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Reunion tours tend to have a stigma of cynicism surrounding them. ‘They’re just doing it for the money.’ ‘They’re way past their prime.’ ‘They want another 15 minutes of fame.’ The jaded amongst us have heard or said things like these when an artist comes out of the woodwork after years out of the spotlight. But what, then, of the groups who never achieved resounding success during their initial run? Is cult fandom enough to power a full-blown second wind, even after decades of inactivity?

Enter Louisiana’s Acid Bath, a group whose humble beginnings in Houma, Louisiana – with members coming together from the ashes of other groups that had disbanded – informed their appeal to the metal underground in the early 1990s. Making regular weekend trips into cities to play shows that sometimes wouldn’t start until 3am, the band ingratiated itself in the metal scene there, befriending other sludge metal groups from the area like Crowbar and Eyehategod – while putting on chaotic performances and ruining a deal with Roadrunner Records in the process. After signing to independent label Rotten Records, the group recorded their 1994 album When the Kite String Pops, which has endured as a seminal recording in the pantheon of sludge metal. The hallmarks of the band’s sound – bluesy metal riffs, abrupt tempo changes, Dax Riggs’ sleazy singing-to-screaming vocal style – have had a lasting influence on the genre, although few groups have come close to the pure ferocity of this debut. I fondly remember hearing it for the first time as a teenager; a friend of mine at the time, who was very into death metal, showed it to me as a reference for the kind of riffs he wanted to write, and I was immediately smitten by how the band implemented its disparate influences into a unique brew.

Acid Bath in 2025, photo by Jason Steger.

Perhaps such a strong start was never meant to sustain, though: after 1996’s Paegan Terrorism Tactics, bassist Audie Pitre was tragically killed by a drunk driver in early 1997, putting an end to whatever trajectory Acid Bath may have been inching towards. Considering the underground appeal of the band’s sound, it’s unclear what could’ve been next for the group – guitarist Sammy Duet is on record saying that Acid Bath‘s final show of the 90s was so poorly promoted that no one showed up and the band didn’t get paid, while he and the band’s other guitarist Mike Sanchez wrote a bank of new riffs for a third album that never materialized due to Pitre’s death (rumor has it that Duet took these riffs with him to his subsequent band Goatwhore, although he has disputed this).

So what of the show itself? Judging by the sold-out crowd at Brooklyn Paramount on July 11th, I’m happy to say that, yes: a cult following is indeed enough to reclaim (and surpass) former glories. With Shane Wesley from Crowbar joining on bass in place of the late Pitre, the band played to an ecstatic sea of 2,700 adoring fans, singing along to these 30-year old songs without missing a beat – quite the feat for a group boasting lyrics like ‘eat my dead cock, oh yeah’ and album artwork cribbed from notorious individuals like John Wayne Gacy and Jack Kevorkian. Regarding the reunion, Duet mentioned encroaching age and a lingering sense of wanting closure to Metal Injection:

‘What happened was Sick New World contacted, my…well, Goatwhore booking agent, Dan Rozenblum, and was like, ‘So what would it take to make this happen?‘ And we had recently had a passing of a very good friend of ours that was playing keyboards for us on the Pagan Terrorism Tactics tour. His name was Tommy Viator — better known as Tomas. And I think that had a big role to play in the situation, to where, you know, a lot of us aren’t going to be around forever, right? So… I had spoken to Dax about this, when we were talking about getting it back together, and I was like, you know, we need to do this before….I didn’t put it that way, but I just kind of hinted. And he was like, ‘maybe it’s time.’ And that’s how this whole thing kind of came into play.’

Before taking the stage were two superlative opening acts, the first of which, Wailin’ Storms, I was unfamiliar with. The four-piece played a straightahead, highly enjoyable mix of stoner metal, punk, and Southern Gothic rock, topped off with versatile vocals from Justin Storms. Their song “Drag” in particular featured impressive dynamics, a memorable hook, and muscular playing. Bassist Steve Sanczyk was especially animated during their set, jumping around the stage and absolutely punishing his strings with wild strokes. The group was a perfect appetizer for what was to follow.

Eyehategod. Don’t you?

Next up were fellow Louisiana sludge legends Eyehategod, a band that also weathered a tragic death in the family: longtime drummer Joey LaCaze passed away in 2013 from respiratory failure. When frontman Mike Williams mentioned at the beginning of the set how they’d ‘been friends with Acid Bath for a long time,’ I could sense the camaraderie and shared love of being able to continue doing what they do. The group plowed through a greatest hits-list of songs from nearly every album of theirs (although regrettably nothing from In the Name of Suffering, their low-budget but entertainingly depressive 1992 debut), with guitarist Jimmy Bower – himself a member of the aforementioned Crowbar – on fine form, delivering one molten sludge riff after another. The way the band switches up from doomy trudge to uptempo hardcore has been a consistently rewarding experience in their own 30+ year career, and on songs like “Lack of Almost Everything”, the back-and-forth never failed to keep the audience shifting from slow headbanging in place to throwing hands in the pit.

This of course leads us to Acid Bath‘s set, and boy, could they not have started things off better. “Tranquilized”, the second track from their debut album, is a full-bore, speedy (for sludge) tune with a dominance of clean singing from Dax Riggs – the ideal opening song, if their ever was one. The quick, wah-infused riffing got the crowd moving instantly, and when the slowed-down sludge riffs followed, the energy almost intensified in response: this was an audience that knew every transitional moment and was hanging on every note. “Bleed Me an Ocean” followed, and Riggs’ Layne Staley-esque crooning held sway over the audience while the band stomped around behind him. It’s remarkable how well his voice has held up over the years, how vital his screams still sound.

Shout out to this guy filming Acid Bath’s set with a Nintendo DS. Respect.

Other songs like the grungy “Graveflower” and the shapeshifting “Paegan Love Song” kept things ebbing and flowing, but closing the set with “Dr. Seuss is Dead” – a lurching, sinister deep cut from their debut – was absolutely diabolical, devastating, and sublime. The song, a lament for the death of creativity and innocence, treads a lot of ground during its six-minute runtime: half-time crunching, quadruple-time double bass thrashing, even a danceable disco rhythm during the pre-chorus. Through all of these disparate sections Acid Bath sounded exactly as they did in 1994, relishing every beat switch more than the last, until the final salvo of soloing and screeching and slamming of the drums hit its peak…and then it was over. A 10-song setlist for a reunion 30 years in the making may seem slightly underwhelming to some, but the audience cheers of ‘ONE MORE SONG, ONE MORE SONG’ that occurred as they left the stage implied that not only is there a demand for their music, but people will happily go along for the ride again the next time they roll through New York. I know I’ll be there.

Take a picture of Acid Bath’s crew taking a picture of them, it’ll last longer than longer.

So what’s next for Acid Bath after the remainder of these tour dates? Dax Riggs has already ruled out the possibility of new music, but stranger things have happened, especially given the warm welcome and sold-out shows the band has been met with since announcing their return. Part of me thinks Sammy Duet and Mike Sanchez may bust out that tape with riff ideas on it sometime soon and take a crack at molding them into new material, but for now, I’m happy to sit back and watch these guys give their classic material a spin on the platform it’s always deserved. It’s good to have you back, boys; I’ve always enjoyed a nice, relaxing Acid Bath after a long day of being, and now I can say I did so communally with almost 3,000 other people bathing with me. What a time to be alive.

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