Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Purging Doom Metal Casualties, November 23, 2005
Teeming with an abundance of distorted, wah-wah pedal, tidal wave of slow-motion catharsis, California's Black Sabbath derived hippy weed worshipers, Saint Vitus, released this moody monolith in 85'. Many metal fans were unable to relate to its mastodon pace and counter culture themes of alienation, and the hardcore/punk crossover crowds found it laughable. It's what made BTL so unique; its self awareness was soulfull, heavy, at the forefront. I was one of those long haired weirdos who got it when it came out because by the pyschedelic pink cover with its cobwebbed crucifix stain-glass window, I knew it would smoke, and it sure did {I'm no autograph hound, but Wino signed my vinyl copy} I only break it out once in a blue moon as it represents something I more so related to when I was younger. The emotions conveyed reduce it to takes-one-to-know-one status; you either immediately love it or hate it. I ended up having it tatooed on my arm, ha ...inked, and to beat out a rhythm. It's the personal element that makes this record so powerful; if you 'got' it, you took comfort in knowing there were others out there who felt the same way, and that they blasted out tunes that resonated with a lost breed. Vitus was born too late, yet, were oddly ahead of their time as their music, and this record in particular, turned out to be far more influential than I'm sure those guys ever dreamed of in their wildest hallucinations.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
better late than never, July 21, 2000
By A Customer
These days there are truck loads of bands using the old Sabbath formula, but no band does it as well as 80's indie doom masters St.Vitus.I got this album 15 yrs. ago and was floored not only by its heaviness of sound and mood, but by its honesty.Metal,like most male dominated music,tends to reflect an alpha male attitude,lots of macho agression, it reflects the way men are conditioned to think, value and behave in western capitalist culture(or reflects the sympotoms and outcomes of a culture that values winning, high gloss, and greed above all else) Vitus breaks from the stereotype,their sound is very heavy,masculine,creepy and desparate-yet there are vast differences between masculine and macho, desparate and depraived.These songs are S L O W dirges that deal with addiction, depression, and loss.War Starter deals with mans penchant for competition(war)cold apathy for lives lost and humanity itself, and the foolish reliance on so called leaders and groups.The reoccurring theme of this album(and most Vitus albums)seems to be isolation.Not belonging.The opening song, the title track, starts out "Every time I'm on the street, people laugh and point at me,they talk about my length of hair and the out of date clothes I wear"-this held more relavance in the 80's, but it still rings true today.Vocalist Wino said it was a song for all the people(metal fans)who stayed heavy-remember, back in the 80's,metal sold out,went the way of tight pants and hair-do bands playing top-40 'party' metal.The nineties saw metal sell out to funk, alternative(whatever thats supposed to mean) and now hip hop/rap, so it does'nt surprise me to see this album, this band, talked about in reverential tones among todays underground metal fans.Considered a 'high'(bong)water mark among the 11 Vitus albums/ep's,Born Too Late is the poster child for todays stoner/doom metal scene.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Album Of All Time, April 10, 2002
Not only is Saint Vitus the best band in the world, this is the best album that they ever released. Every song here encapsulates the vibes of isolation, of being completely outcast from everyone, even when in a crowd. At the time of the LP's release(1986), Vitus were the only band playing slow, heavy music, fitting into neither the "speed-metal"/thrash scene of the era, nor into the "glam" metal camp. They carried with them a vibe of late-1960's pschedelia, a sound and look from a lost era. Wino's vocals lend a sense of desperation here that Reager's vocals, although perhaps "technically" better, never could carry. And Dave Chandler...absolutely the best guitar player of all time. No one employs wah, phaser,flange and feedback as well as Dave can, not even Leigh Stephens from Blue Cheer. His leads, freaked-out and frantic, cut away all the "precision and technicality" that marr most "metal" guitar solos. He has the ability to make his guitar "talk" in a way that no other guitarist can. Dave is the man!The rhythm section of Mark Adams(Bass) and Armando Acosta(Drums) are absolutely dynamic, solid, yet creating angular tangents that do more than merely support the root of Dave's guitar chords, lending a simultaneous sense of stability and uncontrolled chaos to the maelstrom of heaviness. Vitus are a unique entity in the music world, often imitated, but they will never be bettered. DOOM OR BE DOOMED!
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