Acid Bath

For the Acid Bath Murderer, see John George Haigh.

Acid Bath

Acid Bath was a seminal American sludge metal band from Houma, Louisiana that was active from 1991 to 1997. Acid Bath combined doom metal roots with influences from black metal, death metal, gothic rock, and blues-rock. In a Pit Magazine interview, vocalist Dax Riggs classified their sound as "death rock" (referring to death as a dominant lyrical theme, rather than deathrock), and also classified the band's music as a blending of stoner metal and doom metal. In another interview, guitarist Sammy Duet described their sound as "gothic hardcore".

Biography

Acid Bath was an incarnation of two bands, Dark Karnival which featured Audie Pitre, Sammy "Pierre" Duet, and Tommy Viator, and Golgotha which featured Dax Riggs, Mike Sanchez, Jimmy Kyle, and Jerry "Boon" Bushinell. Tommy Viator was later replaced by Jimmy Kyle. Joseph J. Fontenot was the bassist for a short period of time and so was Hans van den Aardweg. Hans left Golgotha for spiritual reasons - after hearing Dax sing the lyrics to Apartment 13 "...cut her from one stinking hole to the next." Tommy Viator and Joseph Fontenot were also members of Audie's band Shrüm.

Acid Bath was formed in 1991. The band was based south of New Orleans in several small towns including Houma, Thibodaux, Morgan City and Galliano. Influenced by thrash metal as well as bands and artists such as Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Celtic Frost, Carcass, Darkthrone, they recorded their demo Hymns of the Needle Freak with their manager and producer Keith Falgout in 1993. The strength of the demo earned them a deal with an independent label. They released When the Kite String Pops produced by Spike Cassidy in 1994, followed two years later by their second and final effort Paegan Terrorism Tactics (also produced by Keith Falgout). Neither gained them mainstream success by any means, but both albums earned a high degree of underground acclaim. In 2005, another album composed of their demos, Demos: 1993 - 1996, was released.

Break up and subsequent projects

After two studio albums, Acid Bath's career came to an abrupt close in 1997 when bass guitarist Audie Pitre and his parents were killed by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign.

While rumors of another album circulated after the band's end, nothing new surfaced. The supposed album was named "Killer Rat Poison". Tommy Viator played keyboards on this album. Sammy Duet has only given out copies to a few close friends due to the fact that he used some of the riffs for Goatwhore's earlier material.

Dax Riggs and Mike Sanchez went on to perform in the band Agents of Oblivion, releasing one self-titled album in 2000 and disbanding shortly thereafter. Starting in 2000, Riggs was also the frontman for the swamp rock band Deadboy & the Elephantmen, before he began releasing material under his own name in 2007. Sammy Pierre Duet was once a member of Crowbar, but has since left the band. He is now a member of the blackened death metal band Goatwhore and Ritual Killer and his doom metal band with Kelly Pitre (the brother of Audie) Vual. Sammy Duet has remained an open satanist since his days in Acid Bath. Audie formed a unique metal band in 1995, blending black metal vocals with the heavy sound of two bassists with no guitars, known as Shrüm. Shrüm utilized one bass guitar with distortion with the other being clean.

Musical legacy

Despite only releasing two albums, as well as a number of radio edits and an official bootleg DVD, Acid Bath have gained a strong underground following (especially in Louisiana) owing to the unique, experimental nature of their music.

Acid Bath are best known for blending extreme, grindcore-influenced sludge metal with a mixture of death growls and melancholic goth/grunge-style vocals and acoustic guitar passages, as well as use of sampling and the spoken word poetry. The band sampled sound clips from controversial movies including Blue Velvet and A Clockwork Orange. Dax Riggs' vocals were processed, which produced an industrial feel; some other instruments have been processed through industrial effects in their recordings (such as the snare drum on the second half of "New Death Sensation"). One of Acid Bath's most trademark sounds was the way in which they crafted multiple tempo changes and worked them into the song structure.

Dax Riggs' lyrics often display an obsession with death, drug use, mental illness, Louisiana-based regional culture, and continuous references to animism as well as other related ideologies. He has claimed these inspirations are culled from comic books, namely those authored by Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Clive Barker. Dax Riggs has expressed admiration for ANSWER Me! and Boiled Angel. Allmusic's William York has stated that the song "Venus Blue" could have been a radio hit "if not for the graphic lyrics". Another facet of their presentation which may not have endeared them to popular sentiment was the use of art by John Wayne Gacy and Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Due to the controversy surrounding Kevorkian's artwork on the album, Paegan Terrorism Tactics was initially banned from Australia. The ban has since been lifted.

Members

Last line-up

• Dax Riggs - lead vocals
• Sammy "Pierre" Duet - guitar, backing vocals
• Mike Sanchez - guitar, backing vocals
• Jimmy Kyle - drums

Former members

• Audie Pitre - bass guitar, backing vocals (1991-1997)
• Joseph Fontenot - bass guitar
• Tommy Viator - keyboards

Discography

Albums & compilations

• When the Kite String Pops (1994)
• Paegan Terrorism Tactics (1996)
• Demos: 1993-1996 (2005)

Demos

• Wet Dreams of the Insane (Golgotha demo) (1991)
• Screams of the Butterfly (1992)
• Demo II (1993)
• Hymns of the Needle Freak (1993)
• Liquid Death Bootleg (1993)
• Radio Edits 1 (1994)
• Radio Edits 2 (1996)
• Paegan Terrorism Tactics Outtakes (1996)

Videos

• "Apocalyptic Sunshine Bootleg" (1994)
• "Toubabo Koomi" (1994)
• "Double Live Bootleg!" DVD (2002)

External links

• Acid Bath Official Website