Interview with Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus, cont.

 

Here's the last part of my interview with Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus. We talk about New Orleans super groups, punk rock, and some new bands he digs. 

Justin Gish (JG)- Outside of this tour, you guys are still going strong in Europe at the big festivals right?

Dave Chandler (DC)- Yeah those are really fun because that was something back in the 80’s we always dreamed of doing, and now it’s really cool to be able to do it. The only bummer is that if you do one you have to wait three years before you can do it again, and that’s just a weird thing. So it’s like if you play Hellfest in 2013, you can’t play again 2016, unless all the sudden you’re the best band in the world. Which, I understand Because they want to keep it different but there’s still quite a few that we haven’t done yet.

But those are hard to do, there’s some difficulty because there are so many bands, and there are road crews you’re not used to, and it’s really hard but it’s really fun when you walk out there and raise your hand all all these people are screaming, it’s a blast.

JG- I can only imagine. Are you seeing younger folks at the shows, thanks to the “Doom Revival” we seem to be in now?

DC- Yeah, and that’s a really cool thing that we dig. Apparently between the time that we ended and now you know there’s been like a couple generations and that’s really nice because parents are bringing their kids. I have pictures of me with little tiny kids with Saint Vitus shirts on and that’s really bad ass. And the old fuckers will say they only go see one concert a year and they get in their wheelchair or their hoveround and they go to our show.

JG- Must make you proud

DC- Yeah, and they come up to the stage with the shirts they brought thirty years ago.

JG- The fall is going to be a big month in Grand Rapids. Monster Magnet is opening their North American tour here, we get you guys, and Church of Misery-

DC- And Kylesa's been there we’re doing a tour kick off thing with them in Oklahoma.

JG- So do you work a lot with Season of Mist bands?

DC- It just kind of depends. LIke this one, we just did four days in Australia and that was with Season of Mist, one of their bands, which is Monarch. And then we did local bands who opened up, but this tour is kind of like we’re trying to work with new people to get more of a new crowd, so everybody was like okay, you need to do either this band or that band, which is Pallbearer and Zoroaster, and both of them couldn’t do the whole thing, so we split it up, because these are really big upcoming bands and we wanted them on. But usually we don’t care, the only thing we don’t want is a band who is going to make the stage messy, before we play because if we’re going to slip and fall, on something it is going to be our fault, not some Satan band’s fault.

JG- No pig’s blood?

DC- Yeah, if they want to play with us, we don’t care, we’ll just play before them. And they can mess up the stage after. That’s fine. We just don’t want to slip and fall. But that’s the only thing, we don’t really give a shit who we play with.

JG- Yeah, you guys were on SST and with the whole punk thing, you guys are no strangers to playing with bands that don’t exactly sound like you.

DC- Yeah, we played in front of numerous audiences that really couldn’t care less about us, and some really angry ones who really wanted us to get off the stage and showed it very violently.

JG- Just wanted you to play a little faster?

DC-And we didn’t which made them madder, but that got our rep going.

JG- And that’s punk rock, playing by your rules and sticking to your guns.

DC- Yeah, it’s funny you say that because we were doing an interview one night and this one guy asked Wino “how would you classify yourselves?” and Wino goes, “fuck doom metal, we’re actually a punk rock band, cause we don’t really rehearse and we just go out and piss everyone off.” And I thought that was great.

JG- Pallbearer is slow. They are really great.

DC- I’ve heard they are really outstanding. I’m looking forward to seeing them.

JG- And you're living in New Orleans, right? How’d you end up down there?

DC- I moved here to get married. Bottom line was I met my wife in California, we were both working in the same place, I was a bartender, she was a waitress. And it was going nowhere, it was just going to be absolutely nothing, and I was doing Debris, Inc which was our stupid fun band, and she said she could get us a place to live in New Orleans, would you be willing to move, and I said yes. There was nothing in California, the bar was going to fire me anyway, so I said fuck it and we moved. And it’s been great.

JG- New Orleans fits the Saint Vitus vibe.

DC- Yeah, and ironically, I moved here in 2005 and then Katrina hit. But we lucked out cause we first moved here we lived in apartments that were in a cemetery. Which was the highest point in the city, because they don’t want the bodies to float around, so our house was dry, we just had no power or nothin’. For a few months and we stayed in Chicago with friends.

JG- You ever run into Phil Anselmo down there?

DC- Not really, he lives way out, but when we play he’ll come out to the show. Main person from Down that I hang out with is Pat the bass player, he’s a good friend of mine and he lives close.

JG- It seems like in New Orleans it be real easy to put together a supergroup.

DC- Yeah, but everybody just kinda does their own thing. But me Pat, and Jimmy Bower were fucking around for a while but it wasn’t serious, we would just get real stoned and fuck around it was nothing super serious. And there’s a lot of people that do that around here, so it’s just not something I want to do.

JG- I read in old interviews that you don’t listen to new music, that still the case?

DC- Yeah, I don’t listen to music really unless I’m on the road. I listen to the music I always have, and I’m more of a TV person. I watch TV that’s my thing, and I get a lot of musical influences from that. But I do like some new bands, well, Red Fang and Devil aren’t new anymore, but I really dig them. And there was a band in Australia that opened for us that was badass called Zodiac, they remind me of Witchfinder General kind of, I just thought they were really good. And I asked them for their record and they gave me a cassette and I said I like you even more now. They really impressed me. And I don’t like bands where I can’t understand the singer. And I could understand them. It’s fine to have a gruff voice, I mean look at Lemmy, but you can hear what he says.

JG- The cookie monster stuff can get pretty old.

DC- Yeah I don’t like that GRRR GRRR UHHH GRRR GRRR. I’m just like sorry, I don’t know what the hell you said.

JG- So what television shows do you watch?

DC- Well I’m like an old TV fan. But newer shows I like Big Bang Theory, I watch a lot of Nickelodeon, iCarly is one of me and my wife’s favorite shows, and cartoons, and my favorite show on TV, of all time, is professional wrestling. 

Interview with Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus

Doom stalwarts Saint Vitus begin their North American tour tomorrow in San Antonio. I spoke with Dave Chandler from his home in a New Orleans graveyard (really) about getting back on the road, the recent Season of Mist reissues of C.O.D and Die Healing, and briefly, Don Dokken.

Justin Gish (JG)- Can you tell me about the tour?

Dave Chandler (DC)- Yeah, the tour starts soon, I believe the first show is the 4th or 5th of October, and I’m not really sure, it got changed around a bit, so I’m not exactly sure on the dates of where we’re hitting you guys (Grand Rapids Oct 9th) and where we’re hitting other people. But it’s gonna be a lot of fun because the opening bands everybody says they’re really good- we got Pallbearer on some of the shows, and Zoroaster, and The Hookers are opening every show, supposedly they are a really fun party band. So we’re looking forward to it. It should be cool, we’re doing a lot of places that we missed on the last tour North American tour, and some places we haven’t played since like 1987 or before so I think it’s going to be interesting.

JG- Season of Mist just reissued C.O.D and Die Healing, will you guys be playing tunes from those albums?

DC- Actually, we already had our set doled out and planned so I don’t really think so. There’s something I have in mind that I think we can work out, cause we don’t live near each other, so we can’t practice like a regular band, so what we do is we rehearse for like three days and then we go out. So I’m thinking about something but we’re not really sure yet. But on the next tour after this one we will be doing stuff from those albums. But I’m not sure about Die Healing, we have to figure out songs that Wino is comfortable with. We don’t want to have him do a song that he’s not comfortable with, cause that’s not cool and that’s not fair. But I think there’s a couple off C.O.D we might be able to pull off. I’m not sure if we can do it right now though. They kind of threw us for a loop actually when they re released those albums, we were like, “Oh shit” people are going to want  to hear songs off those now.

JG- Really?

DC- Yeah we hadn’t played any off either one of those since we’ve been back together, so we were like, “hmm” now what.

JG- Yeah, why would you practice those albums because Wino isn’t on either of them.

DC- Right, and Die Healing is a little bit of a sore point because that was the last record and C.O.D none of us are really jazzed with because of the production, but you know, it’s like what the fuck, people like the stuff so we’ll try. But I don’t know if we can pull something off on this tour, because we would rather play an older song that sounds good than try to jump into something off those albums and have it sound shitty. We’d rather wait until we have it rehearsed.

JG- You said you weren’t happy with the production on C.O.D, was that Don Dokken’s fault?

DC- No no, actually he was our choice. He was friends of ours, he grew up with Armando our drummer. In the studio it sounded good, but when it came out all the low end was gone. It’s like you can’t hear Mark and you can’t hear the bass drum, I was like, “what happened?” and it was too late then. And that just happens, that happens with a lot of bands, it was shopped off to a mastering studio where nobody was there and the guys in the shop were like “I don’t know” and they just, yeah, so the low end was lost.

JG- Did you catch any flack for having Don Dokken produce the album?

DC- We got a little, but it was more confusion than flack. People were like “how in the hell do you know him?” was basically the question that we got, and we’d just say Armando grew up with him, and they’d go “okay”. And that just kind of settled everything right there, ya know. Cause it is a weird thing, and he was at first, like “I don’t know” if I want to have you guys put my name on there. And I said, “Dude, it’s already done, don’t puss out.

JG- So he was reluctant to be associated with you?

DC- No, he just wanted to be a silent partner type thing. He gave us his studio for practically nothing, we used all his gear, he was really super cool, and he just kind of wanted to be in the background and not really have any acknowledgement, and I said no, you’ve done all this, we’re going to acknowledge you, and he said okay. Cause it was mainly us producing it and he would come in and do some little fine points and stuff, but he was there through the whole thing, but he just kinda wanted to give us a break, he didn’t want to really get involved, but we wanted to out his name on it and he said okay.

JG- He might as well have his name on it.

DC- Yeah, and I’ve read interviews where people have asked him about it and he doesn’t deny it, he’s not like one of those weird people that says, “that’s not me.” He just says Oh, yeah, yeah, it was fun.

JG- Yeah, I mean you are musicians, you’re all in the same business.

DC- Yeah, and he’s actually, he’s got a bad reputation, but he’s really not like that, he’s a nice guy.

JG- He just came through Kalamazoo, I just saw him with Sebastian Bach, Lita Ford, and Ratt, and then C.O.D comes out and his name is on it.

DC- Whoa, what a weird hair band show.

JG- Enough about C.O.D. As far as Die Healing goes, you’ve said that was your favorite Saint Vitus album, right?

DC- Yeah, before we did Lillie, people would ask in the random interview or something what my favorite Saint Vitus record was, and I would always say Die Healing because of the production, and the very first album because it is actually a live album, we just set up in the studio and played like rehearsal, it’s all one take. The only thing missing is two or three people cheering. And those were always my favorites, but I would always say Born too Late is the best album, because it has the best songs, and it has the best feeling, I’m just not super happy with the production on that one either.

JG- Could you fix any of the albums production wise on any future reissues?

DC- We could, and I was approached about it and I said no. I kinda don’t like it when bands go back in and remaster. I don’t really like that. If we’re gonna re release it let’s just put it out like it was because some of our records are hard to get. The reason that we agreed to have Die Healing and C.O.D put back out, and I made sure that they were not to be remastered, even though I would have liked the production to be different on C.O.D, is because both those records got very little distribution and like no ads for anything and those are the most sought after records. So I said okay, but if we’re going to put releases out let’s do those two first and leave them exactly as they are, because people want the one they can’t get, they don’t want a new version of it.

JG- They want the one they remember,

DC- Yeah, exactly. The one that their friend has that they can’t find. So that’s why we didn’t touch those, and like I said I kinda don’t really dig that. It’s like if you want to put it out again, put it out again, you don’t really need to be like “oh, we’re a better band now”, no you’re not, it’s the same fuckin’ record.

JG- So Lillie is your favorite record now.

DC- Yeah, totally, not because it is the newest one, but because I think the songs really put out how Saint Vitus is, on par with Born too Late. And I think the production is extremely great. Tony Reed did a really really good job on it. I said “damn, you made this sound like a fuckin’ record I would buy when I was a kid”. And that really impressed me, when I put that thing on, I have to turn the volume down, usually on a Vitus record you got to turn the volume up.

JG- It’s a great album, and I know that having Wino back, I know it’s pretty much your band but-

DC- No, not necessarily, it’s basically me and Mark, because we’re the original people, but yeah, I mean it was a really good feel because Wino played with Henry live a few times before we recorded the record and he realized what I said, "this dude can play all the shit and he pounds it loud". At the first rehearsal Wino just looked at me and grinned, like “I like this guy." And you know, when everybody is happy you get a really good feel and that was really nice. We went in the studio which was kind of in the woods and everybody went in and did their parts and then people who had to overdub went in and did that and everybody else sat outside and smoked weed. So it was really cool.

I'll post the second half of the interview tomorrow at 4:20 am. The second half will give you some insights into the European Festival Scene, Dave's favorite television shows, and why Saint Vitus is Punk rock. And if you're around Grand Rapids and want to win tickets to see the show at the Pyramid Scheme, tune in to my radio show at 11pm this Friday!

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Album Review: Goatess by Goatess

A quick glance at the cover of the debut by Goatess conjures images of the infamous devil baby of Sabbath's Born Again. But a closer look reveals this to be no ordinary spawn of Satan. Note the hind legs. What you have here is the birth of the great god Pan, and while it is an obvious nod to the the founders of the genre we all hold so dear, just as the cover differs, so does the sound of the mighty Goatess.

Goatess are more than a doom band. They offer a healthy doss of Stoner groove in most of their songs. And I know, I know, the genres aren't light years away from each other, but the quickening of the tunes goes a long way for those who might shy away from modern doom and its hypnotic thud. Goatess could be a genre unto themselves: Gateway Doom.

The first tune, Know Your Animal, sounds like Ozzy when he isn't trying so hard to sound like the Prince of Darkness. The track even name checks an underrated Sabbath tune. Alpha Omega  is a more traditionally Doom tune, the sonic equivalent of Michael Myers walking towards a hapless sitter. But something happens at the the four minute mark, a stonery guitar solo pops up, and if I were keeping with my original slasher analogy, I'd mention conscience here, but the plodding begins again and we are bathed again in Doom so why bother. Oracle Part I  is the shortest tune on the album, clocking in at a measly four minutes, forty seconds. This tune again showcases the bands commanding dominance of the doom Stoner/Doome genres- it is just slow enough to be Doom, but interesting and compelling enough to be considered Stoner. King One again walks the Stoner line, and the first vocalizations you hear is a cough like a song I think I heard once before. The nods to Sabbath are understandable, and like with any band that plays heavy music it is fun to play the game "Spot the Sabbath", cause there ain't a damn band out there that wasn't influenced by those lads from Birmingham. And maybe the whole thing is just a game we reviewers play cause we got nothing better to do. Who knows.

But if something needs to be printed on a sticker and slapped on the album's front I'll say this, "Goatess are both student and teacher of Stoner/Doom Rawk. They preach the old and practice the new. Buy this."

I'll end by saying you're not wrong if you think this albums sounds like, say, Count Raven or Lord Vicar, or even a Saint Vitus album,like the Don Dokken produced album C.O.D.There IS a common thread you can investigate on yer own. But after referencing those bands and listening to this album, I believe this band will prove to be on par with those legendary bands. Listen to the track below and find out for yerself. Then buy a physical copy cause this one is worth it.

"Life is a motherless child"

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LP Review: Wiser Fool By Wiser Fool

Most of the time you can judge and album by its cover. Now I'm not saying you can tell how good an album is based on the number of skulls and pentagrams that accompany whatever art goes with the music, all I'm saying is that if you've got those symbols on the cover you can assume you aren't going to hear no polka. And though this rule isn't hard and fast (Bat Out of Hell, anyone?), it can help when one is browsing Bandcamp for new bands, as I recently was.

While on the site I came across Wiser Fool, and as you can see from the album work above they hit all the right tropes. Skull? Uh Huh. Grim Reaper/Wizard? Check. Psychedelic Eye? You bet. With an album cover like that I had to give them a shot, and I'm glad as hell did.

Wiser Fool play a hard and heavy style of stoner doom with vocals that are at times reminiscent of  rock and roll lifer Wino. Their debut was released a few months back and fans of the new occult/retro bands ought to rejoice. Wiser Fool just joined the party.

Their self titled album kicks off with I Pledge Allegiance to This Cult, a chug a lug rocker with solos and Satan references. What's Been Said is up next, and this tune walks the doom line, slow and heavy and thick. Like Lightning From the Sky hides the riff behind the vocals and starts kicking ass one second in. Seek it Out hearkens back to the days of Vitus and you can sample that one for yourself below.

All in all this is a great album by a band that ought to go places. Right now they're going places 'round Vancouver, so if you're in the area check them out. And find them on Facebook and Bandcamp and show them some love. Give 'em the means to put these tunes on some colored vinyl. 

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New Band To Burn One To: VERDUN

Heavy Planet presents...VERDUN!

Today's "New Band To Burn One To" hails from Montpellier, France.

Band Bio:

VERDUN was born in 2010 by the communion of five musicians with substantial backgrounds (some members appear in Fleshdoll (Pervade Prod.), Grandizer (Basement Apes), Raspoutine etc.) who have in common the passion for heavy and hypnotic musics. Their master ? Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Pagan Altar or Saint Vitus. After spending months in a cave of Montpellier (FRANCE) torturing their instruments in a wet cave, they decide to leave the darkness and carry the psychedelic flame that burns inside themselves. They hit the stage with Electric Wizard, Kylesa, Red Fang or with famous french bands like As We Draw, Quartier Rouge or Pord. VERDUN plays an anxious and oppressing Doom Metal whith heavy riffs, tortured melodies embbeded in fogs of delay, some spectral voices and atmospheres that introduce the end of the world. In the beginning of 2011, VERDUN makes an endorsement deal with Mazzette which provides their new prototypes of stompboxes in order to shape a very personnal sound to the band. Now, the five doomsters have just finished the recording of their debut EP "The Cosmic Escape of Admiral Masuka". The CD version is available now through Head Records (Pneu, Ofo Am, Goodbye Diana...) and in Tape on Throatruiner Records (Birds in Row, Comity, Plebian Grandstand, As we Draw...).



Thoughts:

"Slow and repetitive doom grooves infest your brain as the distant and tortured vocal yammer tears at your soul. This is a brilliant concoction of what happens when you bring together the somberness of doom and the aggressiveness of hardcore. Let Verdun punish your eardrums today with their twisted take on doom."

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Flashback Friday - Saint Vitus

My inspiration for this Flashback Friday feature came from finally having an opportunity to see doom legends Saint Vitus play live earlier this week. The band has been together, albeit sporadically, in some incarnation or another for nearly as long as I've been alive, yet to my knowledge, this was the first opportunity I've ever had to see them live. Given those odds…I figured it was a show I better not miss, and damn if it wasn't worth the 35 year wait. But as always…let's start at the beginning.

Saint Vitus, along with Trouble, Pentagram and a handful of others, were the very first to play the style of music that we now call doom. Now let me emphasize to you the magnitude of that statement. There are plenty of legendary bands out there who have had immeasurable influence on various sub-genres of this music scene over the past 20 plus years (Down, Crowbar, Orange Goblin…the list goes on). Saint Vitus were one of the originals…the guys that those guys looked up to.

In fact, let me tell you a little story. Back around 1993 (or maybe it was 1994…I can't really remember), I went to see Corrosion of Conformity at a shitty, little dive bar in Raleigh, North Carolina (their home town). Prior to the show, I was hanging out outside the place and happened to run into Pepper Keenan. Now, I wish I could tell you that we had some really cool discussion about the state of rock n roll or his upcoming plans to start a side project with Philip Anselmo (remember this was still a couple of years before Down would release NOLA). But no…the conversation really went more like this…

Me: Pepper Keenan! What's up man?
Pepper: What's up.
Me: I'm looking forward to the show tonight!
Pepper: Thanks.
Me: Hey…cool Saint Vitus wristband!
Pepper: Thanks.

And unfortunately that was about the extent of our conversation…but I think my point is clear.

Saint Vitus got their start in Los Angeles in the late 70's when Dave Chandler (guitar), Mark Adams (bass), Armando Acosta (drums) and Scott Reagers (vocals) joined together to make music under the name Tyrant. Whether they eventually changed their name to Saint Vitus due to their obvious affinity for Black Sabbath (Sabbath's Vol. 4 has a song called "St. Vitus' Dance") or because the real Saint Vitus is the patron saint of entertainers, I don't know for sure. Regardless, by the time the band released their self-titled debut album in 1984, their name had been forever changed.

The album was released on SST Records, a label owned by fellow SoCal musician Greg Ginn…guitarist of hardcore legends Black Flag (another band from which Vitus drew influence). It was followed by an EP titled The Walking Dead and then a year later by their sophomore effort, Hallow's Victim, which would be the last to feature Reagers on vocals. Enter Scott "Wino" Weinrich.

Having already spent time as the vocalist/guitarist for The Obsessed, Weinrich was no stranger to the burgeoning doom scene that Saint Vitus called home. His influence on the band's sound was immediately noticeable as their next album Born Too Late, which was released in 1986, would, over time become known as their masterpiece. Songs like "H.A.A.G. (Hell Ain't A Game)", "The War Starter" and of course the title track simply defined Saint Vitus. The album is still considered a high water mark for the genre today.

The following year, Saint Vitus released another EP titled Thirsty and Miserable, after the Black Flag song of the same name, which was one of the three songs on the release. These songs would later be included on the re-release of Born Too Late. In 1988, the Wino led version of the band released Mournful Cries, their final album on SST Records. The album continued in the same vein as its predecessor, a heavy slab of all out doom, but State-side, it didn't make much of a splash in the sales department and frustration began to grow within the band.

Weinrich would stick around for one more album, the 1990 Hellhound Records release V, before leaving to resurrect his old band The Obsessed. His replacement was Christian Lindersson of the Swedish band Count Raven. Lindersson did vocals on the band's sixth album C.O.D. which was released in 1992, but by the following year, Vitus came full circle by replacing him with their original singer Scott Reagers. The second go around with Reagers resulted in one album, Die Healing, which was released in 1995, but the band still was unable to match the intensity they'd found with Weinrich and in 1996, they called it quits.

In their post Saint Vitus days, Dave Chandler went on to work with Trouble's Ron Holzner in a band called Debris Inc. while Acosta stayed busy in a project called Dirty Red. Both Reagers and Adams remained relatively quiet within the music industry. Of course Weinrich's post-Vitus days were possibly his most successful, as he would continue to make music in The Obsessed as well as his other musical outlets which include Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, Shrinebuilder and his own solo material.

The classic lineup of Weinrich, Chandler, Adams and Acosta reunited briefly in 2003 for a show in Chicago and then again in 2009 for some festival dates in Europe. Unfortunately, by the time of the second reunion, health problems had begun to take their toll on Acosta and he was unable to perform with the band. In his absence, Henry Vasquez from the band Blood of the Sun was brought in to sit behind the drums. Sadly, Acosta passed away in November of 2010.

The good news is this…his memory lives on in the music of Saint Vitus. As I've already made you aware, that music is alive and well in the clubs and music halls of America. Vitus' reunion led them to a co-headlining spot on the Metalliance Tour which is making its way across the U.S. this very moment. Playing alongside seasoned metal veterans Crowbar and Helmet as well as upstarts like Howl and Red Fang, Saint Vitus is introducing a whole new generation, who very well may have been "born to late", to the doom that started it all.

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SAINT VITUS Plays Sold-Out Show In New Orleans; Photos and Video Footage Available

Legendary U.S. doom metal band SAINT VITUS played a sold-out show at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans this past Saturday night (April 11). They were joined on stage by DOWN's Pepper Keenan, Jimmy Bower and Philip Anselmo for the chorus to "Saint Vitus" and Anselmo returned to sing the chorus to "Dying Inside". Also on the bill were A HANGING and HAWG JAW.

SAINT VITUS' setlist was as follows:

01. The War Starter
02. Living Backwards
03. I Bleed Black
04. Look Behind You
05. The Lost Feeling
06. Clear Windowpane
07. The Troll (guitar solo & drum solo)
08. Mystic Lady (extended)

First Encore:

09. Saint Vitus
10. Dying Inside

Second Encore:

11. Born Too Late

Check out photos at this location.





(Videos courtesy of Danielle Hinson)

SAINT VITUS: German Club Shows Announced

Legendary U.S. doom metal band SAINT VITUS has scheduled a couple of German club shows to follow the group's sold-out appearance at this year's Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. The dates are:

April 24 - 013 - Tilburg, NETH (Roadburn)
April 27 - Live Music Hall - Köln, GER
April 29 - Die Röhre - Stuttgart, GER

Olivier "Zoltar" Badin of UK's Terrorizer magazine last fall conducted an interview with SAINT VITUS guitarist Dave Chandler.

Terrorizer: Ironically, in between 1996 when you first split up, and 2003, the band's popularity had grown a lot. How do you explain it?

Chandler: The irony of it all is a friend whom I used to complain to that things were not happening for us in the '80s said to me that to become popular, all I had to do was to disband and reform five years later. How true. But seriously, I don't know what really happened. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that during the time we were gone the whole doom scene was finally blossoming, at least in Europe, and a lot of those bands were mentioning us as one of their main influences. I actually want to thank you guys at Terrorizer, because when you did that doom special thing spread over three issues, I know we got mentioned a lot and that did a lot for us. Or maybe we just lucky. I don't know. But it still feels weird. I work in a head shop here in New Orleans, I sell pipes you know. And few times, some customers who there looking to buy some stuff would all of a sudden just freeze in front of me and go like, "Wait a second, are you really who I'm thinking you are?" to which I would just answer like, "Errrrrr, I don't know." Usually, they would then rave on about me being in SAINT VITUS and being some kind of legend or whatever. And the only thing I'd tell then would be, "Really?"

Terrorizer: When you started considering doing the reunion shows, did you question which version of the band you'd reactivate?

Chandler: Well, the With Full Force guys explicitly asked for the "Born Too Late" lineup so we knew straight away this would happen with Wino at the mic, yeah.

Terrorizer: But you never thought there could be more than the two shows (Chicago and With Full Force)?

Chandler: Pretty much, yeah. I mean during our lifetime, we had only played in small clubs with punk bands whose fans usually hated us. So the idea was to do one big show and that's it. Plus, everybody's got to take care of their own lives, you know? Wino had THE HIDDEN HAND going on, I had DEBRIS INC. and Armando was playing in a heavy rock outfit called DIRTY RED, so…

Terrorizer: What about DEBRIS INC.?

Chandler: Oh, this hasn't been happening for a long time now. After we released our album in 2005, we did some touring but I then realized the conditions were as horrible now as they were back in the days and since I'm not that young anymore, I just couldn't stand them, really, so I kind of put the band to rest. Since then, I've been jamming from time to time with friends during weekends, but just for the fun of it, nothing really serious.

Terrorizer: Nowadays, everybody in VITUS is pretty scattered all over the country, right?

Chandler: Yeah, I live in New Orleans, Armando and Mark are in California, and Wino is either in Washington or Maryland, I don't remember. Everybody's going to come down here for the rehearsals though. We're probably going to do a show prior to Roadburn as well, like when we played in Chicago in 2003, just to make sure everybody knows what they're supposed to do.

Terrorizer: A low-key DVD from your Chicago show was released in 2007. Are you going to record Roadburn as well?

Chandler: Well, the plan right now is to record both shows and maybe put out a sequel to our '90s live album. But you'd better ask my manager the details because I'm already too busy trying to re-learn those songs I wrote over twenty years ago.

Terrorizer: What about the setlist?

Chandler: Well, I can't reveal much right now but we're going to do mostly Wino songs, including a lot from "Born Too Late". But there's also going to be some surprises, even for our diehard fans, as we're going to play songs we never or rarely did live before.

Terrorizer: Any Scott Reagers songs planned, like from your final album "Die Healing" (1995)?

Chandler: We're going to do some of them, the ones most people see as "classic" VITUS songs but none from "Die Healing", no.

Terrorizer: Wouldn't it be the right time to, at long last, finally re-release your back catalogue? Even if Southern Lord did reissue "V" (1989) and "Live" (1990), your second album "Hallow's Victim" (1985), for example, has yet to be officially released on CD.

Chandler: That's one of the reasons why we want to record those shows coming up as some of those songs might end up on some of those re-releases as yes, I can reveal to you that we just got the permission from Greg Ginn (BLACK FLAG founder/guitarist and owner of SST Records, which released the band's first four full-lengths) to do it. The details have yet to be clarified — are they going be available separately or altogether in a box set, with or without bonus tracks, etc.? But it's going to happen, yes.

For more information, visit www.terrorizer.com.

Saint Vitus to Headline Friday Roadburn Festival

Legendary US doom metal pioneers Saint Vitus have been confirmed as the headliner for Friday`s April 24 date at the 2009 Roadburn Festival. The 14th annual Roadburn Festival will take place April 23-26, 2009 and will be held at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

David Chandler comments: “We are extremely happy that were invited to Roadburn and we are excited to play. Those of you that saw us on the original reunion tour in 2003 are going to be extremely surprised at our set list. We are pulling stuff out of the hat that we haven’t played in a long long time. So I suggest that you all get up front and prepare for your DOOM!”



Saint Vitus is known as one of the very first doom metal bands, starting out in the late 1970`s, and have released many classic albums over the ensuing decades. Although Saint Vitus has been on hold for several years now, they will be reforming as the classic Born Too Late line-up (Dave Chandler, Scott "Wino" Weinrich, Mark Adams, Armando Acosta) headlining Friday night at Roadburn 2009.



Over the last two decades, Saint Vitus has become revered as one of the main architects of the modern doom scene, encompassing all that doom metal is all about: emotion, melody and epic songs stacked with enough behemoth riffs to light a week long bonfire. Every note the band has ever put to tape is a benchmark by which all other doom records have been judged. Saint Vitus` classic phrase “Born Too Late” has become the war cry for generations of doom-aficionados.


Wino comments: "We will be playing a lot of everybody’s favorite stuff. Also, my project band Wino will be playing as well, playing tracks from my solo record, Punctuated Equilibrium, and some surprises too!" Wino`s solo band is set for Roadburn 2009`s additional Afterburner event, scheduled for Sunday, April 26, alongside Solace, Dyse, and Bill Steer`s Firebird, amongst others.



In other developments, Roadburn is also pleased to report that UK doom legends Cathedral will play the Friday Roadburn date. Purveyors of psychedelic doom since 1991, Cathedral have been amazing audiences with impassioned live performances thanks to the monstrous grooves and monolithic riffs from tracks like "Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)" and "Utopian Blaster."


Also scheduled to appear on the Friday are both Scott Kelly & Steve Von Till from Neurosis, Mono (Japan), Bohren und der Club of Gore, Negura Bunget, Dragontears, The Winchester Club, Omega Massif, Colour Haze, and The Outskirts of Infinity, amongst others.



Roadburn is also pleased to report that Amon Düül II, one of the most influential bands in the canon of Kosmische Musik pioneers has been confirmed for the Thurday Roadburn Festival date, Thursday, April 23, alongside Motorpsycho.



Pre sales will start, Saturday, December 13. Tickets for the main festival (including Neurosis` Beyond The Pale event at Roadburn 2009) will be priced from €99 with no campsite accommodation. More info about ticket sales and complete line up will follow shortly.



For more info, please check www.roadburn.com, www.myspace.com/roadburnfestival, and www.myspace.com/stvitus.

Album Of The Day-Saint Vitus-"Born Too Late" (1986)

The Album Of The Day is "Born Too Late" by Saint Vitus.



"Born Too Late" is undeniably a defining effort in the spirit of the early, now considered "classic" doom metal sound. The marriage of vocalist Scott "Wino" Weinrich, founder of Maryland's D.C. area legends the Obsessed and L.A.'s own legendary doom pioneers Saint Vitus, produced a sound and lyrical landscape that was not commercially successful in its own right, but which has inspired and continues to influence myriad popular culture figures such as the Melvins, Nirvana, L7, Fugazi's Ian McKay, Black Flag's Greg Ginn (owner of SST, Saint Vitus' label) and Henry Rollins, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, Grief, Sleep, Cruevo, and a list of bands, musicians, and genres too long to list without writing a novel. Long after Black Sabbath had shifted their sound away from the bombastic, sludgy riffing of classics like Paranoid, Masters of Reality, Vol. 4, and the like, Saint Vitus and the Obsessed rose from regions that were birthplaces and breeding grounds for early-American hardcore punk. While identifying intensely with the independent and socially critical nature of those scenes, Saint Vitus's sound was deeply rooted in the gloomy ballistics of early Sabbath. Born Too Late's sludgy, ultra-slow riffs never break out into the galloping rhythms of, say, "Children of the Grave," however. This album is like Black Sabbath on Quaaludes and wearing lead suits underwater. Each chord rains down like a hammer, and each progression takes an eternity to resolve. In the early '80s, while everyone in the pop music culture was looking for the new sound, be it new wave or hardcore, Saint Vitus were decidedly retro. You don't even need more than the name of the album's title track, "Born Too Late," to get the point. But Wino drives it home anyway, with the lines "every time I'm on the street/people laugh and point at me/they talk about my length of hair/and the out of date clothes I wear." The lyrics go on to point out that while "they say [his] songs are much too slow," they also "don't know the things [he] knows." That's for sure. Before almost anyone else had even realized that rock was on its death bed, Saint Vitus were looking back on the '70s with nostalgia. Throughout, the album is what might be considered a cliched retrospective of that bygone era's heavy metal sentiments. Dragons, psychedelic drugs, images of war, and severe alcohol abuse dominate the landscape. The most important consideration with this album, though, is not the originality of the approach. What separates Born Too Late from nearly all heavy metal up to that point was the outright admission that the band's passion - slow, heavy music - not only lacked commercial viability, but was in fact itself a source of the ridicule and social alienation the music speaks to. The punk rock style integrity of the band's commitment to that sound and image was in direct opposition to the money and chicks attitude of L.A. glam metal of the day. While the impact Saint Vitus made with Born Too Late at the time was minimal, the legacy of that early dedication has influenced and changed the world of music. For all fans of grunge, stoner rock, and doom metal, this album is a classic. (Paul Kott, All Music Guide)

Track Listing:

01. "Born Too Late"- 6:52
02. "Clear Windowpane"– 3:14
03. "Dying Inside"– 7:23
04. "H.A.A.G."– 5:02
05. "The Lost Feeling"– 5:22
06. "The War Starter"– 6:43

Bonus tracks on reissue:

01. "Thirsty and Miserable"– 3:51
02. "Look Behind You"– 3:18
03. "The End of the End"– 5:49

Stream

MySpace

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BONUS

Saint Vitus performing "Saint Vitus" live at the Palm Springs Community Center on May 16th, 1986.

It was Wino's first show with Vitus.

Track Order:

01. Saint Vitus
02. Prayer for the (M)asses
03. Clear Window Pane
04. Zombie Hunger
05. White Stallions