Review Summary: I got my soul all tangled up in a song
Much has already been made of Acid Bath’s head-turning resurrection, but the prospect of singer Dax Riggs releasing new solo material was enough in itself to get me excited. It’s been fifteen years since his last outing, 2010’s Say Goodnight To The World, but it feels like he wasn’t a day away on 7 Songs For Spiders. His grungy drawl has either gone unaged or has aged in just the right way with a darkly poetic word salad draped in his signature morbidity.
Of course, time has affected how his brand of alt-stoner rock by way of swamp blues is presented. The instrumentation is much fuzzier than it’d been before with the bass often enveloping the proceedings and the drums putting in some extra weight without losing sight of the methodical pacing. It can feel almost claustrophobic compared to his past low key approach, but it’s just as atmospheric. One could argue it’s reaching back to his other post-Acid Bath projects like Agents of Oblivion almost as much as other solo outings.
Seven songs across twenty-eight minutes can seem lacking in light of such a long gap, but the compositions’ slow burn nature and loose structuring is a fitting juxtaposition. Tracks like the opening “Deceiver” and “Even The Stars Fall” put in steady grooves that are easy to vibe along to and soon lapse into more mellow contexts on songs like “Blues For You Know Who” and “Pagan Moon.” “Sunshine Felt The Darkness Smile” may have the closest kinship to his past songs, really tapping into a subdued yet ghostly disorienting mood.
One may have to work against the lofty expectations set for the first Dax Riggs outing in fifteen years, but 7 Songs For Spiders is ultimately a great swamp rock album. It’s a fairly simple setup that never feels like it’s reaching for anything too important while fuzzy tinges give it a distinct enough identity still fitting in with his other works. The brief runtime may also work in its favor, making those extra listens even easier to marathon. One can imagine something even bigger on the horizon (would a third Acid Bath album be that surprising at this point?) but this is a pleasant welcome back.