Dax Riggs
We Sing of Only Blood or Love

Too little is said about Dax Riggs. His is the story of an artist who has always been terribly overlooked. Despite a career that began quite early, at just 16 years old, and in a band still remembered by metal enthusiasts today: Acid Bath.

Well, now that I think about it on DeBaser, I believe I was the only one to talk about it, and even without the necessary details. Sometimes you get caught up in an album and tell it in your own way, overlooking some aspects that might interest the site's scholars. So, with all due respect to the illustrious prose writers, let's try to make amends.

We left off with Acid Bath. Already with the subsequent and excellent projects, Agents of Oblivion and Deadboy & the Elephantmen, Dax showed that he had overcome the pimply crises of metal and was seeking something different from the fury of the past, in a form equally dark and wild, yet always washed by the undertow of the original group. In particular, I feel compelled to recommend the work with Agents of Oblivion, creators of a swampy rock that at times embraces stoner and at others recalls the sounds of grunge's golden age.

In 2007, the time finally came for the solo adventure, resulting in the excellent We Sing of Only Blood or Love, an album produced by Matt Sweeney (Johnny Cash, Bonnie Prince), who also played guitar, along with the presence of former Deadboy adventure companions.

Dax Riggs extracts the black heart of the night with his abrasive and twilight rock, declinated in fifteen dark litanies drowned in reverbs, touching upon blues, folk, and more moderately punk territories. As if Nick Cave met Ziggy Stardust along the banks of the Mississippi.

However, it is the voice that is the true protagonist of the album, powerful and heartbreaking like the painful whine of a wounded animal. A voice that, in my opinion, is among the most versatile and personal in the entire rock landscape.

The songs quickly follow one another between haunting ballads ("Night Is the Notion") and more canonical blues ("Dog Headed Whore" or “Didn't Know Yet What I'd Know When I Was Bleeding”), sounds and moods that soundtrack morbid stories of love and blood. There are no lack of faster, garage-like tracks such as the rhythmic "Forgot I Was Alive" and "Radiation Blues," or tracks that alternate the two sides of the coin ("Ghost Movement") or those teetering on the edge of the abyss (“A Spinning Song”).

Of course, it's not a flawless album, perhaps due to having too much on the plate and some excellent ideas not fully developed. But in my opinion, the average quality remains high nonetheless, despite a few fillers, and Riggs shows that he possesses a distinct personality and is not afraid to dare.

Unfortunately, the career of our artist marked time in 2010 with the subsequent and equally valid “Say Goodnight to the World.” I'm not aware of any ongoing projects, although I hope someone will prove me wrong, as it would truly be a shame to lose an artist of this caliber in times so scarce in music of a certain level.

Goodnight world.