Doyle - Doyle II: As We Die: Album Review

Is Doyle’s new release a mosh amongst the dead, or is it pushing up daisies?

If there’s one thing that can be said about the modern mess that is The Misfits, it’s that everyone with some level of talent is no longer a part of it. Danzig left years ago and got famous all by himself (while suing the pants off of everyone he sees), Doyle has a new solo outfit, and Dr. Chud and Michael Graves have basically fallen off the face of the earth. Really, Doyle doing his own thing is why I was so supportive of his first release, Abominator. It was a harsh, gloomy heavy metal album that showed a lot of potential. It’s also the reason I wanted his success to continue. After all, if his solo career does well, he won’t have to crawl back to Jerry Only and spend his talent writing glorified Party City jingles.

Unfortunately, I fear the worst may end up happening. Abominator was not perfect, but like I said, it had potential, and all it needed was some attention and a sales boost. As We Die (because calling it Doyle II is just stupid) on the other hand, doesn’t show any level of evolution or maturity from Doyle, and instead recycles his already small bag of tricks.

Doyle’s particular style of gothic heavy metal returns in the exact same form it did on his last record. Heavy metal riffing with the punk influences you probably heard on The Misfits’ American Psycho, minus the melody and with more serious lyrics and vocals. The problem here being, that Abominator already did all this, and As We Die plays out the exact same way, minus the excuses of it being Doyle’s first attempt at songwriting. The songs themselves also lack the tone and gloomy, angry atmosphere that made Abominator work with this style.

As We Die spends its fairly short run time reminding me of all the failings Abominator had. Doyle’s guitar work is solid, but doesn’t show any real personality or progression beyond what Abominator already did. Doyle’s approach to songwriting seems to rely too heavily on one riff that usually isn’t catchy or heavy enough to last a whole song, so the short songs end up feeling padded as Doyle repeats the shame chords for only a couple of minutes. There are definitely some tracks that try to break up that pattern (see. Virgin Sacrifice), and other times where Doyle’s particular hook hits that moshy-soft spot (see: Blood On The Axe) but it isn’t enough to make the album as a whole feel like a retread of past material. So the riffs chug along and Alex Story’s harsh voice screams and howls, but before you know it, half of the album is over and you wonder why you’re listening to this.

Speaking of Alex Story, his vocals are still top notch. “Brutal” and “heavy” get thrown around a lot in the metal scene, but Story is one of the most talented musicians in Doyle’s arsenal. His gravel filled yells and howls are certainly a highlight on the record, but even he can’t save these lackluster lyrics. Doyle’s lyrics are certainly horror focused but much like the modern Misfits it feels like Doyle wrote down “be scary” on a piece of paper and that’s as far as he got. So you got lyrics about violence and witchcraft and other scary stuff that screams of a PG-13 horror movie. Somewhere in the creative process, it all just got neutered. I’ll be the first person to tell you that Abominator focused a little too much on necrophilia (like to a frankly odd degree) but at least it had shock value; some personality. This is just banal.

As We Die isn’t the kid brother to Abominator, it’s the red headed step child. It’s a sad day of playing alone in the mud only to come home and track mud all over the carpet. It’s a boring album that shows that Doyle isn’t so much rushing out albums as he is sneezing them out.

4/10