Saint Vitus: V

Back from beyond Saint Vitus' 1989 V album is as welcome as that 50 bucks Grams tucked into your hand last week and the week before that and the week before .... Anyway, it's back from the grave and this sadly misunderstood and underheard outfit still sounds one step ahead of the competition all these years later.

Saint Vitus was doom metal, sure, but not in the comedically exaggerated way that some of these lads go about it today. There was melody, drive and a real desire to push the lower-end envelope and that's evident on tracks such as "Patra (Petra)," "Jack Frost" and "Mind Food," to say nothing of "Living Backwards," "I Bleed "Black" and "Angry Man." What you also hear is just how fine a singer Scott "Wino" Weinrich is. Others took the low road and strained themselves trying to sound cool but Wino was the man, doing it the only way he knew how––as himself.

Some might argue that "Mind Food" influenced Nirvana's "About A Girl." Maybe. Shrug. It doesn't really matter as much as how good "MF" and the other seven songs on V really are. Hails to Southern Lord for brining this back. Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go dig up a copy of Hallow's Victim. (You should also know that there's a 28-minute video from 1986 on this here disc that features Wino's first show. Ha-cha.) Also available in vinyl that'll be extremely limited. Grab it.

Track Listing:
1. Living Backwards (2:30)
2. I Bleed Black (5:10)
3. When Emotion Dies (2:00)
4. Patra (Petra) (3:30)
5. Ice Monkey (4:02)
6. Jack Frost (7:12)
7. Angry Man (4:23)
8. Mind Food (3:07)
Total Time: 36:50

Added: August 27th 2004
Reviewer: Jedd Beaudoin
Score:
Related Link: More Information
Hits: 2818
Language: english

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