Acid Bath

Acid Bath
Acid Bath.
Background information
Origin	Houma, Louisiana, United States
Genres	Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal, Doom metal, Black Metal, Blues, Gothic Rock, Folk, Country
Years active	1991 - 1997
Labels	Rotten Records
Associated acts	Agents of Oblivion, Crowbar, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, Goatwhore, Vual
Website	Official Page
Past members	Sammy "Pierre" Duet, Mike Sanchez, Joseph Fontenot, Jimmy Kyle, Audie Pitre, Tommy Viator, Dax Riggs

Acid Bath were a sludge metal band from Houma, Louisiana that were active from 1991-1997. Their sound combined elements of doom metal with black metal, death metal, gothic rock, blues, folk and country.

History

Formation

Acid Bath was an incarnation of two bands, Dark Karnival which featured Audie Pitre, Sammy "Pierre" Duet, and Tommy Viator, and Golgotha which featured Dax Riggs, Mike Sanchez, Jimmy Kyle, and Jerry "Boon" Businelli. Golgotha's bassists were in frequent rotation finally culminating with Chad Pierce, who would then be succeeded by Pitre during Acid Bath's formation. Tommy Viator was later replaced by Jimmy Kyle on drums but would return to play keyboards toward the end of the band's career. Joseph J. Fontenot was the bassist for a short period of time.

Acid Bath formed in 1991. The band was based south of New Orleans in several small towns including Houma, Thibodaux, Morgan City and Galliano. Influenced by thrash metal as well as bands and artists such as Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Celtic Frost, Carcass and Darkthrone. They recorded their demo Hymns of the Needle Freak with their manager and producer Keith Falgout in 1993. The strength of the demo earned them a deal with Rotten Records, an independent label. They released When the Kite String Pops produced by Spike Cassidy (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) in 1994. This album sold over 37,000 copies by 1999 despite being on an independent label with no mainstream support.

Two years later their second and final effort Paegan Terrorism Tactics was released. Neither gained them mainstream success, but both albums earned a high degree of underground acclaim. In 2005, another album composed of their demos, Demos: 1993 - 1996, was released.

Notably, the band used artwork by serial killers John Wayne Gacy (When The Kite String Pops) and Richard Ramirez (Radio Edits 1) along with infamous doctor Jack Kevorkian (Paegan Terrorism Tactics). In an interview with Chronicles of Chaos, Mike Sanchez said the following about the choice of artwork:

“	“The madness, chaos and romance of Ramirez and Gacy was a tasteful ingredient to throw into our American Pie made with Ziare's worst diose. Dr. Jack Kevorkian featured on _PTT_ is part of what's going on inside. There are those who praise him for giving them their freedom. Then there are those who are on the outside wanting your freedom to control. The artwork itself is how things are viewed. As a kid, faster was fun, out of school, lots of candy, family and God. Everybody digs out their puppet Jesus and pretends that they know just what's going on around them. While watching how cute the little girls and boys are when they bend over to get the egg we hatched for them. ”	”
	— Mike Sanchez, Chronicles of Chaos, 1997

Break-up and Further Projects

After two studio albums, Acid Bath's career came to an abrupt end on January 23, 1997 when bass guitarist Audie Pitre and his parents were killed by a drunk driver who had run a stop sign. Kelly Pitre, Audie's brother, was the only one of four family members to survive the incident, escaping with only a broken rib and a mild neck fracture.

The last Acid Bath show with Audie Pitre was on December 14, 1996, at Texas Billiards (a club owned by Dimebag Darrell) in Arlington, Texas.

While rumors of another album circulated after the band's end, nothing new surfaced. The supposed album was named Killer Rat Poison. Tommy Viator played keyboards on this album. Sammy Duet has only given out copies to a few close friends because he used some of the riffs for Goatwhore's earlier material.

Tommy Viator played drums on Disincarnate's album Dreams of the Carrion Kind with the well-known death metal guitarist James Murphy.

Dax Riggs and Mike Sanchez went on to perform in the band Agents of Oblivion, releasing one self-titled album in 2000 and disbanding shortly thereafter.

Starting in 2000, Riggs was also the frontman for the swamp rock band Deadboy & the Elephantmen, before he began releasing material under his own name in 2007. In interviews with Riggs even to this day Acid Bath tends to be a topic. In 2008, he stated of his shift to a drastically different genre of music:

“	“I mean, I still dig heavy music. I’m just more or less bored with it and feel like it’s been kinda sold out. There was a golden age for that kind of music and now it’s just kind of blah-blah-blah, you know? So I guess it does seem kinda weird, but we could all dig doom rock, you know? That’s where we all overlapped. And then there was a death metal side and a folkish side. But I still talk to Sammy. He really likes my new record. He wants to do something, and I think his attitude has changed, you know? I think he genuinely digs the new record, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t like the stuff before.”	”
	— Dax Riggs, self-titled, 2008

Sammy Pierre Duet was once a member of Crowbar but has since left the band. He is now a member of the blackened death metal band Goatwhore and Ritual Killer and his doom metal band with Kelly Pitre (the brother of Audie) Vual. Sammy Duet has remained an open satanist since his days in Acid Bath.

Audie formed a metal band in 1995, blending black metal vocals of Scott Leger with the heavy sound of multiple bassists with no guitars, known as Shrüm. Tommy Viator and Joseph Fontenot were also members of Shrüm. Shrüm utilized two distorted low-end basses, and Fontenot would alternate between playing a distorted high-end bass and a clean bass. Fontenot later played bass for Devourment for two years. Joseph Fontenot went on to serve in the U.S. Army as a career.

In 2014, rumors started that Acid Bath were reuniting with a new vocalist when Jimmy Kyle reached out to vocalist of Slipknot, Corey Taylor, with a very vague message stating "Acid Bath is in search of a vocalist. Please send Mp3, demo, videos or any music links performing Acid Bath songs." However, these rumors were dismissed by Sammy Duet with the following statement:

“	“In response to the post by ‘Acidbath The Bayou Kid’ on June 3rd, 2014, I’d like to clarify a few things: [Drummer] Jimmy Kyle created that post without prior discussion with [guitarist] Mike Sanchez or myself [guitarist, Sammy Duet]. ACID BATH is not looking for a vocalist. There is no ACID BATH without [late bassist] Audie Pitre, so there will never be ‘new’ ACID BATH material. Currently, most of the surviving members of ACID BATH — Jimmy, Mike, and myself — have been considering the possibility of doing some shows in the future, as an ACID BATH tribute band, but nothing has been set in stone, and it is still just an idea. Unfortunately, [vocalist] Dax Riggs declines to be a part of such a tribute. We respect Dax and his decision. If we decide to put together an ACID BATH tribute band, the vocalist will be carefully chosen, but it is way too early to discuss choosing a vocalist at this time. I’d like to thank the loyal, diehard ACID BATH fans for their years of support, not just while ACID BATH was together, but for supporting us in all of our individual music projects.”	”
	— Sammy Duet, 2014

Discography

Studio Albums

• When The Kite String Pops (1994, Rotten Records)
• Paegan Terrorism Tactics (1996, Rotten Records)

Other Releases

• Screams of The Butterfly (Demo) (1992, Self-Released)
• Demo II (Demo) (1993, Self-Released)
• Hymns of The Needle Freak (Demo) (1993, Intensity I Music)
• Edits (EP) 1994, Rotten Records)
• Radio Edits (EP) (1996, Rotten Records)
• PTT Outtakes (EP) (1996, Self-Released)
• Double Live Bootleg (Live Album) (2002, Rotten Records)
• Demos: 1993 - 1996(Compilation) (2005, Rotten Records)

Members

• Dax Riggs - Vocals (1991 - 1997)
• Jimmy Kyle - Drums (1991 - 1997)
• Mike Sanchez - Guitar, Vocals (1991 - 1997)
• Sammy Pierre Duet - Guitar, Vocals (1991 - 1997)
• Audre Pitre - Bass, Vocals (1991 - 1997) (Died 1997)
• Joseph Fontenot - Bass (1991 - 1992, 1997)
• Tomas Viator - Keyboards (1996 - 1997)
• Kelly Pitre - Live Bass (1997)

External Links

• Official webpage
• Youtube interview with Sammy.
• Youtube interview with Dax.
• The Gauntlet interview with Dax.