35-411: Acid Bath is an American sludge metal band from Houma, Louisiana that was active from 1991 to 1997. Regarded as one of the first and most influential sludge metal bands, they combined a doom metal foundation with elements of hardcore punk , death metal , gothic rock , blues , grunge , and Southern rock to create their unique sound. The band broke up following the death of bassist Audie Pitre in
70-456: A Pit Magazine interview, vocalist Dax Riggs classified their sound as " death rock ". In another interview, guitarist Sammy Duet described their sound as "gothic hardcore". 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
105-663: A January 1997 traffic collision, but announced a reunion in October 2024. Acid Bath formed in 1991. The band was based south of New Orleans in several small towns including Houma , Thibodaux , Morgan City , and Galliano . Acid Bath was an incarnation of two bands, 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
140-538: A distorted high-end bass and a clean bass. Fontenot later played bass for Devourment for two years. Joseph Fontenot is now a drill sergeant in the U.S. Army. In 2014, rumors started that Acid Bath were reuniting with a new vocalist because Jimmy Kyle reached out to vocalist of Slipknot Corey Taylor with a very vague message stating "Acid Bath is in search of a vocalist. Please send Mp3, demo, videos or any music links performing Acid Bath songs." However, these rumors were dismissed by other band members stating that "There
175-456: A drunk driver who had run a stop sign. Kelly Pitre, Audie's brother, was the only one of four family members to survive the incident, escaping with only a broken rib and a mild neck fracture. While rumors of another album circulated after the band's end, nothing new surfaced. Sammy Duet owns a tape of him and Mike Sanchez coming up with riffs for a possible third Acid Bath album. He mentioned this tape on his interview with Does It Doom? . The tape
210-623: A member of Crowbar , but has since left the band. He is now a member of the blackened death metal band Goatwhore and Ritual Killer and his doom metal band with Kelly Pitre (the brother of Audie) Vual. Sammy Duet has remained an open satanist since his days in Acid Bath. Audie formed a metal band in 1995, blending black metal vocals with the heavy sound of multiple bassists with no guitars, known as Shrüm. Tommy Viator and Joseph Fontenot were also members of Shrüm. Shrüm utilized two distorted low-end basses, and Fontenot would alternate between playing
245-520: A multitude of bands to form or change sounds; and Eyehategod's members would go on to be a part of other defining New Orleans sludge bands including Soilent Green , Crowbar and Down . In a 2009 interview with Decibel magazine, Down vocalist Phil Anselmo stated "Back in those days, everything in the underground was fast, fast, fast. It was the rule of the day...But when the Melvins came out with their first record, Gluey Porch Treatments , it really broke
280-421: A significant sludge metal scene in the 2000s which included Baroness , Black Tusk and Kylesa . Bands in the scenes' equal parts influence from punk, metal and rock led to writers like J.J. Anselmi referencing a "Savannah sound". Baroness' progressive take on the style, which also incorporated elements alternative rock gained significant commercial success in the 2010s. Mastodon from Atlanta similarly merged
315-548: Is a common theme, while discussion of poverty and pollution are also prevalent. Sludge bands who lean more towards hardcore are sometimes called sludgecore by music historians including Garry Sharpe-Young and David Pearson. New Orleans is the birthplace of the sludgecore movement, with Eyehategod being this style's frontrunner. More recently, sludgecore bands like the Abominable Iron Sloth , Admiral Angry and Black Sheep Wall have emerged. Since its inception in
350-520: 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. They have been cited as an influence on Slipknot 's self-titled debut . Sludge metal Sludge metal (also known as sludge doom or simply sludge )
385-483: Is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of doom metal and hardcore punk . The genre generally includes slow tempos, tuned down guitars and nihilistic lyrics discussing poverty, drug addiction and pollution. The sound of sludge metal has its origins in California hardcore punk bands in the early-to-mid-1980s like Black Flag , Flipper and Fang , who began slowing their tempos and embracing
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#1732869823639420-454: 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 ". In
455-461: Is no ACID BATH without [late bassist] Audie Pitre, so there will never be 'new' ACID BATH material", and that "Currently, most of the surviving members of ACID BATH — Jimmy, Mike, and myself — have been considering the possibility of doing some shows in the future, as an ACID BATH tribute band, but nothing has been set in stone, and it is still just an idea." On October 15, 2024, it was announced Acid Bath would be playing their first show in 28 years at
490-720: The Sick New World festival in Las Vegas on April 12, 2025. Along with returning original members (Riggs, Duet, and Sanchez), Zack Simmons ( Goatwhore ), and Alex Bergeron (ex- Agents of Oblivion ) were announced on drums and bass respectively. Although the Sick New World appearance was initially announced as a one-off reunion show, the band will play the second date of the Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 9, 2025. Acid Bath
525-440: The "genesis of sludge metal". Furthermore, Los Angeles band Saint Vitus , one of the forefront groups in the still emerging doom metal genre, released their self-titled debut album through SST Records in 1984. The album's title track, merged the band's usual doom metal style with elements of punk to create a mid-tempo hardcore track which writer J. J. Anselmi described as "the first sludge metal song on record". However, it
560-514: The band's 1994 extended play simply entitled Edits featured the artwork of Richard Ramirez . The cover of their 1996 compilation entitled Radio Edits featured the artwork of Kenneth Bianchi . 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",
595-458: The demo earned them a deal. They released When the Kite String Pops produced by Spike Cassidy in 1994, followed two years later by their second and final effort Paegan Terrorism Tactics (also produced by Keith Falgout). 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 ,
630-404: The first sludge bands to form in the state at a time when the majority of local bands were fast. The band purposefully rebelled against this, embracing the influence of Black Sabbath and Black Flag, as a means to antagonize their peers. In the following years, Eyehategod became one of the defining and most influential bands in the genre: their second album Take as Needed for Pain (1993), inspired
665-751: The following years. Around the same time, Orange County, California 's Dystopia released their debut album Human = Garbage which merged sludge metal with crust punk and grindcore , a fusion Boston's Grief were also taking part in. In the United Kingdom, both Fudge Tunnel and Iron Monkey were prominent bands in the 1990s who embraced the influence of the Melvins and nascent sound of sludge. Damad formed in 1991 in Savannah, Georgia , releasing two studio albums Rise and Fall (1997) and Burning Cold (2000) which showcased both sludge and grindcore influenced punk. Damad's influence led to Savannah developing
700-408: The genre with progressive metal , and Dystopia and Grief did so with crust punk . The key characteristics of sludge metal are a slow tempo combined with down-tuned , heavily distorted guitars. However, some bands do make use of tempo changes into faster sections. The key element that differentiates sludge from other doom metal derived styles is its influence from hardcore punk, particularly
735-501: The genre with progressive elements. The band's first two albums Remission (2002) and Leviathan (2004) were cited by Kerrang! as two of the most important sludge metal albums of all time, however as the band progressed, they became increasingly indebted to progressive metal and less to sludge. Goatwhore Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
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#1732869823639770-416: The genre's use of high aggression and screamed vocals, though the genre can include sung vocals. Many sludge bands also make use of elements of industrial music , southern rock and blues . Bandcamp Daily writer Noah Berlatsky described the genre as "visceral and ugly". Sludge metal's lyrics explore real-world themes, while often also making light of the darkness of these topics. Drug addiction
805-570: The influence of Black Sabbath . This sound was expanded upon by the Melvins towards the end of the decade and the bands they influenced in both the Seattle grunge scene, and in Louisiana with Eyehategod , Crowbar and Acid Bath . In the 1990s and 2000s, the sound of sludge diversified: bands including Neurosis , Isis and Cult of Luna helped to pioneer post-metal , while Baroness and Mastodon fused
840-539: The late 1970s, the sound of hardcore punk was primarily defined by its high tempos. However, by the early-to-mid-1980s, a crop of bands, particularly California groups Black Flag , Fang and Flipper , began to play slower tempos as a way of antagonizing many in the scene. As early as 1982, Flipper's Album – Generic Flipper made use of dirgey, low tempos and expansive song lengths in the case of "(I Saw You) Shine", to create what, in his book Monolithic Undertow In Search of Sonic Oblivion , writer Harry Sword credited as
875-574: The mold, especially in New Orleans. People began to appreciate playing slower." The 924 Gilman Street punk scene in Berkeley, California produced a sizeable sludge metal scene in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, which included Neurosis and Noothgrush. Neurosis' transition from playing hardcore to a droning, ambient and progressive style of sludge metal helped pioneer the post-metal genre, then joined by Boston 's Isis and Umeå 's Cult of Luna in
910-399: The most prominent bands in the scene to embrace the influence of both My War and Album – Generic Flipper , and would go on to be described by publications such as Revolver as the band that "invented sludge". Beginning their career by playing hardcore, the band began playing "slow and heavy riffs" after seeing Black Flag in Seattle in 1984, to form a dirge-like music that inspired much of
945-506: 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
980-565: 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 , and has also expressed admiration for ANSWER Me! and Boiled Angel . AllMusic's William York has stated that
1015-436: The song "Venus Blue" could have been a radio hit "if not for the graphic lyrics". 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 . Due to the controversy surrounding Kevorkian's artwork For He Is Raised on the album, Paegan Terrorism Tactics was initially banned from Australia. The ban has since been lifted. The cover of
1050-457: The subsequent sludge and grunge bands. The grunge scene became sludge's most commercially successful moment, with groups like Soundgarden and Nirvana achieving widespread mainstream success in the early 1990s, playing music that merged the genre with alternative rock . By the 1990s, Louisiana developed one of the largest and most influential sludge metal scenes, with bands like Acid Bath , Crowbar and Eyehategod . Eyehategod were one of
1085-458: The well-known death metal guitarist James Murphy . Dax Riggs and Mike Sanchez went on to perform in the band Agents of Oblivion , releasing one self-titled album in 2000 and disbanding shortly thereafter. Starting in 2000, Riggs was also the frontman for the swamp rock band Deadboy & the Elephantmen , before he began releasing material under his own name in 2007. Sammy Pierre Duet was once
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1120-464: Was labeled "Rat Poison" because neither of them could come up with an album name. One of the members saw some rat poison in a box at the rehearsal space and said "just call it fucking Rat Poison". It was also rumored that some of the riffs were used for the first Goatwhore album; however, this was proven to be false. Tommy Viator played drums on Disincarnate 's album Dreams of the Carrion Kind with
1155-506: 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. Influenced by thrash metal as well as bands and artists such as Black Sabbath , Alice Cooper , Celtic Frost , Carcass , and Darkthrone , Acid Bath recorded their demo Hymns of the Needle Freak with their manager and producer Keith Falgout in 1993. The strength of
1190-588: Was released. The last show Acid Bath ever performed took place at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium on April 25, 1997. Crowbar, Floodgate, and Dead Industry were also on the bill that night. Jeromy Boullion played guitar for Acid Bath instead of Mike Sanchez. Acid Bath didn't get paid because the show wasn't promoted properly and not enough people showed. After two studio albums, Acid Bath's career came to an abrupt end on January 23, 1997, when bass guitarist Audie Pitre and his parents were killed by
1225-542: Was the three track B-side of Black Flag's My War (1984) and its embrace of Black Sabbath influence, that is generally accredited as beginning the sludge metal genre. Early on My War' s influence took a particular hold on Seattle , Washington 's burgeoning grunge scene, inspiring some of the scene's earliest bands like 10 Minute Warning and the U-Men . The Melvins , formed in Montesano, Washington in 1983, were one of
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