Saint Vitus  took a sound, a vision first born in the music of the immortal Black Sabbath back at the very beginnings of Metal,  and created a quite  different creature

Upon first hearing Saint Vitus it is not at first evident of how important this band are/were in the birth of the “Doom Metal genre.

For many contemporary Doom fans, the defining groups of this genre have always been seen as Trouble. The Obsessed and later on -  Candlemass, but upon listening to Saint Vitus you can see how they took a sound, a vision first born in the music of the immortal Black Sabbath back at the very beginnings of Metal  and created a quite  different creature whilst still paying homage to the “creator” those many years earlier!

Recorded back in 1989 in front of one of the first German crowds to bare witness to the Saint Vitus live show, “Live” brings home the pure aggressive nature – both loud and raw, of a band at the top of their game.

The line up of Wino, Chandler, Acosta and Adams rip through 11 tracks of pure doom heaven, starting off with the loud and in your face “Living Backwards”  and then rattling through classics such as “Looking Glass”, “Born Too Late”, “Dying Inside ” and several other Vitus Classics before finishing up with “Clear Windowpane” where we are treated to Chandler’s psyched out guitar tripping solos which immediately makes me think “how many guys did Vitus themselves influence?”  because there have been bands since who have taken a lot of what you are hearing with Vitus and used it to a varying degree of success – just with this song alone, a band like VoiVod immediately comes to mind, but when listening to the album as a whole then you can see a lot of similarities to groups that come around years after such as Kyuss/QOTSA, as well as the likes of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus

Which all makes for very interesting debate because just as the mighty Sabbath are heralded as the forefathers of the whole metal movement, mentioning the bands above that were seemingly influenced by Saint Vitus, its clear to see their influence led to the creation of a further genre’s – that being Stoner Rock.   In the case of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus I think its more a case of Doom progressing further with a more majestic and “polished” sound whereas Saint Vitus were true pioneers.

All in all this is a very important chapter in the story of Doom metal and an essential must have recording for every Doom metal fan – store in next to the likes of the above for mentioned bands so that you can pay homage to the fact that without Saint Vitus – many of the bands that followed may not have come to be without these guys!!!