In a world where anyone’s 15 minutes of fame is just one viral clip away, Doc Coyle – guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, writer, podcaster, and outspoken voice – has staked his claim by being a renaissance man who followed his north star, stayed true to his passion, and worked hard consistently for over 25 years climbing to a place of considerable notoriety in the heavy music world.
Doc Coyle began his foray into the music industry with New Jersey metal band, God Forbid. Humble beginnings that started in the late ‘90s DIY hardcore scene progressed into a 15 year professional career with God Forbid releasing 6 full length albums on Century Media and Victory Records with sales over 300,000 globally including multiple appearances on the Billboard Top 200. The band earned a reputation as road warriors touring the world relentlessly with the biggest names and festivals in heavy music including Slipknot, Machine Head, Gwar, Ozzfest, Mayhem Festival, and many more. God Forbid was a pioneer of the Metalcore and New Wave of American Heavy Metal movements in the ‘00s.
Although he announced his departure from God Forbid in 2013 (reformed in 2022), Doc continued as an artist in the music world with a multitude of band projects. He started atmospheric, hard rock band Vagus Nerve in 2012. Their crowdfunded debut EP Visceral was released in 2016. Doc also joined drummer and YouTube star Meytal Cohen and her band alongside notable musicians, Travis Montgomery (Threat Signal, Jeff Loomis) and Eric Emery (Sky Harbor), joining them on a successful US tour as main support for the legendary Queensrÿche in 2016.
Doc’s professional career experience expanded performing as a fill-in and touring guitarist for heavyweights Lamb of God on a tour opening for Metallica in 2009, as well as stints on bass guitar, filling in with Trivium in 2009, Unearth in 2012, lead guitar duty for Darkest Hour in 2017, 2nd guitar with Mark Morton of Lamb of God’s solo band in 2019, and most recently handling rhythm guitar and backing vocals for horror-themed metalcore giants, Ice Nine Kills, on their 2023 stadium world tour supporting Metallica.
Doc also began songwriting for other notable artists contributing to Body Count’s (featuring Ice-T) 2017 Grammy nominated album, Bloodlust, on the track “This Is Why We Ride” and Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta’s solo album, The Lost Chapters, on the track “Chasing Demons”, featuring Howard Jones, formerly of Killswitch Engage.
Not many artists have even one chapter of success, but Doc would go on to have a 2nd chapter that far eclipsed his first. In 2016, Doc joined the band that would become Bad Wolves. Bad Wolves became one of the breakout hard rock artists of the last decade. Their debut album, DISOBEY, debuted the Billboard top 200 at #23, and has since achieved gold sales status in the US and Canada. The band’s breakout single, a cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie”, has been one of the most successful hard rock singles in recent history. The song has over 1 Billion streams across all platforms and has gone Platinum or multi-Platinum in several countries. Bad Wolves also has six singles that have hit the #1 spot on Active Rock radio, 2 singles hit #2, and currently has 4.5 Million monthly listeners on Spotify. In 2023, the band released its 4th LP, Die About It, on Better Noise Music, featuring the top 3 single, “Legends Never Die”, continues to tour the world, perform major festivals, and recently released a version of their song, “Hungry For Life”, featuring the renowned vocalist, Chris Daughtry.
If Doc didn’t have enough on his plate, in 2019 he joined the The Wedding Band, playing guitar along side not one, but two members of Metallica – Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, as well as Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age), Whitfield Crane (Ugly Kid Joe), and Mark Osegueda (Death Angel, Kerry King), and has played several gigs with the band in recent years. *
In 2024, Doc also became a featured player with heavy metal supergroup collective, Metal Allegiance, featuring luminaries David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mark Menghi (Joe Satriani), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), and Alex Skolnick (Testament), performing concerts on both the east and west coasts of the US.
Not to be pigeonholed as just a musician, Doc has spread his wings into multi-media. Doc made a name for himself as an Op-Ed writer for sites like Metalsucks.net and his own weblog DocCoyle.net, covering a range of topics from the music scene, sports, politics, race, relationships, and philosophy. In 2015, Doc was hired as a freelance writer to be the Modern Metal columnist for VH1.com and as a music industry and music education writer for CreativeLive.com.
This time as a writer eventually led to Doc starting his own podcast entitled The Ex-Man in 2016. Drawing from his own experience as someone who struggled to find his footing after leaving a major venture, Doc speaks with other musicians and creative professionals who have left seminal bands and jobs to find out how they coped with difficult life transitions. Guests include Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), and M. Shadows (Avenged Sevendfold). The Ex Man has released over 250 episodes in 8 years, received hundred of thousands of downloads, regularly charts on the iTunes top 100 music podcasts, and has become one of the most influential heavy music podcasts in the world.
Doc’s latest venture has him stepping into unknown territory as a solo artist. In summer 2024, Doc will release his debut solo single, “Livin’ On The Edge”, a cover of the classic ‘90s Aerosmith song. The song is accompanied by a cinematic music video that was inspired by the gripping and poignant 1993 film, Falling Down, featuring Michael Douglas. This multi-faceted artist continues to break down boundaries and blaze new trails of ambition and success.
