Words by Marek Steven
Photo by Tina Korhonen
In the metal scene right now everyone seems to be talking about ‘true’ doom, thrash, black metal and some of the lesser known New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Old, classic stuff basically. This is possibly because every genre of hardcore influenced metal has been done to death in the last 10 years. It may also be because a lot of it is bloody good music. A lot of the best newer metal bands seem to be combining elements of these genres and creating fresh hybrid sounds. And when it comes to the doom side of things, one classic band that is getting a lot of the attention is Saint Vitus.
Formed in 1979, Saint Vitus released two albums with founding vocalist Scott Reagers before he left to be replaced by – the now legendary – Wino Weinrich. They have had three singers in total but thankfully their 8 albums from 1984 to 1995 barely developed their sound. This is next level Black Sabbath; slow, mournful songs about growing up in the wrong era (‘Born Too Late’) being broke (‘Thirsty and Miserable’) and generally being pissed off about stuff. Classic metal topics. More importantly, the playing, attitude and atmosphere are incredible. The band, alongside the equally fantastic Pentagram and Trouble, can be credited for taking the early Black Sabbath sound into the 80’s and founding the doom metal genre that burgeoned in the 90’s.
Saint Vitus never put out a bad album. Wino left to reform his own equally classic and slightly heavier act The Obsessed in 1990 and Christian Lindersson from the decent Swedish doom band Count Raven joined for one album. The Saint Vitus back catalogue holds it’s own incredibly well due to it’s purity, emotion and the killer musicianship. But sadly the climate in the 80’s and early 90’s was not warm for bands of this type.
Black Sabbath are obviously huge but after Ozzy left the 80’s swiftly turned into a decade of either over-produced or VERY heavy metal. Kids were excited about the adrenaline rush of thrash and death metal, and the mainstream embraced the poppier sounds exploding from hair metal scene. You could argue that doom was either too late for the rock boom of the 70’s or more accurately WAY ahead of it’s time. Either way it was a small scene at best – these were lean times for doom – and the band broke up in 1996.
Fast forward to 2010 and a new generation of long hairs are looking to the past for the best true metal. Doom is one the best places to find this authenticity and the scene is now more popular than at any time in it’s history. Bands like Electric Wizard, Ramesses, Om and Sunno))) are starting to draw large crowds to worship the riff. And ask any of these bands who inspired them to pick up (and down-tune) a guitar and they are likely to quickly reference Saint Vitus.
Happily, the band reformed for live shows in 2008 with Wino back on vocals. Wino is a character arguably more rock and roll even than Lemmy. He has since become a metal legend mainly due to his brilliant music in acts like Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and collaborations with Dave Grohl and similar. Saint Vitus are touring Europe this February. Get a ticket and check out the future of metal from 1985.
