By Lisa Burke
October 21st 2016, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: Doom metal has always had a strong impact on the heavy metal movements and genres throughout the years, and despite a few moments of fade-out, it has risen with a vengeance as of late. Saint Vitus along with Trouble and of course Black Sabbath are among the founders of this genre and are also three very different bands. On Friday October 21st 2016 at the Viper Room on the slowly dying Sunset Strip, Saint Vitus headlined their current tour with The Skull and Witch Mountain. All of these groups have an interesting track record and have been through some major line up changes that have affected them in various ways.
Witch Mountain gives you that loud and classic in-your-face doom riffage and beats that sends off those raw powerful vibes through the audience. With the addition of their latest vocalist Kayla Dixon who is a mere 21 yrs old and just joined the party last year, the band takes a slightly different turn which is neither here nor there on the outcome of the music but is an interesting discussion regardless. The band came to formation in 1997 just two years after the current singer’s birth and although it wasn’t till 2009 when their past female vocalist joined, it still seems there is a connective breach between the current vocalist and the music. She does have an exceptionally talented vocal range that enables her to get super high and clean in the style similar to Mariah Carey and then immediately jump into a style similar to that of Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy and this must be acknowledged. For some reason I still felt she belonged in a different band and maybe some of it was her mannerisms that were leaning more towards an Arch Enemy vocalist and that to me is not quite hitting the mark on what a Witch Mountain vocalist necessarily needs to be. Perhaps she just needs to find her voice within the band as she is still getting her feet wet and is very young to be taking on what she has involved herself in. All aspects considered, this was a good performance and moving into a modern era with this band is not a bad way to go to keep it fresh and alive. The guitars were as doom and gloom as ever and Rob Wrong with his red and green strat guitar among others was on double duty for this tour as he also joined The Skull last year.
Moving on to The Skull from Chicago, this was the highlight of my evening and in my opinion the best band of the night. There is just something so undeniably charismatic and bold about vocalist Eric Wagner who was originally the vocalist for early doom band Trouble. The Skull started after a Trouble reunion show that brought the vocalist, bassist, and drummer in to decide on a new rendition they named The Skull. The drummer has since quit but replacement Sean Saley is a creative hard hitter that adds a new vibrancy to the mix. Saley, however has not been part of this tour, and fill-in touring drummer Steve Hanford has been ably carrying out the task. The singer does exactly what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, and this is what sails him over the cliff without ever sinking his ship. It is always pure black magic seeing these songs performed live and this evening was no exception. This band dives into the stoner/doom guitar solos in such a way that unavoidably puts a smile on everyone’s face. It’s probably slightly odd that this reference came to my mind, but it totally is similar to watching an episode of MacGyver where the world’s problems get solved with a stick of gum and a pocket knife. If you just add in the expensive gear then the mission is complete. They always play a few original Trouble hits that really excite the crowd as well as songs from their album ‘For Those Which Are Asleep’ from 2014. The room was packed and the excitement was apparent, and sadly it had to end.
Saint Vitus disbanded for a long while in the mid nineties and have fluctuated singers at one point to even include the singer of Count Raven for one album. The other two singers are the original vocalist Scott Reagers and more well known singer Scott “Wino” Weinrich, who although is the current singer of the band, has been focusing on his other band The Obsessed and therefore Reagers is the live singer on this current Saint Vitus tour. Most people seem to love one or the other, but not both for whatever reason. I personally reserve judgement on making a choice and find them both talented and still on key as ever. I can relate to the dynamic and dominating presence of Wino that makes any show he’s a part of a unique and thrilling experience, yet Scott Reagers was not really effecting whether or not the band was worth a viewing. There were moments where I was reminded of some Alice Cooper that seemed to be mixed in with the Melvins and even Mudhoney. They put on a great show but I think it would have been better seen before The Skull as I prefer their brand of doom better as it is much cleaner and more technical of a sound, and while there is something exposing and distinct about a raw and dirty sound enhanced with the wah effects, it wasn’t the direction of doom I respond to most. Again, however this was a quality performance and I just wonder if it is because the name Saint Vitus has become such a historical staple in the history of doom that it basically becomes under-appreciated because we now have added so much complexity into our modern doom these days that it seems more simple than it actually is? This band will always remain legendary in status regardless of ever changing times and I do not expect them to adapt for superficial reasons when they showed others how to light the torch for so long.
To further explain my earlier comment on how I said the Sunset Strip was dying, I just meant that less and less venues are active, but I am hoping we don’t ever lose three of our main staples The Roxy, Viper Room, and Whisky A Go Go as these venues have housed the greatest metal bands of all time and still do from time to time. The giant luxury hotels springing up around these venues are going to prove useless if there are no attractions left to visit. Stay smart and classic and support these shows, because there are still plenty of unique and enjoyable aspects to these venues we desperately need to embellish to keep the music scene alive.