Description

In the original Reagers days, Saint Vitus did two things very well. Catchy, crunchy traditional heavy metal songs that sounded grimy and down-tuned enough to be doom, and huge viscous epics too bloody stoned and slow to be anything but doom. This EP has one of each, as well as one of the best cuts from Hallow’s Victim. ‘Darkness’ should have been on that album. The verse riff is almost Venom-like in its whirring, tripping attack, the drumming of Armando Acosta has become highly sophisticated and damn exciting to boot with a very cheeky drum solo on this track, and overall it’s a potent and headstrong shot of NWOBHM knocked quickly back and slammed on the bar. ‘White Stallions’, as featured on the aforementioned full-length, was a diamond there but doesn’t really add much to this EP for those with access to Hallow’s Victim. In fact, seated between these two gems it doesn’t look quite so shiny. ‘The Walking Dead’ might be the most ambitious thing attempted during Reagers’ first tenure in the band, and is their longest song. Reagers’ vocals are typically ludicrous (and great), howling and lamenting shrilly above the strangled, intermittent drone of Chandler’s very simple riffs. It’s about as grim and depressive as they got in this era and sets a standard for long, slow doom songs in the following decade, from all sorts of bands. Even the guitar solo is a harsh screech, far from the usual flamboyant pedaling. Huge, majestic, pretty terrifying and must-hear material for the Vitusian. This EP was seemingly not just release schedule filler, but an exercise in stretching creative capabilities in two different directions and scoring perfect marks.

Track listing:
1. Darkness
2. White Stallions
3. The Walking Dead