Lillie: F-65 2012

"The lords of doom are back! And it sounds like they were never gone. In fact, it sounds like it's still 1969, and with fuzzy guitars and heavy blues-influences Saint Vitus pretty much take us back to doom metal in its infancy.

With minimalistic and crushingly heavy guitar riffs as the main ingredient, Saint Vitus draws on a bass-rich and fuzz-ladden quite dirty guitar sound, which suits the overall tortured and desolate feel of this album perfectly (and which is very reminiscent of the sound on "Born Too Late", too). And, needless to say, Scott Weinrech's characteristic vocals, the heavy drum beats and the driving bass contribute equally importantly to the retention of the typical Saint Vitus sound no this album.

A track like "Let Them Fall" is simple and heavy and compellingly expressive, while the massive "The Bleeding Ground" has the same sort of darkly psychedelic groove associated with Black Sabbath, although the tempo is increased towards the end and a chaotic and at times noisy guitar solo kicks in. "Vertigo" is a melodic instrumental and allows one to rest the ears after the brilliant noise of "The Bleeding Ground". Drawing on a heavy (but actually quite uptempo) and minimalistic riff, "Blessed Night" has an almost hypnotic quality to it, and that big fat bass sound is just brilliant. "The Waste of Time" is a heavy and doom-laden track evolving around a set of classic doom metal-style riffs. This also applies to "Dependence", which is the magnum opus of the album (which does have a slightly more epic feel to it than anything else on the album), while "Withdrawal" is a sort of soundscape-thing evolving around experimentation with guitar noises.

Fans of doom metal should definitely check out this release. In true Saint Vitus style, it is retro beyond belief and goes all the way back to doom metal in its earliest form. It is slow, heavy, minimalistic, darkly psychedelic, tortured, dirty and bleak. It is true doom metal in every sense. If you love your Pentagram and your Black Sabbath, then you will also love Saint Vitus' "Lillie: F-65".

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"