UMUR "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Louisiana based metal act Acid Bath. The album was released through Rotten Records in November 1996 and it´s the successor to "When the Kite String Pops" from 1994. The two albums feature the same lineup. "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" would be Acid Bath´s last album release as they split-up in 1997 following the death of bassist Audie Pitre.

"When the Kite String Pops (1994)" was quite the diverse release and it was generally a hard release to put a label on, other than calling it a really, really heavy album with schizophrenic moments of stylistic insanity. The same pretty much applies to "Paegan Terrorism Tactics". It´s an incredibly heavy album which oozes a dark and depressive atmosphere, but also loads of frustration and aggression. The band are very well playing. They have an organic playing style and understand the importance of changing pace and dynamics throughout the album. Lead vocalist Dax Riggs is the real star here though. Not since the heyday of Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) have I heard a vocalist able to conjure up nightmarish opium dreams with an authentic intensity and great passion like Riggs does here. Damn he is a great singer with a powerful voice and the skills to use it to full effect. His lyrics are nicely abstract and gloomy too. Riggs sings both warm paatos filled clean vocal parts and distorted screaming "core" tinged parts. The latter provides the music with an extreme metal edge, but there are also some pretty raw riffs and rhythms featured on the album, which point in that direction.

"Paegan Terrorism Tactics" is overall a diverse and quite dynamic album though, and it can go from the most intense and crushingly heavy doomy grooves, to dark psychadelic tinged atmospheric parts, to semi-avant garde type section, to a track like "Dead Girl", which is best described as a bizarre singer/songwriter type track, featuring only vocals and acoustic guitar. Doom, sludge, stoner, alternative, punk, hardcore, and hard rock elements all combined into something pretty unique sounding.

One of the great assets of the album is how the tracks are constructed. While all tracks feature vers/chorus structures during their playing time, most go beyond that tried and true formula, and most feature unconventional structures and sections. The diversity of the material may initially come off as a bit stylistically inconsistent and maybe even confusing to the listener, but those ready for a sonic journey into the adventurous there is a good chance they will come away from the listening experience intrigued. Some maybe even excited...

"Paegan Terrorism Tactics" is not an easy listening experience despite parts of it being relatively accessible in nature. But the eclectic material is one of the major attractions of the album. Add to that brilliant musicianship and a powerful, organic, and raw sound production, and the album is upon conclusion a high quality release. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

Warthur On their second album Acid Bath diversify their sound a little, delving into the sludge-adjacent portions of stoner rock and grunge here, getting a little mellow with their psychedelic side there, and generally offering a deliciously morbid meditation on death and the various religious distractions from it. The tragedy of Audie Pitre's death as the result of a drunk driver ramming the Pitre family car brought an end to Acid Bath, making the album's near-obsessive focus on death somewhat eerie in retrospect, but even if you aren't aware of that the album's morbid, downbeat tone is brilliantly realised and will stand out to any listener.

dreadpirateroberts Aside from the sludge and viciousness, what always strikes me about ‘Acid Bath’ is the way Dax, Sammy and Audie arrange their vocals. On one hand Dax has his Morrison-slur and his own scream, but he is often backed (to great effect) by either guitarist’s distorted vocals, in something of a counterpoint. In fact, even Riggs’ manner of throwing just a single clean or harsh word into a line always keeps things interesting, in spite of lyrics that seem at times a little ‘teenage’ – as if he’s working hard to convince the listener how mysterious and macabre he can be. (Although, what’s not to like about ‘zombies eating dust in Mexico’?) And I say that with fondness, as part of what’s so enjoyable with this album is the mixture of corny/poetic lyrics, which also reveal a sense of humour that’s more sly than I’ve given credit for here.

The distorted production technique, combined with the darker, aforementioned sludge-sound, is the perfect mix of sharpness and murk, adding additional dynamic to songs that have become both gentler and heavier since their debut ‘When the Kite String Pops.’ In addition to this the compositions on ‘Paegan Terrorism Tactics’ are a cut above older songs for me, as if the band both found the ability to distil their ideas into fewer pieces and work memorable riffs and structures into the album without sacrificing their established sound. This is most obvious where they use the classic Black Sabbath ‘tempo change’ approach and apply it to pieces like “Bleed me an Ocean” or “Paegan Love Song” – two outstanding openers that might have served as singles.

Heavier, almost thrash-pieces like ‘Locust Spawning’ and ’13 Fingers’ are in sharp contrast to the acoustic blues of ‘Dead Girl’ or the feeling of hopelessness that the ‘ballad’ “New Death Sensation” brings, a song that occupies the middle ground between the two more introspective moments from their first album. Elsewhere that stoner-like sludge gets back in the driver’s seat and it’s more of what the band do so well, such as “Diab Soule” or the stand out track “Graveflower” with its wonderfully fuzzy guitar solo.

‘Acid Bath’ released two of my favourite metal albums from the 90s, and it’s a damn shame they couldn’t do more due to Audie Pitre’s untimely death, but two is better than none, and this album presents a harrowing and satisfying collection of songs that outstrip most of the material on the debut and should satisfy a lot of fans of sludge, heavy and death metal, and maybe even folks who like their rock with extra metal.