This is a brand new EP from Houma, Louisiana singer/songwriter Dax Riggs. The frontman of the seminal sludge metal band Acid Bath, he began releasing music under his own name in the summer of 2007 after signing to Fat Possum Records for his solo debut We Sing of Only Blood or Love & the sophomore effort Say Goodnight to the World. 15 years later, he returning to jot down 7 Songs for Spiders coinciding with labelmate Ghais Guevara’s debut album Goyard Ibn Said.
“Deceiver” sets the tone of what’s to come with this swamp rock, heavy psych, stoner rock & garage rock revival intro now realizing exactly how the Son of Sam feels whereas “Sunshine Felt the Darkness Smile” passionately sings about Jesus never laughing & Satan never crying. “Even the Stars Fall” is an alt-blues meditation on human collapse and how failure creates the only heaven we’ll ever know while “Blues for You Know Who” kinda riffs showing his love for Lebanese & Egyptian music.
The song “Ain’t That Darkness” gets the other half of 7 Songs for Spiders going slowly singing about darkness spinning across his guitar while the penultimate track “Pagan Moon” asks a young man if he even knows he’s dying & that his darkness is shining. “Graveyard Soul” rounds out the EP officially hauntingly pondering where & when one lost their junkyard smile.
Inspired by world music in addition to gospel music as well as hillbilly or even the proto-metal sounds & the Cajun landscape, Dax’ first solo effort in over 15 years feels like as if he hasn’t been gone for that lone tackling themes of human beings collapsing in upon themselves, sympathy for the villain, God & what your gods tell you about yourself fusing stoner rock with swamp rock, heavy psych, garage rock revival & alt-blues.
Score: 4.5/5
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