Review: The Callous Daoboys pour their heart and failures into new album, "I Don't Want to See You in Heaven," immersing us deeper into their dystopian world.

It’s always a good day to enjoy the classics like hot dogs, screened in porches, and country-fried mathcore band, The Callous Daoboys. Sure, your neighbors may be a little confused. As if the cracked drums, napalm guitar riffs, and pop breaks weren’t enough; The Atlanta-based sextuplet takes a deeper stab into the taboo and avant-garde imagery with their new album titled “I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven."

The LP begins with an introductory message from The Museum of Failure, a setting 300 years in the future. The Daoboys immediately immerse us into this dystopian world with the ethos of embarrassment, and the meta themes of internalized guilt and regret that comes with being in a band. Shortly thereafter, you’re getting what you paid for. In songs like the singles “Lemon” and “Two-Headed Trout”, the lyrical themes of failure direct themselves in a vulnerable, but seemingly palatable manner. “I'll swim upstream again, show you all the hooks in my mouth” and "Look at how gullible I can be with my fins and my gills in sync" are two lines that scream out the implied desperation of the efforts the band has made to squeeze themselves and their antics into an already rigid metal scene.

Apart from the lyrical muscles of Carson Pace, the rhythm section has a lot to offer here. The guitar riffs are bizarre at times, placing ripping high frequency licks over their machine gun rhythm. Listeners who had trouble clapping along to their previous efforts will love the fluidity of songs like “Full Moon Guidance” and “Distracted by the Mona Lisa”. The Callous Daoboys turn down the intensity just a gnats’ ass with “Distracted” and “Schizophrenia Legacy” and explore the brooding ballad sound that no one can turn away from. The album concludes with “III. Country Song in Reverse”, an epic epilogue for an otherwise short and sweet album. With an 11:18 runtime, it's a hike to get through. However, the changes from lo-fi swing to full obliteration are definitely enough to compliment your coffee. And in true Daoboys fashion, they strip you from the frills of slow and clean guitar tones and beat you with cataclysmic walls of sound. 

Overall, this is a supreme collection from the band and Atlanta producer/engineer Dom Maduri. The duo of Pace and Maduri is a match made in heaven; a heaven they don’t want to see you in (Hey-oh). The growth of this band has been something to behold and envy, but the true nature of acceptance shows you the heart that went into this LP. These efforts entail the cathartic “heart on your sleeve” mentality to push further with your dreams, even if the visions are not realized by the people who tend to ignite them in the first place. Love them or hate them; that sounds like a classic to me. There’s something for everyone here.