Doggett Strips Down Every Lie With A Brutal Pop-Punk Confession In "Shoot To Kill"

Editorial Board
1 day ago
2 min read

Doggett’s Shoot to Kill hits like a warning shot that never misses. Right from the first line — “Talk to me when you’re feeling down and I don’t want to care, I will listen” — you’re pinned to the wall. It’s not sweet. It’s not polite. It’s a bitter handshake with the truth: sometimes you care but wish you didn’t. Sometimes you show up, but only halfway — half out of loyalty, half out of pure bored spite.

Beneath the snap of the guitars and the spit of the dynamic fast paced drums, there’s a deeper confession. “I don’t want to care and I don’t want to talk and it’s always been that way.” It’s not nihilism — it’s honesty dressed in punk chords. The chorus breaks through the tension: “Shoot to kill, shoot to kill, from the bottom of my heart, there’s an animal, a raging beast that’s frightened of the dark.”

That one line alone flips the whole track: rage isn’t always power — sometimes it’s a defense, sometimes it’s fear in disguise.

Doggett’s vocal leans raw and confessional. No gloss. No fake edge. Just a voice cracking at the right moments, riding the tight, driving guitars Harry Tremlett captured with an ear for leaving things jagged enough to cut. When the bridge returns — “It’s just one night and it’s just one kiss, but that’s all we ever do…” — it feels like regret muttered into a bathroom mirror after midnight. Then the killer: “I’m blowing my brains out thinking what I want to do to you.” Brutal. Unfiltered. Honest. The music swells just enough to make you feel it but never wraps it in comfort.

What holds it all together is the simplicity. The whole thing is a controlled burn — just guitar, bass, drums, a vocal tearing itself open. Guy Page’s mastering keeps it sharp but doesn’t drain the grit. It sounds like a live basement show at 2 AM, sweat dripping, bodies crashing, hearts beating too loud to lie.

There’s no fake moral here. Shoot to Kill isn’t about redemption — it’s about putting the mess out in the open. Loneliness, lust, spite, the need to feel anything real enough to bleed. The whole song says: I know it’s poison — I’m drinking it anyway.

It’s fast, it’s short, it’s addictive in the way the best raw pop-punk should be. Play it loud, break a bottle, mean every word you scream back. Doggett doesn’t want your comfort. He wants you to see the strings — and cut them.

Shoot to Kill produced by Simon Doggett and Harry Tremlett, engineered by Harry Tremlett, mastered by Guy Page. Music and lyrics by Doggett.