Label: Dine Alone Records
Released: 20th October 2021
Rating: ★★★★
Wade MacNeil has done it all. Or almost everything. The co-founder and lead guitarist of Alexisonfire and vocalist of Gallows, Dooms Children sees Wade on an altogether different musical path – one turned more inwards and personal.
Described by Wade himself as “a record about my life falling apart and then trying to pick up the pieces,” it arrives at a time where that kind of introspection is more identifiable to many than ever before. Musically, though, it’s perhaps not what we’d expect.
Opener ‘Trip With Me’ arrives with the kind of psychedelic crescendo that echoes back to classic mid-90s Britpop, while ‘Psych Hospital Blues’ and its confessional narrative and satisfying twang slips down like milk over broken glass.
In opening up his world, Wade has also opened up his musical horizons to make an album that doesn’t just hit the mark emotionally, but offers up the kind of accessibility that hits far beyond expectations. An honest-to-God gem.
