Acid Bath’s Paegan Terrorism Tactics is a masterpiece that mixes various elements of metal with genres existing outside the “metal” tag. A remastered re-release from the 1990s, Paegan Terrorism Tactics starts off with a mixture of vocals reminiscent of Soundgarden layered over heavy, sludgy, swampy walls of droning guitars and bass that soon escalate — Acid Bath has such control over their instruments that they make songs like “Bleed me an Ocean” sound generally appealing to people who normally wouldn’t listen to metal. The vocals are clean, with high-pitched buzz saw grind screams slipped in here and there to accent certain tempo changes that toggle back and forth, from a thumping double-bass to waves of doom metal riffs.

Acid Bath is a great band because they have no fear of their own sound. In the course of a song, many sonic landscapes are explored — from poppy, hard rock to something brutal, and then back again. Not afraid to experiment, the band attempts to simultaneously be all things to all people, while crafting a sound never heard before. Amazingly, they succeed. The first half of the album would appeal to fans of Rage Against the Machine, but halfway through the record — specifically after “Locust Spawning” — the album takes a hard turn into territory between the Locust and Dark Throne. After a short interlude, with creepy samples from movies typical of metal albums, the Paegan Terrorism Tactics goes back to soft on “New Death Sensation,” a slow acoustic track sung in a near-whisper that builds into symphonic metal crossed with Black Sabbath. Similarly, “Venus Blue,” the track after “New Death Sensation,” is another slower song with a long build up.

With the next two tracks — “13 Fingers” and “New Corpse” — Acid Bath changes it up yet again, kicking the album back to their signature thrash and grindcore sound reminiscent of Napalm Death or Cannibal Corpse. They then close the album with “Dead Girl,” an acoustic song with clean vocals; very bluesy and soulful. It concludes the album in a manner atypical of most metal albums, leaving you in a strange place emotionally and with an actual musical experience that many metal artists lack the ability to produce. Any fan of metal, hard rock, or anybody looking for a change should discover this re-release.

(Rotten Records, PO Box 56, Upland, CA 91785)