The Louisiana band came to a tragically early end in the 90s, but after going viral they’ll soon play stadiums with System of a Down. They look back on the claggy riffs and circle pits
‘I
t’s a mind-blower,” says singer Dax Riggs on the surprising TikTok-driven renaissance of the renowned 1990s psychedelic sludge metallers Acid Bath. “In the front row you’ll see an old fan and next to them is a 13-year-old kid singing all the words,” adds guitarist Sammy Duet. “What the hell is going on here?”
Formed in the Louisiana bayou in 1991 with oppressive, swampy sounds soundtracking tales of drugs, death and decay, Acid Bath deftly hopped from treacly, melodic grooves to bluesy licks and fast-chugging thrashers, sometimes in the same song. “Society here was totally decrepit and unfair in a lot of ways, but the beauty of the landscape is supreme,” says Riggs of the backwater wetlands that loomed large in their psyches. Their claggy, peculiar southern gothic style burned bright, before the death of bassist Audie Pitre in 1997 brought their journey to a close.
A revival didn’t seem likely: longtime label Rotten Records kept Acid Bath off Spotify, seemingly enraged by poor remuneration, and removed unsanctioned videos from YouTube – causing fans to upload their albums to less litigious streaming sites such as Pornhub. But a change of heart in 2020 put Acid Bath on Spotify at last, leading to millions of streams, as algorithm-surfing younger listeners – “the satanic e-girls of TikTok” as Duet calls them – yanked Acid Bath’s pitch-black sensibilities from relative obscurity into the mainstream. “It’s the internet’s fault,” says Riggs. “On the internet, the future and the past are the same.”
