Southern madness: Paegan Terrorism Tactics by Acid BAth

Before venturing into his solo career, Dax Riggs was a vocalist of one cult band: Acid Bath. They are so underground that they aren’t in the Kurrent Music database so this article is actually a review of their second album, Paegan Terrorism Tactics

Acid bath is, for me, one of the best bands ever. Raised from the swamps of Louisiana, they released only two albums (their bassist got killed in a car accident shortly after rumors emerged about a third album being recorded) but their musical legacy is still strong. They are one of the pioneers of sludge metal, even though while they were active, that term hasn’t existed. Music of Acid Bath is a combination of Doom, Gothic, Death, Hardcore and Black metal, which in mishmash with some Country, Folk, and Grunge elements made some wicked tunes. Songs are ostensibly chaotic, but if you look a little bit deeper a gushy song structure appears. Divergence was one of the Acid Bath’s trademarks, one song can go deep into the south with crushing guitars, snarling drums and hellish vocals, and the next one could be a southern doom-rock, clean vocals ballad. It’s crazy, but that’s ok because they were crazy. Lyrics are sick, morbid and extremely graphic. Death, serial killers, drugs, alcohol, rape, murder, paganism and nihilism were the main subjects of the songs, and some of them are really disturbing when first listened to.

Vocals performed by Dax Rigs are phenomenal, he has that southern vibe in his clean singing, it’s like listening to some southern rock band, but he can scream, growl, and do anything in between. Paegan Terrorism Tactics is their second and last album. It’s filled with doomy melodies, bloody scenery, and psychopathic lyrics. It starts with one of their trademark songs, Paegan Love Song, a mix of doom, hardcore and grunge vocals. Graveflower is a doomy ballad, with some disturbing lyrics; Diab Soule and Locust Spawning are two madhouse visits making you worried about your own sanity. Venus Blue is a straight hit in the head with its grunge atmosphere and New Corpse could be described as a dance of lunatics; black, death, and grindcore combined together with a fistful of crust. And the last song on the album, Dead Girls, is basically a country ballad, although a very dark one.

This music shaped (along with Crowbar and Eyehategod) a whole genre and it should be listened to again and again. Wicked songwriting, sadistically good vocals and tons of morbid vibe made this album one of the best sludge releases, and it is still strong, even 20 years after it got released. This music is for everyone who thinks that they really don’t have genre limits, listen to it and you might discover the opposite.