Born a Jehovah's Witness, come of age as a Louisiana oil-man's son, run
away at 13 to Florida with an older woman and residing for a time in the
balcony of an abandoned porn theater, Dax Riggs of Deadboy and the
Elephantmen has the kind of heaven-and-hell background that ought to suit
him for singing the blues.
He is best known for his work with 1990s heavy-sludge band Acid Bath, where,
on When
the Kite String Pops or
Paegan Terrorism Tactics, he floated a melodic counterpoint above
viscous metallic dirges. With Deadboy and the Elephantmen, a partnership
with drummer/back-up singer Tessie Brunet, Riggs has turned away from
Sabbath-inspired rampages toward more stripped and blues-influenced
material, even slipping a few ravaged and ghostly ballads into the
mix. Like Mark Lanegan, whose career has followed a similar trajectory, he
brings a hint of danger even to his softest, most melodic outings, and
on blues-rockers like "Stop, I'm Already Dead" and the stand-out
"Misadventures of Dope," he sounds like a lost soul on fire in hell.
The songs break down, roughly evenly, into amplified blues-rock anthems and
gentler ballads. The loud songs feel more genuine, Riggs' rough-edged
voice burning a hole through steady crescendos of eighth-note guitars,
embellishing dead-simple songs with baroque moans and flourishes. The best
of these — "Ancient Man," "Misadventures of Dope" and "Kissed by
Lightning" — straddle the divide between punk and blues and metal, fast
enough to make you want to move, damaged enough to break your heart. The
ballads are a harder sell, though acoustic blues cut "No Rainbow"
gains a dreamy grip over repeat plays, particularly in the life-affirming
"la-da-da" chorus at the end.
Comparisons to White Stripes are probably inevitable, given that this is
another blues-based duo with a charismatic male frontman and a woman on
drums. The main difference is that Deadboy seems less packaged, less
theatrical, than Jack & Co. White Stripes are a great band, but they're
doing a show — with costumes and stage moves and well-considered
image. Deadboy seem more like a natural occurrence, two kids who can
hardly help doing what they do, and wouldn't if they could.
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