Review Summary: What's the best way to follow up a masterpiece? With another!
Acid Bath are one of the many bands that are hard to pinpoint to belonging to one genre. While sludge is always present in their music, so is grunge and southern metal. You could easily make a case for there being a bit of death here too. Some people say that there's a bit of black metal here but I don't hear it. Really though, in the end, it doesn't really matter what genre they are, what matters is if they're good, and yes they are.
Paegan Terrorism Tactics expands on the sounds of their debut "When The Kite String Pops", but with more focus on melody. In addition to this new focus on melody, the production is very warm and full. Not that When The Kite String Pops had poor sound quality, but it pales in comparison. The guitars roar, the soft parts are extremely atmospheric, and each instrument stands out distinctly from the rest. Also, they don't overuse stereo! Not that that's a major deal, but I've been listening to old Beatles recently and dang they loved stereo just a bit too much. Basically the album has great engineering.
Musically, the songs are all over the place. There is a reason there is such debate over what genre they are, because they do so much of everything. Some songs are fast and in your face, some are atmospheric, and some are slow and sludgy. This is a band who really have their own sound and it's hard to compare them to anyone. Sure they have sludge but they aren't Crowbar, sure they have grunge but they aren't Nirvana, sure they have stoner but they aren't Sleep. It's impossible to pinpoint. What brings them together is their dark feeling and very melodic overtones. Despite the multiple genres, the album is more focused than many bands who stick to one genre. They also occasionally get trippy like on "Graveflower". Really, it's hard to summarize anything here other than that the instrumentation is great.
The vocals are awesome. Singer Dax Riggs has both an incredibly powerful singing voice and top-tier death growls. Like with the band's genre, the vocals jump between styles often. He also never seems to overuse one style, bouncing back and forth when the music calls for it, not when he feels an urge to. His voice is also put higher in the mix than the instruments, and while I almost wish they were lower, they're still fine and I'm glad the focused on the vocals instead of something else.
Lyrically, the album is pretty dark and sinister. They are very well written, and would be great even without the spectacular vocal performance. With such an incredible performance behind it, the lyrics really feel very emotional and powerful. Death is what this album is about, and while I wouldn't call it a concept album really, the lyrics all do have that one central focus. It can be a tad annoying to listen to nothing but this one lyrical style, especially since the music around it changes so much in comparison, but the music always fits the lyrics well and the lyrics are well written so it isn't bad at all really. This is really one of the albums stronger features, its ability to perfectly match the tone of the music and tone of the lyrics.
If you like grunge, doom, sludge, death, or southern metal this album is worth a listen. If you like more than one of these, you really MUST listen to it. If nothing else, listen to "Bleed Me An Ocean", which which is probably one of my top 5 favorite songs ever. Paegan Terrorism Tactics is a masterwork on all levels.
