RTR: Where exactly is the band based and how did it form?
Dax Riggs: We're based south of New Orleans in several small towns, Houma, Tipadoe, Morgan City and Gilliano. We're about an hour south of New Orleans. We were two different bands in the beginning. Tommy Viator used to play drums for this band but he moved away and started playing with Disincarnate. So we just took the two bands and got rid of the who weren't realy doing anything and put both heavy bands together. We were realy the only two bands doing that kind of thing a couple of years ago.
RTR: What took so long for Paegan Terrorism Tactics to come out? It was supposed to be out last summer.
Dax: Yeah well we just kept getting tour offers and we were naively doing a lot of tours for nothing, although we had to, you know? I mean, there was nobody offering us anything else, so we just kept doing them. We did three tours in the time that we should've done one and came back to work on the new album, which is not going to happen next time.
RTR: I heard that parts of Louisiana are really wierd to live in.
Dax: It's different down here, but its not bad. We mainly live out in the swamp-type areas. I really like it because it's not all populated and the people out here like to drink and stuff.
RTR: How would you describe the music and concept of Acid Bath?
Dax: It's definetly the dark, cruel side of me lyrically. I'm not totally like that, but it's definetly a part of me, this extreme blackness. It's just the sound of us going from one kind of metal to the other and doing a lot of different musical things. We all just dig a lot of stuff. Most of the band likes all kinds of music. I'm more stuck towards older music - David Bowie, just like older music. Sammy [Duet, guitar] is more like a black metal, Cradle of Filth type person. We have aspects of extreme music and really just rock also.
RTR: What kind of music inspires you personally?
Dax: Lately I've been listening to cool, old iggy Pop and a lot of David Bowie. He had a lot of good stuff throughout his whole career.
RTR: What's your favorite David Bowie album?
Dax: Uhm, probably Station to Station or Ziggy Stardust.
RTR: Are you into heavy stuff also?
Dax: I like Darkthrone and Celtic Frost, anything that sounds like Celtic Frost, and my favorite heavy metal band of course is Black Sabbath. No one could ever really touch them - never could - never will. I'm not really a speed metal freak like Sammy, but I like all these black metal bands that sound like Celtic Frost. That's what I like as far as new, heavy stuff.
RTR: Do drugs play a part in creating music?
Dax: Definetly. I mean we've al, yeah. I'll just say yeah. I don't want to get into it too much.
RTR: Do any authors or philosophers inspire your lyrics?
Dax: Frank Miller and Allan Moore, comic book writers. They're really going to be the Edgar allen Poe's of the future. It's the best thing happening. There's no horror happening in books anymore, if you ask me. Not that I know. I mean Clive Barker he's dead, you know?
RTR: Anything else that inspires your lyrics?
Dax: Just life's horrible cruelties that I see everyday. Anything from million of dead Jews to that dead baby they just found in the garbage can. All horrible things affect me and inspire me to write for Acid Bath.
RTR: Where was the video for "Toubabo Koomi" filmed?
Dax: In Morgan City, our drummer's hometown. It's far out in the swamps. We went out and caught some alligators for it. This guy got bit in the face by an alligator while we were making that video. A big chunk of his face...should have put that in the video. Then, he took the alligator out and killed it, which is against the law down here.
RTR: How would you say the new album differs from When The Kite String Pops, musically and lyrically?
Dax: I'd say it's more mature and it's cooler. It's all around cooler; it's cooler music and it's not so uptight as the other one. It gives you more to give you that cool attitude that old music had, which I'm a very big fan of. I've always wanted to be cool (laughs).
RTR: What is Paegan Love Song about?
Dax: Actually, it's kind of weird. We went to Florida and we met these beach bums out on the beach. I think it was Cocoa Beach. Anyway, they were like "yeah man, we've got these psychadelics. You want some?" and we were like, sure. I grabed the bottle - it was an anti-freeze container full of this stuff - and I just guzzled it. I thought it was mushrooms and it turned out to be angel trumpets, which some people in Florida died from taking. We all did it amd within a couple minutes of taking it, I passed out on the beach. I was just laying there. I woke up and it was so weird. It fucked us up for days. That's really what "...Dying felt so goddamn good today..." is all about. I'm not a Christian and I'd like to get more of that across because I think the Paegan beliefs are more peaceful. You give thanks to everything, the sun, the moon, everything.