Genre: Doom Metal, Slow Heavy Metal
Label: SST Records
Country: USA
Released: 1984
My Rating: 8/8
Saint Vitus, proboably the earliest "doom metal" bands formed as early as in 1979. They took their name from a Black Sabbath song "Saint Vitus Dance". Saint Vitus was a christian saint who according to a legend, cured some cesar's son from a so called dancing disease aka Huntington's disease which causes dementia and forced motions or something like that. This is their first album and it's selftitled as you proboably realised unless you are blind and can't actually read anything i'm writing here so brrrrrrrrrr. It was released on one of the main influences of this band, Black Flag's label SST and produced by one of Black Flag members, Dez Cadena along with 2 other dudes. It's cool that the band had alot of influences, but still their sound doesn't sound like a total ripoff. It surprised me that theres quite a few "heavy" rock bands who were influenced by hardcore punk rock like Black Flag and the Dead Kenndys for example and not just Deep Purple or something like that. Some people say that Black Flag is kinda like Black Sabbath but just sped up. If you check out Saint Vitus' cover of "Thirsty and Miserable" you can see what that means. The word "vittu" in finnish means fuck and if you say like ei vitus, it means fuck no, or you can say totta vitus, and that means fuck yeah. Saint Fuck. HAHAHA!!!......... i said Black Flag alot of times there.
1. Saint Vitus
They start their first album the cool Black Sabbath way, with the same song title as the band's name. Really awesome song to start the album with. This song has one of the coolest riffs ever. Dave Chandler is one of my favorite guitar players. He has also proboably the coolest look of all heavy metal bands ever. The singer at this period of time was a guy named Scott Reager and he sings with kind of high voice like The Scorpions or something. The lyrics are kind of a story of a yound vitus who the king wants to eliminate for the religious propaganda he pursuits. Real cool noise solo threwn in. The whole song is just perfect, perfect formula and everything. The song ends with the words,
Well,people always stay the same
They never seem to learn
Till they all have lost their faith
And their souls have burned
2. White Magic/Black Magic
Stars with the drums going bang bang bang bang, in a cool smooth rhythm. Really down tuned cool guitar sound here too. The lyrics have a pretty deep statement, but they are also kind of confusing which makes it cool, cause it makes me wanna figure out exactly what they mean. He sings about what he believes in and what not.
3. Zombie Hunger
Again totally awesome heavy ass riff. Maybe this doesn't hit the super mega hardcore metal fans but i like that Vitus kept it heavy and "groovey" and didn't take it over the limit... This song is kind of slow compared to the first two. Slow tempo, but it could be ever slower which had made it a bit heavier and dronier or something, but this is alright. The riff at the ending part of the song kinda reminds me of Black Sabbath's name title song, but thats not a surprise. The lyrics are a bit funny, there saying that a guy has turned into a zombie and eats little girls "cause free meals ain't wasted" haha..
4. The Psychopath
The song starts with kind of strange and a bit creepy guitar riff. Makes me think of myself walking alone in the dark on a dark cemetery where theres lots of fog and hearing weird ass elfs laughter and killer clowns coming from under the ground with rusty knives wanting to kill me. This is the longest song on the album, almost 10 whole minuttoes. The guitar sounds are totally class A, godly love making to my ears. You really just get lost in the melody. Love stuff like this. i love kind of long guitar solos which change their format rapidly. I don't really dig the singer's style on this album. I think a more low, raspy voiced person had been much better, since this song has a depressive feel in it and this guy sounds like he could be in a glam rock band like early Pantera or whatever. i think he kinda over sings too much at times and his tone just doesn't fit.
5. Burial At The Sea
Just 5 songs? cmon dude. Well it's actually 5 really amazing songs so i shouldn't be complaining.
Again a slow tempo in the song. Makes me think of a march to a war against flesh eating zombies or this could be used in a scene of some very old zombie horror movie. That would be awesome. Right about on the middle of the song, the beat gets faster. This song would totally fit into a war movie with knights or something or more like vikings fighting in their ships with their swords and spilling lots of blood and guts and slashing off eachothers heads and other bodyparts, since this song is about "burial at the sea".
Well that was Saint fuckin' Vitus. Listen to them if you're into Black Sabbath style of music or even early 80's hardcore punk rock fans like me can really get into this band aswell.
