SAINT VITUS is a band whose name should be written in capitals and must be included in encyclopedias and dictionaries as a substitute for the word ‘doom’ both as a musical sub genre and a notion for somber state of mind, psychedelic coma and substance abuse.

In fact SAINT VITUS actually invented doom metal in the late 70’s just when their inspirators and forefathers Black Sabbath fell into deep personal and creative crisis.

SAINT VITUS have a very humble discography scattered throughout 32 years of problems, activeness and hiatus, but the brain behind the project, the one Dave Chandler never really abandoned the cause and after a half a dozen major festival appearances in the last 10 or so years he finally decided it was time for another studio album.

Historic details are of major importance, you see, because the current release "Lillie: F 65" might be their last one.

For an album of 33 minutes running time, named after a strong 80’s barbiturate that Dave and his buddies used to do back in their youth, "Lillie: F 65" is amazingly consistent both musically and concept wise. 

"Bleeding Ground" and "The Waste of Time" are no worse than any of the classics in the legendary "Born Too Late"(1986), released with a pink logo by mistake. Scott ‘Wino” is back and that’s important too.

He’s not only a cult person because of the smashing albums of The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and Shrinebuilder, but along with Eric Wagner formerly of Trouble they stand out as the most significant singers of American doom. I bet a lot of people would kill to see those bands with the aforementioned vocalists.

We can’t rely on more that that as the original Vitus drummer Armando Acosta died a couple of years ago.

"Lillie: F 65" has already received initial reactions from media and fans and as we know these two categories of people never even come close. Recently rock music has become a pet for people without even a basic taste or understanding for rebellion.

These days Vitus are more than relevant because they play the only way rock ’n’ roll should be played, the old school way. The only problem I see here is that if you make a quick comparison with their previous works the results will put the current CD in the end of the queue.

There are several reasons for that. First the absolute nonsense closer ‘Withdrawal’, which is more like a noise than a song and second comes Dave’s guitar sound. It’s like a fucking fuzz box all the time. At last but not at least it’s the short running time. C’mon, man, only 33 minutes?

If you can swallow this, you will soon love this stuff to the last note. After all these guys will always be the dudes that played their asses to punk and hardcore crowds in order to stand their grounds, they will always be the dudes who taught Black Flag to listen to Black Sabbath and they can darken the California sun with a riff or two whenever they want to.

And as long as they are here, I wouldn’t touch any of these trendy sympho doom metal bands with a ten-foot stick, I swear to God!