Saint Vitus – Thirsty And Miserable 12"

Saint Vitus – Thirsty And Miserable 12"

"This is a very interesting little EP for historical as well as musical reasons. Musically, it offers three solid and distinct songs. However, without any historical background on the band, it seems a strange decision for such an incredibly slow, traditional doom metal band to cover a Black Flag song, even if the lyrics for the song are bleak enough to provide some justification. Apparently, though, Vitus often played with punk bands during their early career because they happened to be signed to a punk label. Needless to say, this didn’t always work out so well for Vitus as punks tended to really hate them.

With “Thirsty and Miserable,” though, the band really managed to make lemonade out of the proverbial lemons their early career dealt them. The simple, straightforward riffing may demonstrate the song’s punk origin and, in my mind, isn’t quite as compelling as Vitus’s own compositions but the vocal delivery, doomy tone and Chandler’s psychedelic leads improve a decent punk song and make it fit in Vitus’s own catalog. There’s not much to say about the song in the end, other than that it’s a great straightforward, doomed-up punk song. It’s easily the best doom cover of a punk song I’ve ever heard, considering the relative scarcity of any competition.

The rest of the EP is made up of two Vitus originals, “Look Behind You” and “The End of the End.” The former is a good transition from “Thirsty and Miserable:” A relatively simple, catchy St. Vitus song. It’s not, perhaps, one of the greatest Vitus songs as it is relatively mindless, but paranoia has rarely been so fun. The chorus will undoubtedly stick with you. All of the elements of effective St. Vitus songs are there but, aside from the vocals, they’re not at their most impressive or memorable in this track." - Thomash