Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus/Hallow's Victim [Limited Collector's edition] (1984/1985)

Posted By : lom404 | Date : 06 Nov 2009 06:56:17 | Comments : 1 |

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Saint Vitus:
Although they never achieved wide acclaim, Californian doom metallers Saint Vitus still managed to carve out a niche in people's scrapbooks for one big reason: they sounded uncannily like Black Sabbath, a propensity aided by an increasingly farcical series of ever-changing lineups that left the latter band essentially faceless. Not surprisingly, SST Records signed them as Black Flag's label began distancing itself from its hardcore punk roots. This album, then, should send old-schoolers' hearts' aflutter. The trademarks that defined classic '70s-era Sabbath albums like War Pigs and Iron Man are proudly present and correct: jangly, piledriving guitars; stuttering basslines; and insistent, cymbal-soaked drumming. True to form, the album boasts just five tracks; the brisk opening tribute to the medieval-era saint is probably the most energetic among the lot. The band's themes are somewhat predictable, ranging from occult matters ("Black Magic, White Magic," "Zombie Hunger") to personal peril ("Burial at Sea"). However, the band convincingly shows that intensity doesn't necessarily stem from tempo on "Psychopath" and "Burial at Sea"; guitarist Dave Chandler lays down some menacing licks, while hollow-voiced singer Scott Reagers evokes just the right touch of despair and desperation. While Saint Vitus never broke beyond a cult circle of admirers -- except overseas -- the band shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. (Only Trouble had a similar impact, except from the Christian metal side -- to where wags jokingly tagged them as "White Sabbath.") Genre exercises like this are naturally an acquired taste, but the band plays with fire and conviction; if Black Sabbath's singer-of-the-week lineups left you cold, these guys provided just the right placebo. by Ralph Heibutzki

Hallow's Victim:
Contrary to what most first-time listeners might expect based on the band's reputation as American doom pioneers, Saint Vitus were hardly all about indolence and sloth when it came to their songwriting. In reality, most every one of their albums contained a few fast-paced numbers, geared to getting their fans' blood pumping and heads banging, but 1985's sophomore effort, Hallow's Victim, was entirely off the charts in this regard. Stacking high-energy metal anthems pretty much from start to finish, it's almost as if the bandmembers were intentionally thumbing their noses at the dominant thrash metal craze of the period with this album, while seeking to prove that they weren't just a bunch of long-in-the-tooth SoCal hippies in the bargain. Nothing could have been further from the truth, obviously, as Hallow's Victim opened with the hard-driving, oft-covered classic "War Is Our Destiny," broke into an all-out gallop for the aptly named "White Stallions," and then rarely stopped for breath during ensuing heavy metal juggernauts like "The Sadist" and the pummeling title track, which, for all intents and purposes, could well be considered straight-up hardcore, and was probably influenced by Vitus' labelmates at SST. The band finally relented from its frantic stride to establish a gothic mid-paced groove on "Just Friends (Empty Love)" -- very reminiscent of cross-country rivals Pentagram -- and then settled down into some sluggish doom, at last, for the epic "Mystic Lady" and sardonic album closer, "Prayer for the (M)asses," although even this generally sludgy tandem frequently launched into a good trot before too long. In the end, Hallow's Victim is an eye-opening experience for those who would typecast Saint Vitus as a strictly doom-dependent enterprise, and its first-rate songs throughout offer proof positive of the band's formidable creative abilities -- regardless of tempo. Yes, doom purists may point out, correctly, that this album is unrepresentative of both the genre and Saint Vitus' body of work in general, but who would dare cast the first stone, considering that even Black Sabbath wrote speedy songs like "Paranoid" and "Never Say Die" -- remember? by Eduardo Rivadavia

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Scott Reagers (vocals)
Dave Chandler (guitar)
Mark Adams (bass)
Armando Acosta (drums)

Saint Vitus:
1 Saint Vitus 4:49
2 White Magic / Black Magic 5:27
3 Zombie Hunger 7:21
4 The Psychopath 9:26
5 Burial at Sea 8:38
Hallow's Victim:
6 War Is Our Destiny 4:07
7 White Stallions 5:23
8 Mystic Lady 7:39
9 Hallow's Victim 2:42
10 The Sadist 3:58
11 Just Friends (Empty Love) 5:42
12 Prayer for the (M)asses / Outro 4:48

Recorded at Total Access, Redondo Beach, California.

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Posted By: Necromandus Date: 06 Nov 2009 07:06:38

Thanks! Great old-school doom...

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