Acid Bath

Louisiana's Acid Bath never moved far beyond a devoted cult audience while the band was still active, yet the group has since acquired an almost mythic reputation within the shadowy fringes of the rock and metal underground. Their sound fused the sludgy riffs of Black Sabbath with blues-inflected Southern rock, death-metal aggression, hardcore intensity, and subtle traces of goth and industrial music, creating a hybrid that resisted easy classification and drew parallels to fellow Louisiana acts Soilent Green and Eyehategod as well as to Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Corrosion of Conformity in their nineties incarnation. The Kenner-based quintet came together in 1991 around vocalist Dax Riggs, guitarists Mike Sanchez and Sammy Pierre Duet, bassist Audie Pitre, and drummer Jimmy Kyle. Working with producer and manager Keith Falgout, they cut the demo Hymns of the Needle Freak, which secured a contract with Rotten Records in California. The label issued the band's first full-length album, When the Kite String Pops, in 1994; D.R.I.'s Spike Cassidy handled production, and the cover featured artwork by serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Two years later Acid Bath delivered Paegan Terrorism Tactics, again produced by Falgout and adorned with a painting by Jack Kevorkian. That second record shifted toward a more melodic hard-rock approach while retaining the menacing metallic edge that defined much of the debut. Both albums received favorable notices, yet the band remained largely confined to regional recognition. Before further recordings could appear, Pitre died in a collision caused by a drunk driver, bringing Acid Bath to an end; although rumors of a follow-up album persisted for a time, nothing materialized. Riggs and Sanchez subsequently launched Agents of Oblivion, while Duet joined Crowbar on guitar and founded the black-metal outfit Goatwhore. Rotten Records continued with plans to issue a home-video collection of live footage together with the clip for When the Kite String Pops' "Toubabo Koomi."