Live music review: Acid Bath headlined killer extreme metal bill in Houston
The 2025 reunion of Louisiana metal legends Acid Bath has been triumphant, as it heads into its second year of gigs featuring stacked lineups and fans showing up by the thousands to experience it. At White Oak Music Hall near the Houston Heights area, a diehard crowd showed up ready to experience the short-lived yet massively influential out-of-the-swamp sludge kings. Acid Bath’s reunion tour is going on a year strong. Each show features extreme metal legacy acts and rising underground metal hardliners. For the March 28 stop, Acid Bath brought Houston brutal death metal outfit Stabbing, H-Town black metal institutions Necrofier, legendary Oakland power trio High on Fire, and Tampa death metal legends Obituary. A bone-crushing lineup of all proportions, this gig didn’t lose its hell-raising spark until the last note.
Folks didn’t waste time for Acid Bath’s Saturday night show. Attendees could be seen waiting in line hours before doors opened, ensuring they would have a superb vantage point from start to finish. The White Oak Lawn’s hill-like setup made this more or less irrelevant. There wasn’t a bad spot in the house, with the stage being massive and the space to move around plentiful. The merch tables at these types of events always bring plenty of memorabilia, ideal for any collector coming to expand their collection with vinyl, t-shirts, posters, hats, the whole damn kitchen sink.
Houston’s own Stabbing were up first, fresh off the release of their 2026 LP Eon of Obscenity. Vocalist Bridget Lynch approached the mic with death metal gutterals so low in pitch, the down-tuned instrumentals even have to compete with her demonic delivery. With a stripped-down approach of a single guitar, bass, and drums, Stabbing is part of a metal resurgence in Texas with Frozen Soul, Tribal Gaze, and Creeping Death among others. Lynch’s onstage demeanor was gracious, as she expressed her enthusiasm for performing with a tight-knit group of genre legacy figures.
Houston act Necrofier took the reins next, a melodic black metal quartet who have proved to be scene leaders since forming in 2018. Fronted by vocalist and guitarist Christian Larson who produces Houston extreme metal festival Hell’s Heroes (which took place at WOMH the previous weekend), Necrofier has become a local institution that generates a massive, ever-expanding following.
With their sinister sound and costumes, Necrofier’s stage presence is both welcoming and horrifying. If you’re a fan of Necrophobic, Dissection, and Watain, this one’s for you.
It’s not a metal party without the one and only Matt Pike. Originally the guitarist and co-founder of doom revivalists Sleep, Pike’s prolific streak has continued since 1998 with Motorhead-esque velocity with his band, High on Fire. Taking the stage armed with one guitar, bass, drums, and Pike manning the lead vocals, every High on Fire set aims to stir up the crowd into a heavy metal frenzy. Despite normally being an ear-piercing spectacle in their regular club shows, the noise ordinances around White Oak require things to be dialed back a smidge, but the bludgeoning bass and drums still did their jobs, inciting all of the usual guitar solo mania and crowd response Pike and his band demand every time they plug in to play.
Pike even asked the sound operators to turn up the drums and all – they complied somewhat. High on Fire are regulars in Texas. The fans always show up to remind them that metal in the Lone Star State is still a common practice. By this point in the evening, the sun was finally about to set, and things were about to get weird for the last two billed acts.
Out of a different kind of swamp than Acid Bath, Tampa, Florida old-school death metalers Obituary arrived to do exactly what they were paid to come and do. As I was told by members of the crowd, Obituary is one of the best live death metal bands you can witness – and holy fuck they were right. Singer John Tardy appears onstage in menacing fashion, obscured by his hair that’s looked the same since Obituary got their start in the 80s. With an extreme metal howl and swampy guitars to boot, their live sound magnifies the filthiness of their recorded material, making it sound even more malevolent than their younger selves from all those years ago.
Records like Slowly We Rot, Cause of Death, and The End Complete have been in rotation since I was 12 years old. Witnessing them for the first time felt like a mission complete. Finally feeling compelled to engage in the moshing that night, I rushed down to the crowd when “Slowly We Rot” commenced. Obituary seeks not only to protect their legacy, but expand it with unfuckwithable intensity.
Acid Bath recorded two storied LPs before disbanding in 1997 in the wake of the untimely death of bassist Audie Pitre. Since then, frontman and mysterious crusader Dax Riggs has focused on other projects, including Agents of Oblivion, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, and solo material. Guitarist Sammy Duet has been working with New Orleans blackened death metal touring machines Goatwhore. He’s released eight studio albums with the group.
Since planning to reunite at the canceled 2025 Sick New World festival, Acid Bath has embarked on a cross-country stint to bring their signature sound to both OG fans and a whole new generation that never got to experience their Louisiana swamp sludge madness in the first place. The performance was preceded by fitting intro PA music from Black Sabbath’s eponymous record, a heartwarming homage to why we’re all here… Ozzy. None of this would exist without the Prince of Darkness.
When Acid Bath took the stage for the final performance of the night, it was off to the insane asylum races. Riggs still adopts a flawless variation of Anselmo-coded, scream-sing badassery, while Duet and guitarist Mike Sanchez held things down on every devil’s note and memorable riff heard on their short, but undeniably worthwhile catalogue.
Debut LP When the Kite String Pops is an infamous record for featuring the prison-made clown painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, one that has become increasingly familiar to younger audiences for appearing on top underground album lists, making it impossible to get lost in the shuffle over the years.
The set included material from both LPs, including cuts from Pagan Terrorism Tactics that excite on the same scale. The output was adjusted to perfection at this point in their career, and it’s a shame it ended so soon. Now they’re back, and they sound like they never missed a beat.
The psychedelic light show by Slim Reaper fit the vibe just right and brought the adoring crowd into Acid Bath’s house of horrors, with insane visuals that projected the band’s mythos into discernible abstraction. With a mere hour of stagetime, fans were seen giving it all they had, singing along and emotionally feeding the band regardless of age. People have wanted to hear these songs live again for decades running, and they were getting their fill in a city that still takes metal of all genres with utmost seriousness. Acid Bath is all business onstage with no story-telling or stage banter, but their excitement is palpable at every turn. These songs are still special to them, and the way they still approach them like it’s still their 90s heyday gives hints for more to come, or so we can hope. If the stages stay massive (they will) and the fans keep coming (they will), the Acid Bath renaissance will continue on its vicious warpath.
Acid Bath continues down the road in 2026 with dates in the United States and Europe. Tickets can be found via the band’s website.
All photos by Justin Clark
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