I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven - The Best Daoboys Album Yet.
“This is ‘I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven’, by The Callous Daoboys”
On May 16th, 2025 The Callous Daoboys released their third studio album I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven, a 57 minute, 13 track example on why they are the most unique examples of their genre. I had SKY high expectations, ( their 2022 album, Celebrity Therapist is one of my favorite albums of all time,) and they were subsequently shattered after listening to IDWTSYIH on thursday during the BandCamp listening party. The Callous Daoboys have a style, a sound, and an approach to creating music that is singularly thiers and they have created a modern masterpiece with this album.
I was going to write a “normal” track by track review, but then I thought about how writing a more cohesive version of the notes I took while listening to the album on repeat until 3 A.M. would be more true to form and indicative of the tasteful chaos that makes this band, and this album, a singularity in my eyes.
More albums should have a first track that is exclusively a lore dump. “I.Collection of Forgotten Dreams” is the type of album opener that when I heard it, in my head I was like “yeah this makes sense.” The amount of thought that was put into the story that stitches this album together is simply a standard for what I’ve come to expect from this band. Everything they do is so multileveled and I think it’s just so cool. The spoken word dialog reminds me of the outro of “Dogfight Over the Trenches” into the beginning of “Fake Dinosaur Bones” and I’m a sucker for both of those songs. Playing into the album being its own museum exhibit in the distant future is such a unique way to present music as art in my opinion.
“Schizophrenia Legacy” is the first true track on the album and is the first example of the multiple instances this album weaves together moments of straight up metalcore into a jazz break, or some form of electro pop and the swaps never feel heavy handed or out of place, and this song is the first example of it on this album. The lines “You could drown in an inch of water with me, we could watch killing sprees like documentaries” have been circulating in my brain since the first time I heard the song.
Listening to the full album has really recontextualized the four singles for me. You can see how they all fit into the grand scheme of the album and how they sonically represent all the stylistic offerings you get from IDWTSYIH as a unit. I did more of an in depth write up on “Two Headed Trout”& “The Demon of Unreality Limping Like a Dog” when they came out in February, but my love for them hasn’t faded in the slightest.
“Tears on Lambo Leather” is one of my standout tracks on the album for sure. The switches from chaos to smooth poppy synth are musical whiplash in the best way possible. The vocal feature by Adam Easterling, (Orthodox,) compliments Carson’s vocals in such a fun way. Adam has almost a growling quality to his voice and it creates such a cool contrast that was even better than I anticipated when I saw that he was featured on this song. This feature, along with all the others on this album feel so well done and thought out to be the most effective. Which is refreshing because sometimes I feel like artist have songs with features on them just to have it on the album. This song feels kind of mean and vengeful in its lyrics and I think it’s such a fun contrast from what’s come before this on the album and after it, especially so considering this track leads into “Lemon” The contrast in the two songs also speaks to how engaging the pacing is on this album. There was never a point where I was 100% certain where the next song would go or what it would sound like, but none of the tracks ever felt like they didn’t belong with the rest.
“Lemon” is one of the most unique songs in The Daoboys catalog and I love it. It’s such a change of pace from what comes before it not only on the album tracklist but also in a broader sense of the band's discography. It has an overarching theme of melancholy that buried itself deep in my heart. The feeling of “is there truly any point to all of this, does anyone actually care” transcends careers and passions in a way that I find everyone trying to do things that make them fulfilled probably feels, especially in any form of artistic\ creative role.
“Body Horror for Birds” is another of my standout tracks because just like “Lemon,” it fully showcases the versatility of the band as a whole. This song feels like a kind of rundown night club in the city on a dark rainy night. (Complimentary) It’s a track I wouldn’t have ever expected from this band to be totally honest but they do it SO well. The drum fills and violin in this song really shine through and it’s just such a palette refresher to have these two songs back to back. I think it’s neat when bands don’t necessarily have a “title track” but drop the name of the album in a song, and this is the song it happens in, and I think the choice to put it in this song instead of in the middle of one of the more chaotic ones is an artistic choice that i enjoy immensely. The transition from this to “The Demon of Unreality Limping Like a Dog” has to be my favorite transition on the whole album.
The next two songs are back to back heavy hitters. “Idiot Temptation Force” is half “no thoughts, head empty,” music for the moshers and dancers, and half “Surprise Brass section!” I can’t wait for it to be played live and listen to the whole crowd yell the caveman parts together. If I had to show someone one song that would fully encapsulate Daoboys, it would be this one.
Songs like “Full Moon Guidance” & “Douchebag Safari” are what I think of when I think of a song by The Callous Daoboys. They each check all the boxes, but are both still wholly unique to themselves so they don’t get lost amongst the chaos of the other tracks. There isn’t a single skip on this album.
“Distracted by the Mona Lisa” was my favorite of the four singles, hands down. I’m not sure if it was the clear inspiration coming from Fall Out Boy or how the lyrics pulled at my heart, but something about it wormed its way into my brain and hasn’t left. I will probably cry when I hear it live this summer, the line “ I coulda been a contender for kinds of love that wouldn’t falter” hurt my feelings in a way I didn’t think was possible by my favorite band.
I lived three separate lives during “III. Country Song in Reverse” but none of them felt out of place. It’s almost 12 minutes long but it never felt draggy or boring and I believe that’s a testament to how GOOD at making music this band is. I have the attention span of a goldfish but I was fully engaged with this song the whole time. I wish I would put a sample of right around the 6:30 mark because it’s truly an electronic distorted sounding situation that barrels into a breakdown and it was sonically so interesting
To put an end to my rambling and waxing poetic about my favorite band, I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven is a culmination of a lot of people coming together to make something that I don’t believe any other band could make as successfully and as authentically as The Callous Daoboys. Watching and listening to this band do whatever they want with their music and be unapologetically themselves while doing so is so inspiring to me and I’d be willing to bet a lot of their fanbase feels the same. They’ve unintentionally become the voice that shouts the loudest that if you make the art YOU want to, your audience will find you.
You can catch The Callous Daoboys on their biggest USA headliner yet, starting in September 2025, with UnityTX, Your Spirit Dies, and Crush ++.
