Reviews list for Saint Vitus - Hallow's Victim (1985)

I've literally only just submitted my review for Trouble's second album "The Skull" & it’s hard to think of a more suitable release to follow it up with than the second album from Los Angeles doom legends Saint Vitus given that the two bands share a lot of common elements but end up sounding so different in the grand scheme of things. If I had to pinpoint what the main reason for that is, I’d suggest it’s that Trouble blend the shared influence of early 70’s Black Sabbath doom metal & mid-70’s Sabbath stoner grooves with the more classic heavy metal sound of the NWOBHM & the US power metal movement while Saint Vitus opt to blend them with hardcore punk. And it’s quite surprising to discover just how wildly different the resulting sounds are to tell you the truth with Saint Vitus being a much dirtier, grimier prospect indeed.

Vitus retained the same line-up that delivered the filthy beast that was their 1984 self-titled debut for their follow-up record “Hallow’s Victim” which was released 18 months later in August 1985. The self-titled album was released on a hardcore punk record label in SST Records & the same can be said for “Hallow’s Victim” which shares its home with the likes of Black Flag, Minutemen, Husker Du & Meat Puppets; the production duties being handled be SST co-owner Joe Carducci & SST house producer SPOT. And given this information, it’s hardly surprising to hear that the production job on “Hallow’s Victim” sounds similarly grotty to the self-titled album. Once again we see a ridiculously murky bass-heavy mix with Dave Chandler’s rhythm guitars seeming to have had any suggestion of high end sucked out of them. This sees them combining with Mark Adams bass guitar in a fuzzy wall of filth that strangely seems to suit the Vitus sound to a tee by giving their music some additional layers of authenticity. Drummer Armando De Costa’s kit once again sounds quite loose & flabby which adds further weight to the band’s retrospective vision when it comes to production. In fact, I’d suggest that the roots of the Vitus sound can be traced back to the psychedelics of late 60’s Blue Cheer & Jimi Hendrix given the fuzzed-out guitar sound & wah-fueled approach to soloing although this is blended with the DYI attitude of the hardcore punk sound which results in a much more imposing prospect. I think it’s fair to say that “Hallow’s Victim” isn’t as successful as its older brother was in this undertaking as it doesn’t sound quite as heavy & generally bad-ass.

The artwork is pretty disappointing as it simply features a blurry, watery image of the band & does nothing to highlight the themes of the album’s lyrical content or musical direction. The cheap & nasty approach reeks of the DYI punk scene while the actual image seems more like something you’d expect to see from late 60’s psychedelic rock which is a real shame given the potential opportunity afforded by the Vitus sound. Oh well… I guess they were always going to be a more underground prospect anyway so it may not have made all that much of a difference.

“Hallow’s Victim” doesn’t see Saint Vitus trying to reinvent the wheel stylistically after their successful first-up effort. On the contrary, there are a lot of similarities between the first two Vitus records which means that comparisons between the two are inevitable. But in saying that there are definitely some points of difference worth discussing because “Hallow’s Victim” has taken the same concepts & blended the extreme ends of the Vitus sound a little more. Firstly, it’s worth noting that I don’t think “Hallow’s Victim” technically qualifies as a doom metal record in the true sense of the term because only two of its seven tracks have any right to that tag. Their debut had seen them kicking off the album with a couple of faster & noticeably punkier tracks before descending into the depths with the tempos dropping progressively over the remaining three songs & getting significantly darker in the process. Well “Hallow’s Victim” includes a substantially greater quantity of those more up-tempo numbers with even the doomier numbers being diluted with more rapid rhythms at times. But even though the tempos may be higher than you’d expect from a supposed doom metal band, Vitus never lose their focus on their Black Sabbath roots with plenty of mid-70’s style grooves dominating the tracklisting & for that reason I’d suggest that there’s a stronger stoner component than a doom one on a lot of these tracks & I’m subsequently more comfortable with that tag overall. I’d also suggest that bands like Kyuss & Queens Of The Stone Age must surely have heard this record because there are a lot of similarities between their stoner material & parts of “Hallow’s Victim”. The title track is pure high-velocity hardcore punk in the tradition of the band’s SST label-mates though & I don’t think it will be any surprise that I find this to be the only track that offers little appeal to me. I think it’s fair to say that Saint Vitus are showing the influence of consistently having shared stages with high quality hardcore bands here & “Hallow’s Victim” stands out in their back catalogue as a result because never again will we hear them produce a record that spends as much time steering away from the genre they’ve become synonymous with. But in fairness, Black Sabbath never focused predominantly on their doomy stuff so why should we be so surprised to hear Vitus following a similar path with regards to variation in tempo.

Front man Scott Reagers higher register vocal delivery once again rides high above the instrumentalists but I have to say that I don’t think his style suits the faster material as much as it did the more disconsolate despair of the band’s doomier material & I often find his more theatrical flourishes to remind me quite heavily of Diamond Head front man Sean Harris. Unfortunately, this would be the last Saint Vitus album to feature Scott for a while as he would leave the band in 1986. I’m not entirely sure as to the reasons for that departure but the strongest component of the Vitus sound was always Dave Chandler’s guitar work & here we see him taking a noticeably more restrained approach to his solos with less of his signature chaotic improvisation & a touch more structure. I think it works pretty well for the most part but in saying that, the additional space he’s afforded himself ensures that his technical deficiencies are even more obvious than they were previously. He still sits somewhere between the more chaotic Jimi Hendrix psychedelia & the heavier pentatonic blues style of Tony Iommi only this time I think it’s fair to say that he’s concentrated a little more heavily on the Iommi side of the equation.

It’s hard to say which of the two Vitus albums were the more focused to that time. I mean you could say that “Hallow’s Victim” has less of a wide gap between the various songs from a tempo point of view but it’s also a little more accessible & a touch less consistent. As I mentioned earlier, the title-track is the first Vitus song that I find to be a disappointment & there’s also nothing here to rival the heights of a song like “The Psychopath” from the debut. I don’t think “Hallow’s Victim” is quite as dark as “Saint Vitus” was either. And for these reasons I see it as a step down from the debut even though it’s an enjoyable listen overall. I think I just prefer the doomier Vitus style over the more up-tempo one to be honest. They’re very good at both but their slower stuff fits more comfortably into my musical comfort zone. Fans of Black Sabbath & Pentagram should certainly give this a few spins though.