Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics |
Sometimes I listen to an album that wound up being the last recordings of a band and I think about what could have been. Today that band is Acid Bath.
Acid Bath arose out of the New Orleans metal scene in the mid-90s to release two full-length albums for Rotten Records. The second and final full length was 1996's Paegan Terrorism Tactics. Shortly after the release of this record their bass player was killed in a car crash. They tried to keep it together for a short time afterwords (I actually was in New Orleans and serendipitously got to see them play two of their final live shows). But the weight of losing their band mate and friend coupled with drug abuse basically ended it for this band way too soon. (Although members of this band would go on to form/take part in bands like Crowbar, Goatwhore and Agents of Oblivion just to name a few.)
So who was Acid Bath? Take the stoner rock styling of bands like Kyuss, couple it with heavy doses of doom and sludge (a la fellow New Orleans band EyeHatGod) then toss in some seriously depressing lyrics/vocals and what you get is a band that was extremely unique and ahead of their time. The music is the perfect combination of fast and pissed (with screeching vocals to match) and slow and droning. I honestly believe that if this band had been able to keep it together they would have reached heights unmatched by any of their now more famous New Orleans counterparts.
