When The Kite String Pops (studio album) by Acid Bath

A very intense sludge metal album, while offering just enough variety to keep it interesting throughout. At times it can feel sludgy, thrashy, a few moments of acoustic guitar driven songs, but it all still works. Once again it's a very intense album, and unfortunate it doesn't have much recognition on this site.

I'd say my only gripes with it is the production at times feels off, mainly with the drums. It's also a lil long, at 50-55 minutes it'd be just right, but a few songs in the middle and around the end aren't as good as others. But as of this comment being made, it's offered the most variety of sludge metal I've ever heard, and worth a listen for sure.

From DriftingOrpheus 05/26/2020 04:37

Acid Bath were an outfit from the swamps of Louisiana, likely the only place where music of this ilk could be spawned. The sludge metal group only produced two studio albums with a lifespan abridged by the sudden death of bassist Audie Pitre. The introduction to their brief discography is nothing less than a masterwork in the metal genre, an album of intense hate coupled with stunning musical proficiency that many have overlooked or more likely have never experienced. The guitar work is polarizing, often resembling a slithering eel bathing in distortion and feedback. Honestly, what else could suffice for a record that brandishes track titles such as "Cassie Eats Cockroaches", "Dr. Seuss is Dead" and the penultimate "The Bones of Baby Dolls". As horn-rimmed glasses wearing, toffee-nosed onlookers may categorize its content as a slobbering collection of shock rock, the truth is far more personal.

Lead vocalist Dax Riggs likens tracks Tranquilized and Cheap Vodka to drug-triggered, personal anecdotes. The bluesy restraint of Scream of the Butterfly harkens back to the regret of an abortion and the distinctive sound of the woman's grief over said act. Toubabo Koomi is cajun french for Land of the White Cannibals and takes aim at the savagery of the governmental system. Finally, The Bones of Baby Dolls details the unvarnished evil of a child molester. All in all, When the Kite String Pops is not for the faint of heart.

With John Wayne Gacy plastered on the cover, few would gaze upon the album and foresee the intense, brilliant musicianship buried within the catacombs of this striking record. This is partly the appeal. Sometimes it seems like this is something we shouldn't be listening to, like a suicide caught on tape. The dichotomy of the vulgarity and poetry on the album makes it the best kind of rarity. It's a shame that it will likely be restricted to residing in dusty attics, at the bottom of garage sale bins and quiet corners of failing record shops. Listening to When the Kite String Pops is the musical equivalent of watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). A brilliant film no doubt, but one of immense depravity. When the Kite String Pops makes you want to shower once it's over, but you are helpless to the notion of starting it all over again, bathing in its magnificent grime.

"I feel the wetness of her tongue that slides across my skin
The viruses crawl over me and feel for some way in."

-Cassie Eats Cockroaches

Standout Tracks:

1. The Bones of Baby Dolls
2. The Blue
3. Dr. Seuss is Dead

100.6

From babyBlueSedan 05/20/2016 15:43

I've listened to a fair number of metal albums, but this is the only one that makes me feel like I'm in an insane asylum in the 19th century.