Doyle – Abominator (Album Review…sort of.)

This particular review is not going to be like my other reviews, or even like any of the other reviews on the site. I am going to forego the traditional number grading system for a few reasons. We as a people rely too heavily on numbers to rule our lives. We don’t like wasting time. Instead of reading the actual review or listening to the record, we tend to just skip to the bottom in order to see the score it received. To make finding these scores even easier, we worship websites like Metacritic, which display the average score something “has” based upon a number of reviews. With a few clicks, you can see the “score” that an album, movie or video game has received based on “critics'” scores. If it’s below a 70, we tend to not give a shit and move on. Hell, even companies (namely a few video game companies) set goals to reach a certain scores on Metacritic. Who decided that this is how things are done? What gives anyone the right to condemn something because it got a 69 instead of a 70? Ultimately, this is a rant for another day, but I’d like to start moving away from numbers so people can get back in touch with what really matters.. the music.

The other reason? The record is that fucking good. I have nothing negative to say about it. I’ve listened to it from start to finish about three times now, and I still find myself restarting it. There isn’t a bad song on it.

Doyle is the former guitarist for the legendary horror punk band, The Misfits. This is technically his first solo outing since his time with them. The music is difficult to describe easily. It definitely has horror punk elements from The Misfits, sprinkled with bits of hard rock and punk rock, but the music is far too heavy to fall under any of those labels. This is a metal album through and through, just with healthy doses of the aforementioned genres. The sound is truly unique and has to be experienced firsthand. Clocking in at 43 and a half minutes, the record succeeds in not overstaying its welcome, while leaving the listener salivating for more.

While this is Doyle’s spot in the limelight, there is another hidden gem here. All of the vocals on the album are provided by Alex Story, vocalist of the cult underground band Cancerslug. (If you don’t know them, check them out here. They will change your life.) Though not quite as heavy as this album, Alex’s band sits in the same genre of horror-themed metal and punk rock, which means he is the perfect fit as the vocalist of this album/band.

As if it weren’t painfully clear by this point, this record comes highly recommended from us. It will satisfy any fan of rock and metal. Not much else to say other than.. Just buy it.