Saint Vitus
Mournful Cries

THE REVIEW

That guitar immersed in tar, the voice dragged from Reagers' hell: two key factors for the critical and fan success that Saint Vitus had after their self-titled debut. Then, with Scott Reagers' departure, the band's fate suddenly seemed to darken. He was replaced by "Wino" Weinrich, who debuted on the album "Born too Late" to excellent reviews from industry experts. Not many fans lamented the loss of the previous vocalist: however, I am one of them. Not to take away from Weinrich's excellent expressive abilities, Reagers' voice, his microphone presence, were fundamental in the alchemy of the American quartet.

"Mournful Cries" is the fourth album of Saint Vitus, the second with "Wino" on vocals. We are far from the dark decay of the first album, just as there is no "fullness" of sound and the decay of works like "Hallow's Victim" and "Born too Late." "Mournful Cries," compared to the three that preceded it, sounds more compact, with Dave Chandler's six strings writing doom-flavored riffs with an acidic aftertaste. Beyond this, there are very few variations. The proposition of Saint Vitus remains the same. They reproduce the genre of which they have been one of the most influential bands: a doom metal far from the existential and philosophical themes of other realities, but decidedly more epic and putrefied, with an underlying acidity that makes them unmistakable. This is the musical creed of the stars and stripes quartet, already confirmed by the opening track "The Creeps." Slower tempo in the dragged "Dragon Time," in full Saint Vitus style: there is no escape between Chandler's sculptural riffs and Weinrich's lament. A strong-flavored gem paired with "Shooting Gallery," another manifesto of this album. Thus, after the skippable "Looking Glass," the final tracks "Bitter Truth" and "The Troll" further clarify the class of Saint Vitus, a band with fungoid and slowed-down sounds.

This fourth album (from 1988) is proof of the importance they had for all those bands that in the early '90s tried to emulate their sounds and rawness. It's undeniable that they lost some of the vigor over time that allowed them to produce four great works in the '80s, but it's equally true that those are enough to overshadow the far more extensive discographies of today's bands, born in the wake of masters like Chandler, Reagers, and Weinrich. These six despairing cries represent the testament that Saint Vitus has delivered to the doom of the '80s.

1. "The Creeps" (2:47)
2. "Dragon Time" (7:26)
3. "Shooting Gallery" (6:44)
4. "Looking Glass" (4:51)
5. "Bitter Truth" (4:14)
6. "The Troll" (6:56)