siLLy puPPy It occurred to me as i was revisiting ACID BATH’s lauded 90s masterworks recently that this Louisiana band that latched onto the sludge metal scene (but was so much more), REALLY was equivalent to a musical funhouse of everything scrumptious and endearing about what 90s hard rock and metal scenes had to offer. While this band that was founded in Houma in 1991 only lasted a mere six years before the death of bassist Audie Pitre which caused the band to break up, ACID BATH has attained a legendary status as one of those bands that did it all right but was pretty much ignored during its heyday. PAEGAN TERRORISM TACTICS emerged two years after the band’s eclectic 90s mishmash of styles “When The Kite String Pops” and continues the potpourri of influences from hardcore punk, alternative metal, grunge, stoner metal as well as bluesy southern rock as well as a few sprinklings of thrash and death metal to be heard.

Also following in the footsteps of the debut, ACID BATH displayed the artwork of yet another controversial figure, this time Dr. Jack Kevorkian who was tagged Dr Death for his assistance of over 130 patients to commit suicide. The clever artwork pretty much sums up the dark subject matter of lead singer and primary songwriter Dax Riggs and his fasciation with all things morbid, nihilistic, violent and manic. Once again ACID BATH delivered a second offering that was equivalent to a classic double album’s worth of material with 12 tracks adding up to just over 72 minutes but adopted the irritating 90s trend of adding wasted minutes of silence before a hidden outro, in this case nearly 17 minutes. So musically speaking that leaves a more digestible 57 minutes or so of musical morsels to devour. As with “Kite Strings,” PAEGAN TERRORISM TACTICS is like a roller coaster of everything 90s all existing on one wild ride of top notch sludgy alt metal with a nod to various 90s bands and genres.

The album is all over the map with the first two tracks, “Paegan Love Song” and “Bleed Me An Ocean” starting things off more as a mix of pure sludge metal mixed with the grooviness of the same style of bluesy alternative rock / metal brought to the masses by bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. ACID BATH certainly be accused of musical monotony because after two sludge-fests comes the Alice In Chains inspired “Graveflower” and “Diäb Soulé” that offer some bluesy alternative metal slowed down a bit with Riggs’ signature soulful singing style but the beauty of Riggs’ style and ACID BATH in general is that they don’t stick to one style for too overly long and heavy sludge riffing and demonic growly vocals are never far away. While all the musicians deserves kudos for maintaining a consistency within the context of whatever style they’re tackling, drummer Jimmy Kyle stands out for his inventive drumming accompaniments which always keep the tracks from sounding like any 90s contemporaries.

After a short foray into the fastest track, the thrashy metal blitzkrieg of “Locust Spawning,” ACID BATH shifts gears once again with a trippy psychedelic poetic prose in the form of “Old Skin” which while brief, offers a bizarre intermission and ushers in the more Soundgarden influenced “New Death Sensation” and “Venus Blue” which slow it all down and offer those ridiculous catchy melodies that really make ACID BATH addictive upon a single exposure. But wait! There’s more in this funhouse. Oh hell yeah! “13 Fingers” returns to the “deathened bluesy alt metal with sludge metal dressing and followed by speed sludge ferocity of “New Corpse.” In fact this is the most hardcore punk-like track except with those demonic screams that Riggs belts out with ease. The closing “Dead Girl” is really just a 7 1/2 minute track padded with unwelcome silence and a short poetic prose that reprises the “Old Skin” dialogue. This track is akin to the unplugged phase of Alice In Chains with bluesy acoustic guitars offering Riggs’ soulful vocals to soar.

While everyone has their favorite of the two albums ACID BATH released ( i slightly prefer the debut), there’s no doubt that this neglected band of its era released two powerhouses of 90s hard rock / metal that have managed to surface in the modern era as the excellence that they are. Unfortunately this was the end of the road for ACID BATH due to the fact bassist Audie Pitre was killed by a drunk driver. While the band easily could’ve carried on given that Riggs was the primarily player, for whatever reason this band couldn’t fathom losing a brother and in his honor retired never knowing if the band’s two albums would ever catch on to a wider audience or not. Luckily for everyone involved, both albums indeed have received a belated classic status and deservingly so. While many could easily view ACID BATH’s albums as inconsistent, what makes them so damn brilliant is that despite the many styles on board, these guys perfectly nailed everything they touched. There is no bad track on here. None. Quite an achievement and despite all the easily identifiable influences, Riggs’ dark subject matter kept the band from reaching the mainstream despite the catchy tunes that could’ve taken them far. Second masterpiece for ACID BATH and sadly the last but at least they made their short time really count.

UMUR "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Louisiana based metal act Acid Bath. The album was released through Rotten Records in November 1996 and it´s the successor to "When the Kite String Pops" from 1994. The two albums feature the same lineup. "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" would be Acid Bath´s last album release as they split-up in 1997 following the death of bassist Audie Pitre.

"When the Kite String Pops (1994)" was quite the diverse release and it was generally a hard release to put a label on, other than calling it a really, really heavy album with schizophrenic moments of stylistic insanity. The same pretty much applies to "Paegan Terrorism Tactics". It´s an incredibly heavy album which oozes a dark and depressive atmosphere, but also loads of frustration and aggression. The band are very well playing. They have an organic playing style and understand the importance of changing pace and dynamics throughout the album. Lead vocalist Dax Riggs is the real star here though. Not since the heyday of Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) have I heard a vocalist able to conjure up nightmarish opium dreams with an authentic intensity and great passion like Riggs does here. Damn he is a great singer with a powerful voice and the skills to use it to full effect. His lyrics are nicely abstract and gloomy too. Riggs sings both warm paatos filled clean vocal parts and distorted screaming "core" tinged parts. The latter provides the music with an extreme metal edge, but there are also some pretty raw riffs and rhythms featured on the album, which point in that direction.

"Paegan Terrorism Tactics" is overall a diverse and quite dynamic album though, and it can go from the most intense and crushingly heavy doomy grooves, to dark psychadelic tinged atmospheric parts, to semi-avant garde type section, to a track like "Dead Girl", which is best described as a bizarre singer/songwriter type track, featuring only vocals and acoustic guitar. Doom, sludge, stoner, alternative, punk, hardcore, and hard rock elements all combined into something pretty unique sounding.

One of the great assets of the album is how the tracks are constructed. While all tracks feature vers/chorus structures during their playing time, most go beyond that tried and true formula, and most feature unconventional structures and sections. The diversity of the material may initially come off as a bit stylistically inconsistent and maybe even confusing to the listener, but those ready for a sonic journey into the adventurous there is a good chance they will come away from the listening experience intrigued. Some maybe even excited...

"Paegan Terrorism Tactics" is not an easy listening experience despite parts of it being relatively accessible in nature. But the eclectic material is one of the major attractions of the album. Add to that brilliant musicianship and a powerful, organic, and raw sound production, and the album is upon conclusion a high quality release. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

Warthur On their second album Acid Bath diversify their sound a little, delving into the sludge-adjacent portions of stoner rock and grunge here, getting a little mellow with their psychedelic side there, and generally offering a deliciously morbid meditation on death and the various religious distractions from it. The tragedy of Audie Pitre's death as the result of a drunk driver ramming the Pitre family car brought an end to Acid Bath, making the album's near-obsessive focus on death somewhat eerie in retrospect, but even if you aren't aware of that the album's morbid, downbeat tone is brilliantly realised and will stand out to any listener.

dreadpirateroberts Aside from the sludge and viciousness, what always strikes me about ‘Acid Bath’ is the way Dax, Sammy and Audie arrange their vocals. On one hand Dax has his Morrison-slur and his own scream, but he is often backed (to great effect) by either guitarist’s distorted vocals, in something of a counterpoint. In fact, even Riggs’ manner of throwing just a single clean or harsh word into a line always keeps things interesting, in spite of lyrics that seem at times a little ‘teenage’ – as if he’s working hard to convince the listener how mysterious and macabre he can be. (Although, what’s not to like about ‘zombies eating dust in Mexico’?) And I say that with fondness, as part of what’s so enjoyable with this album is the mixture of corny/poetic lyrics, which also reveal a sense of humour that’s more sly than I’ve given credit for here.

The distorted production technique, combined with the darker, aforementioned sludge-sound, is the perfect mix of sharpness and murk, adding additional dynamic to songs that have become both gentler and heavier since their debut ‘When the Kite String Pops.’ In addition to this the compositions on ‘Paegan Terrorism Tactics’ are a cut above older songs for me, as if the band both found the ability to distil their ideas into fewer pieces and work memorable riffs and structures into the album without sacrificing their established sound. This is most obvious where they use the classic Black Sabbath ‘tempo change’ approach and apply it to pieces like “Bleed me an Ocean” or “Paegan Love Song” – two outstanding openers that might have served as singles.

Heavier, almost thrash-pieces like ‘Locust Spawning’ and ’13 Fingers’ are in sharp contrast to the acoustic blues of ‘Dead Girl’ or the feeling of hopelessness that the ‘ballad’ “New Death Sensation” brings, a song that occupies the middle ground between the two more introspective moments from their first album. Elsewhere that stoner-like sludge gets back in the driver’s seat and it’s more of what the band do so well, such as “Diab Soule” or the stand out track “Graveflower” with its wonderfully fuzzy guitar solo.

‘Acid Bath’ released two of my favourite metal albums from the 90s, and it’s a damn shame they couldn’t do more due to Audie Pitre’s untimely death, but two is better than none, and this album presents a harrowing and satisfying collection of songs that outstrip most of the material on the debut and should satisfy a lot of fans of sludge, heavy and death metal, and maybe even folks who like their rock with extra metal.