Hailing from Belgium, the quartet Lovelorn Dolls' had a previous incarnation, the band Lovelorn, and produced an EP entitled An Intense Feeling of Emotion in 2011. With a change of name came a huge improvement as well, and The House of Wonders is quite a fabulous, dark trip through a Tim Burton-esque landscape. Just look at the album art and some of the band's promo photos!

We beging our trip with the title track, "House of Wonders", which is an instrumental piece with a theatrical flare definitely reminiscent of a Tim Burton film. With tinkly keys, some sound effects, and a few choir arrangements, this piece could easily also be something akin to what Nightwish produced on Imaginaerum, too.

The first sung track, "Afterdark", introduces us to Lovelorn Dolls' main sound: a pleasantly muzzy, distorted guitar style, that produces a dark feel with Gothic metal overtones, and contrastingly upbeat, but somewhat creepy, keyboard support. It's that "somewhat creepy" aspect that lends the music a complexity that grabs the listener and reels her in. Citing influences such as The Birthday Massacre, Marylin Manson, Evanescence, and Lacuna Coil, you can definitely here shades of these bands in the soundscapes Lovelorn Dolls has created here.

Vocally, Ladyhell, who is also the composer, has a good set of pipes, though without the range I'm prehaps used to. That isn't detrimental, however; she often reminds me, especially in tracks like "Inside my Head" and "Save Me From Myself", of Alanis Morissette. I happen to think that's a good thing, since I am a huge and long-time Alanis fan. But Ladyhell keeps her tone slightly on the eerie, edgy side, enhanced at times with certain vocal effects like whispering and a distortion I don't know the name of but that sounds like she's hollow or on the radio (or has bad cell reception)

In terms of lyrics, the band says on its Facebook page "the fanbase, the "Lovelorners", is embracing both younger fans of Goth/Emo/Punk/Visual and more "mature" listeners of Industrial / Rock / Alternative metal", and this is played out verbally with lyrics that sometimes seem a bit on the teenage-centric side. Though we're definitely not talking about Taylor Swift here, there are some songs that seem to describe rather highschool-ish situations. For instance, "Inside My Head" goes:

Hey you
Why did you believe
You could steal my man
You could steal my friends
What is wrong with you
Hey you
Take a closer look
I don't want to fight
Coz soon you will die

So there are some death threats, and that's not terribly mature, I'm sure we'll all agree, but Lovelorn Dolls do bridge the gap between the emo-ish lyrics and the more "mature" listeners by their sense of theatrics and the darkness I've mentioned before. The combined elements of their unique sound really appealed to me where the lyrics might not have initially.

That being said, there are lyrics in The House of Wonders that I just love. One of my favourite songs on the album is "No Life" which is about – at least from my interpretation – a gamer who has as strong online persona but is a complete loser in real life. The chorus is utterly catchy – as are most of the choruses in the album, I have to say.

In this game you are a king, a hero
In real life you are a clown, a zero
There you can fight them all, you're the master
Yes you are a no life, but you don't feel yourself alone

I think this is pretty brilliant – capturing the personality of this character in so few words and creating a song that gives such a vivid portrait of him. The song goes on to say,

An army
To reboot
No problem
You don't fight like a noob
You're a junkie

I have had this song in my brain for so long now, it's made that much of an impression on me. Other stand out songs on the CD are "Purple", which is the first single and has an intriguing music video, "Euphoria", and "Frozen Inside."

I really enjoyed this CD; it's fun, it's got lots of great hooks, and I loved the sounds Lovelorn Dolls created here. Describing themselves as "dark rock/alternative", I would definitely agree with that assessment, and for me this was a journey to somewhere I don't go often, and I very much liked that about this album. Music should take you places, and The House of Wonders was a great trip indeed.

8.5 / 10