Time Signature Dark world...

Genre: doom metal

Wino Weinreich had left Saint Vitus prior to the recording of "C.O.D.", and ex-Count Raven vocalist (and later Lord Vicar frontman) Christian Lindersson handled vocal duties on that album. For "Die Healing", Saint Vitus re-recruited their original vocalist Scott Reagers. While "Born Too Late" is probably the most famour Saint Vitus album, "Die Healing" is often held to be their best album of all time. Perhaps that is why it was reissued earlier this year on the band's current label Season of Mist.

Upping virtually every aspect of what defines Saint Vitus' sound, the band delivers some of their most oppressive, desolate, and minimalistic music to date (perhaps only matched by "Lillie: F-65" from 2011). The aptly titled 'Let the End Begin' is the epitome of what makes good doom metal and is, or definitely deserves to be, a doom metal classic. The ultra-minimalistic 'Sloth' combines simplicity and noise to generate a haunting auditive darkness, while the super simple riffs of 'Dark World' and 'Return of the Zombie' are downright creepy.

Musically, the album - true to the identity of Saint Vitus - combines minimalism and guitar noise. Reagers' insane vocals are in stark contrast with both Wino's and Lindersson's singing styles. Reagers packs desparation, aggression and pure madness into his singing style, which is particularly highlighted in 'In the Asylum'.

"Die Healing" is a doom metal classic and probably one of the most important albums within the genre of doom metal in its entirety. All doom metal fans should take advantage of Season of Mist's reissuing of this album and purchase it right away.

Warthur The late, great Scott Reagers reunited with Saint Vitus for what, at the time, looked like their final album. (Reportedly, a reunion album with Wino on vocals is coming out this year.) For this final assault, Saint Vitus pull out all the stops, creating a sludgy doom metal miasma which blows most of their preceding work (with the possible exception of V) out of the water.

Saint Vitus were never the most consistent of bands, so it figures that they'd follow up their worst album (C.O.D.) with their absolute best; the album also shows the band's quirky sense of humour, with the epic The Sloth being a bone-crushingly heavy song about an apocalyptic ape. There have been heavier Sabbath-inspired doom metal albums (like Electric Wizard's Dopethrone) and there have been slower ones (like more or less all of Reverend Bizarre's output), but there have been few better.