I recently did a track by track breakdown of Acid Bath’s first album, “When The Kite String Pops”, and felt that it was necessary to continue extolling the virtues of this band’s music. A lot of people talk about that “sophomore slump” or “difficult second album” and in many cases it is certainly true. Sometime you have forever to write your first album, but once you name is out there and you have a record deal, the pressure must increase. When it comes to Acid Bath’s second album, I get the impression they didn’t care too much about expectations. They just made the album they wanted to. Some regard this second album as inferior to their first, and I think they do so because it’s more spaced out and on some songs requires more patience on the listener’s part. Personally, I believe it’s hard to compare the two albums, as they are different in many ways, but both are certainly superb works.
This album, like many great metal albums, transcends easy classification. Once again, Acid Bath created a record that stylistically swirls between psychedelia, sludge, punk, death metal, and straight up rock & roll. Vocally, Dax Riggs eschews much of the screaming he did on the first record and explored the ranges of his singing voice, which only grew more powerful and distinct on these songs. The dark, surrealistic lyrics remain in full force and paint another portrait of madness for the listener to get lost in. Album opener "Paegan Love Song" and the following track, "Bleed Me An Ocean", set the pace for what much of this album progresses at, a landside in slow motion. Midway through the album, things go even slower during "New Death Sensation", possibly the most hypnotic song Acid Bath ever wrote. The main melody of the song begins on an acoustic guitar and as the track progresses, clean tone electrics take it over and things build to an unsettling chorus of despair. The album does kick things into high gear on such tracks as "Locust Spawning", and the back to back punk style tracks "13 Fingers" and "New Corpse".
Two songs on this album could almost be 'radio' singles as they follow pretty conventional structures and have a lot of melodic hooks. These songs are "Graveflower" and "Venus Blue". The first of the two, "Graveflower", has some lyrics that stick in your head: 'I feel the flowers screaming to consume you like murder, earth and sky your cradle, earth and sky I entomb you'. The latter half of the song descends into a heavily distorted, twin guitar dirge that melts your face before going back into the verse-chorus-verse structure of the first half. "Venus Blue" contains one of Acid Bath's most memorable melodies; the intro begins on clean tone guitars, which is mirrored by Audie Pitre's effects heavy bass. This melody, like many Acid Bath melodies, sounds beautiful, yet at the same time has the feeling of menace right below the surface. This goes very well with Dax's vocal melody, especially in the 2nd verse, which I would point to as a good example of this band's writing ability. The chorus of the song is filled with distorted power chords, over which Dax sings with a lot of power and emphasizes certain words by shouting or screaming them in between the sung parts. A certain music reviewer said somewhere that this song could have been a genuine hit for the band, if not for the dark lyrics. I'm sure he meant lines like: 'How much more must we bleed, I cut their throats while they slept'. Personally, I don't think this band gave a damn about having radio hits and edited, it would take away from the song. I have heard some of the edits Rotten Records did for their first album, and though I've heard worse butcher jobs, I think it cheapens the music in the end.
Anyway, I digress. Just as I mentioned in my prior breakdown of the band's first album, I was surprised by parts of this album when I first heard them. The album's closing track, "Dead Girl", I didn't see coming after experiencing the other slow tracks in album sequence, I figured they would end it with a fast song, but I was very wrong. "Dead Girl" is a unique Acid Bath song, as it sounds nothing like any of their other low key tunes. The song consists of two acoustic guitars and Dax singing. The verses of the song are totally blues, both on the guitars and the vocals, which then go into a pre-chorus where the guitars pick up some flamenco flavor. The chorus then comes in, mixing in equal parts blues and flamenco playing together. The repeat of the pre-chorus is very cool, as one guitar plays a short flamenco style lead. At this point of about five minutes into the song, the whole thing takes a turn into an extended outro. The guitars pick up a few more subtle, stylistic changes including americana and country and simply jam away for a few more minutes and without any fanfare, the song simply stops. It's a very cool tune and I recommend it to those who like good guitar playing and good songwriting. You don't need to be a metal head to like this song.
So there it is, my impression of Acid Bath's second and final album. I can only imagine what this band might haven done next had Audie not died. Acid Bath was much more than a run of the mill metal band and hopefully they will continue to be discovered by more and more fans of uncompromising and original heavy music. I don't recommend people that do a lot of hallucinogenic drugs or are prone to night terrors listen to this band, I think these might be two of the most deranged records ever made in terms of lyrics, but more so in terms of the mood they convey. So, if you are unsettled easily, steer clear of these albums. If you want to delve further into Acid Bath, you can pick up the CD of Demos that Rotten Records released a few years ago, it's got a total of twelve songs, most of which are from the first album, but there are a few from the second. These are cool because some of the songs have different lyrics and music; you get to see how their songs evolved from demo to finished version. Speaking of Rotten Records! Hey guys, when are you going to remaster "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" on CD and re-release it on vinyl like you did with the first album? There are a lot of fans out there who will drop the cash on them in nothing flat!
In closing, there is one more track on this album that I didn't go into. This would be track twelve, which is hidden. Are you secure in your self-sanity? If so, push that forward button to hear some crazy stuff, otherwise, just leave it be.
