In 1995, a gallon of gas cost $1.09. Mel Gibson's Braveheart war paint was thrilling housewives across the country, that sax-swingin' silver fox Bill Clinton was in office, Alanis Morissette was choking down jagged little pills, and Pantera were touring on Far Beyond Driven. It was also the year Die Healing, the last Saint Vitus album, was released. A year later, the Los Angeles doom legends called it quits, and fans despaired of ever having the chance to add more of guitarist Dave Chandler's riffs to their record collections, let alone to witness the electricity of Vitus' live show. Now, 17 years later, they've returned.
Saint Vitus reunited in 2003 for a handful of explosive performances that got tongues wagging, but things stayed quiet for the new few years. The original lineup hit the road in 2008, but a year later, drummer Armando Acosta left after 31 years behind the kit, and then tragically passed away in 2010. This left the band without an anchor, but perhaps inspired by his memory, Saint Vitus gathered themselves up and returned with a vengeance, joined by new drummer Henry Vasquez (Sourvein, Blood of the Sun). Tours and festival appearances followed and the inevitability of a new album seemed to draw closer, until a partnership with Season of Mist finally brought it to life.
Of course, Lillie: F-65 arrived weighed down by a hell of a lot of expectations. It was hard even for the faithful not to anticipate a letdown so long after the band's classic drug-fueled days, but from opening track "Let Them Fall" onward, the 33-minute collection feels like coming home. Our first taste was the single "Blessed Night", a pitch-perfect example of Sabbathian doom. On it, Chandler busts out a deceptively simple riff, torn straight out of the 1970s and dusted with dirt weed that gets mangled gloriously beneath iconic frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich's deep, throaty snarl. Mark Adams' bass line haunts the background while Vasquez brings the drums to life, adding his own hard-hitting, fluid touches to the classic Vitus stomp. It wasn't a fluke: The boys are on fire here, flush with renewed energy and basking in the glow of their newfound power.
The collection's swaggering second track "The Bleeding Ground", with its bluesy, brawny Chandler solo and soon-to-be-classic riffs, fades into "Vertigo", a gently mournful, folk-tinged instrumental. "Blessed Night" then kicks off with a forbidding wash of feedback and one of those riffs, the ones that grab you and throw their arms around your shoulders and raise their fists, and suddenly you're headbanging harder than you have all night. While the following track, "The Waste of Time", is less memorable than the others, "Blessed Night" is one of the album's strongest, capitalizing on its creators' well-hewn sense of groove and melody then leaving it all washed out and sandblasted with layers of fuzz. Chandler's prowess as an axeman cannot be given enough emphasis: his writhing, twisted, screaming solos, and devilishly heavy riffs funnel blood and mercury into Saint Vitus' heart, as Wino's pipes lay down the soul.
Returning to the Vitus fold after 22 years, and various other projects, Wino's voice is coarse and weathered, roughened by decades of smoke and whiskey. He's lived hard, and lived fast, and those thirsty, miserable years have left their mark. Slinking through lyrics that veer between intergalactic fantasy and Ragnarok to very human expressions of frustration and agony, his warm, ragged growl commiserates and accuses in turn. A song like "Dependence" is a dusty, cracked window into a world that seems almost alien, or perhaps, all too familiar, describing as it does a morning in the life of an addict. There are no metaphors at play, no sugarcoating or borrowed experience. This is-- was-- his life, and that honesty shines through the distortion. As the song spirals downward, the riffs follow, howling in pain, collapsing into acceptance, and bleeding out during "Withdrawal"'s three-and-a-half-minute feedback funeral. It's a very Vitus way to end a record, and makes it clear as crystal that after all this time, they still know how to leave us wanting more.
