Today I have the pleasure of reviewing Doyle’s second album called “As We Die”. For all those that follow underground music, but have been living under a rock Doyle’s guitar parts helped bring to life the Misfits among many other bad ass albums skirting the line of punk and metal. Doyle has always been associated with darker themes as far as lyrics and horror imagery go. His first album under the moniker followed this path but does his second album? This is Doyle’s second collaboration with vocalist Alex Story of the Cancerslugs.

A Track By Track Review Of Doyle II As We Die

Kiss Me As We Die – This song is a great opener for this album in my opinion. The song opens with a slow, grainy, distorted sound Doyle is known for. It quickly morphs into a steady gallop centered in heavy metal. The vocals start off pretty abrasive with some screaming from Story. Once it gets to the chorus Story sings a little. I really like how this song has some slower crunchy guitar parts towards the end that are pretty heavy and then speeds back up. Definitely more of a metal song with a cool sing-along chorus. The lyrics have some vampire themes to them. 5/5

Beast Like Me – Beast Like Me starts off as a pretty upbeat song from the rip. By this song you can tell Alex Story has some pretty versatile vocals to go with Doyle’s guitar parts. The band, in general, is pretty tight but most of the songs on this album are constantly going between metal and punk parts which are awesome in my book. I would say this song has more of a punk beat to it, but it definitely has its heavier parts. Story sticks to more melodic singing than screaming in this song. The lyrics have werewolf references going with them. The chorus in this song is another highlight. 4/5

God of Flies – On the 3rd track of this album, they slow the tempo down a bit. Story gets to do a little more singing and harmonizing on this song. Some parts of this song remind me of some old school Acid Bath (great band by the way). This song is pretty dark lyrically compared to the first two songs. Doyle has some pretty cool guitar parts on this song. Lots of imagery about destroying the world and giving offerings to the god of flies and becoming one with him. Bad ass song more on the metal side of things. 5/5

Run For Your Life – Run for your life is a fun song that is almost a straightforward punk song. It is literally about being chased down by a killer and you guessed it you have to “run for your life fight to survive your only hope is to die”. Great chorus and song. I really enjoy this song. It is pretty straightforward and catchy. I can see this being a really fun song to play live and get the crowd going. 5/5

Darkside – Darkside starts off pretty upbeat guitar-wise with occult horror lyrics. The song is a pretty straightforward number with Doyle doing some offbeat guitar effects during the song. I would say this song is 50/50 as far as the punk and metal ratio go. It has another cool sing along chorus and lyrics to follow the theme of living on the dark side of things. 4/5

Witchcraft – Probably the closest thing this album has to a love song. It is a song about falling in love with a witch. It is a pretty fun song. Doyle has some cool guitar effects in this song and has some parts where he jams the fuck out. This song is almost like a heavy rock song with a chorus plucked straight out of an unreleased Misfits song. I dig the way they put it together. 5/5

King of The Undead – Another pretty straight forward song musically and lyrically. The song is called the King of The Undead. They slow things down a little bit on this song. It is more of a slow plodding song. I dig how Story switches his vocals up a bunch on this song from whispering to singing his ass off to screaming. Of course, Doyle’s guitars allow this by going all over the place. The lyrics talk about the King of The Undead taking his victim over to his side by sunrise. Another cool horror themed song. 5/5

Virgin Sacrifice – I really dig this song. The guitars start off really menacing. It has more of a slow punk song feel to it with a metal chorus. As one would guess this song is the graphic detail of a mass virgin sacrifice complete with catchy chorus. As I am sure you have heard me say many times I really dig a lot of the chorus on this song. I like how the song moves forward. Again Doyle gets some cool moments to noodle on his guitar that add his signature sounds on this track. Pretty straight forward and simple song, but one of my favorites. 5/5

We Belong Dead – We Belong Dead slows the tempo down again. The chorus is another one that could have been taken straight out of the 80’s. I like how the guitars really set the mood for this song. They are dark and slow until the chorus hits. I dig how Doyle adds the melody to the chorus. The song’s lyrics are again pretty straight forward. The lyrics have the theme of all the evil things they do and how they are better off dead. 5/5

Show No Mercy – I know I have said a lot of these songs are pretty straight forward and fit with their song titles in sound and lyrics, but Show No Mercy is probably the most straightforward song on this album down to the chorus. The song is about the Dead taking over the world. The guitars are that of a medium paced metal song. Another solid horror themed song. Story doesn’t switch up his vocals on this song much and goes from some speak/sing vocals to gruff singing vocals. 4/5

Dark Gods Arise – Dark Gods Arise is probably the closest thing this album has to a ballad. It is a slow paced song about Evil Gods coming back to destroy the world. Story does some normal vocals and gets to harmonize a little bit more on this song. Again dark lyrics and horror themes abound in this song. 4/5

Blood On The Axe – This is probably my favorite track on this album. It is also probably the heaviest song on the album. This song gallops straight out of the gate. Story screams most of the lyrics in this song. This song definitely has a thrash metal feel about someone going on an axe murder rampage. The chorus “Killing everything on my path, my heart is cold and black like blood on the axe” is catchy and super upbeat for such dark subject matter. I can see a huge mosh pit started to this song if they play it live. There are a lot of memorable lines in this song. The middle part where they slow down the song and exclaim “we are gonna break your body tonight with axe in the hand” is definitely a highlight of the song. Turn this song up loud and jam it. Songs like this are a perfect example of the metal-punk hybrid sound Doyle brings to the table. 5/5

Night of the Sin – The album closes with Night of Sin and just like the opener this is the perfect closer to this album. It starts with a small weird off beat guitar build up before going straight into a pummel pace. The song centers on as you probably guessed a night of sin. Killing, romancing of corpses, and creatures of the night are all here. Again even though this is an upbeat song it has a pretty badass slower part in the middle. The lyrics and guitar go great together on this song. The versatility of Doyle and Story in guitar and vocals is really what makes this song and album badass in general. 4/5

Conclusion:

For Doyle’s second album with Alex Story, I am pretty impressed. Their first album they did together was one of my favorites of that year. If you are a fan of Doyle’s guitar style from the Misfits and beyond you can really hear that on this album. I enjoy how there is more of an emphasis on metal than in the past, but there are a lot of really good spots in here that remind you of some of Doyle’s best punk guitar work. As I have also mentioned I feel without Alex Story’s vocals these albums would not exist. I was not familiar with the Cancerslugs before hearing the first Doyle album. His range of vocals from whispering to clean singing to screaming vocals is impressive and really meshes well with Doyle’s style. This album is a great example of something for punk, metal, and horror fans. The themes go well with Doyle’s aggressive and jagged style. It is almost as if his riffs are rusty distorted knives stabbing the eardrum and imaginations of those pure of heart and worse. There are a few songs that get somewhat repetitive if you are not into this style of music. However, I can’t see too many people that like his style of guitar and music not digging every song on this album. I feel like the chemistry between Doyle and Story is better on this album than the last one and musically the songs are tighter. If you like your music dark, disturbing, aggressive, and heavy check out this album 4.5/5