Acid Bath

Acid Bath was an incarnation of two bands,[3] 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" Businelli. Golgotha's bassists were in frequent rotation finally culminating with Chad Pierce, who would then be succeeded by Pitre during Acid Bath's formation. Tommy Viator was later replaced by Jimmy Kyle on drums but would return to play keyboards toward the end of the band's career. Joseph J. Fontenot was the bassist for a short period of time.

Acid Bath formed in 1991.[3] The band was based south of New Orleans in several small towns including Houma, Thibodaux, Morgan City and Galliano.[3] Influenced by thrash metal as well as bands and artists such as Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Celtic Frost, Carcass and Darkthrone,[3] 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 Rotten Records, an independent label. They released When the Kite String Pops produced by Spike Cassidy in 1994,[4] followed two years later by their second and final effort Paegan Terrorism Tactics (also produced by Keith Falgout).[5] Neither gained them mainstream success, but both albums earned a high degree of underground acclaim. In 2005, another album composed of their demos, Demos: 1993–1996, was released.

Acid Bath is best known for blending extreme, death metal-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 spoken word poetry. AllMusic has called the band's sound "difficult to pigeonhole" and described it as "a blend of Black Sabbath-like sludge, bluesy Southern rock, death metal, hardcore, and hints of goth and industrial".[10] In a Pit Magazine interview, vocalist Dax Riggs classified their sound as "death rock".[3] In another interview, guitarist Sammy Duet described their sound as "gothic hardcore".[11]

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. Their experimentation drifted into diverse territory. The song "Scream of the Butterfly" is an acoustic blues song with double bass drum patterns toward the end of the song. The song "The Bones of Baby Dolls" experiments with folk musicianship, and the song "Dead Girl" was described as a country song by Dax Riggs.

Dax Riggs' lyrics are frequently poetic, often displaying an obsession with death, drug use, mental illness, dark humor, Louisiana-based regional culture, and continuous references to animism as well as paganism, nihilism, and misanthropy. He has claimed these inspirations are culled from comic books, namely those authored by Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Clive Barker,[3] and has also 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".[12] 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.[3] Due to the controversy surrounding Kevorkian's artwork For He Is Raised on the album, Paegan Terrorism Tactics was initially banned from Australia.[13] The ban has since been lifted. The cover of the band's 1994 extended play simply entitled Edits featured the artwork of Richard Ramirez.[14] The cover of their 1996 compilation entitled Radio Edits featured the artwork of Kenneth Bianchi.[15] Their song "Diäb Soulé" ("Drunken Devil" in Cajun French) starts out with an audio sample of Jim Jones of the People's Temple screaming. Their song "Toubabo Koomi", mistranslated as "Land of White Cannibals", is a reference to the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

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

• Official website
• Acid Bath at AllMusic