the album a couple of times I was kinda confused.  As I’ve said already, Desperate is a good album, but it doesn’t really square with the stellar reviews the band have received for their live performances. It isn’t – to my ears at least – as good as that. I needed to delve a bit deeper. So after a quick search on YouTube, I came across a video of their live performance at Waken from a few weeks back. Now I get it!

The contrast between their album material and this live performance was stark.  Their set contained many of the songs from the album, but was full of all the intensity, grittiness and energy that the album seemed to lack. Isis Queen is a fantastic front-woman whose charisma and swagger absolutely lit up the stage. She seems to have that spark of madness that all great punks have, in as much as you don’t really know what she’s gonna do next. Collectively the band were fantastic, and certainly lived up to the hype surrounding them. So when they arrive in the UK to tour next month, they are gonna be well worth going to see.

So we come to a rather interesting conclusion. If you have enough money to buy both Desperate and a ticket to see the band play live, decibelROGUE recommends that you do so. If you only have enough cash to buy one or the other, I’d go to one of their gigs.

You’ll like the album, but you’ll love them live.

Links

You can follow Barb Wire Dolls on Facebook HERE

UK Tour Dates

Wed 12 Oct London, Camden Assembly
Thu 13 Oct Grimsby, Yardbirds
Fri 14 Oct Leeds, Temple Of Boom
Sat 15 Oct Edinburgh, Bannermans
Sun 16 Oct Glasgow, Stereo
Mon 17 Oct Liverpool, Krazyhouse
Tue 18 Oct Birmingham, O2 Acedamy 3

Track List

1   Drown
2   Surreal
3   Take Me Home
4   Heart Attack
5   Desperate
6   Blind To Your Misery
7   I Will Sail
8   Darby Crash
9   Problem Of The Poet
10 Rhythm Method