The seemingly impossible happened recently – Acid Bath reunited and announced not only a handful of festival dates, but (so far) two shows in New Orleans. Acid Bath in 2025 is guitarist Sammy Duet, vocalist Dax Riggs and guitarist and vocalist Mike Sanchez alongside new members drummer Zack Simmons of Goatwhore, and bassist Alex Bergeron (ex-Agents Of Oblivion, etc.).
So why now for an Acid Bath reunion? According to the generally quiet Riggs in an interview with New Noise Magazine, it was always going to happen. It was just a matter of time and distance from the death of Acid Bath bassist Audie Pitre in 1997.
"We never really broke up… I didn't want to play anymore shows when our bass player Audie Pitre was killed by a drunk driver," said Riggs. "I didn't want to live in that sadness forever. I wanted to do something different at that time. It's still there but it's a distant pain. For the first time since that trauma, it sounded like fun to get together. Now it's kind of like a reunion of old friends so there's a sweetness to it."
Or as Riggs puts its a in a hilariously shorter way during an interview with Revolver: "I don't know man… It's always been there in the shadows, and it [finally] found a way out."
Duet expressed similar sentiments during a recent interview with the Tales From The Riff Podcast, saying Acid Bath's reunion had a lot to do with the death of live keyboardist Tomas Viator in 2024.
"What happened was 'Sick New World' contacted, my… well, Goatwhore booking agent, Dan Rozenblum, and was like, 'So what would it take to make this happen?' And we had recently had a passing of a very good friend of ours that was playing keyboards for us on the Pagan Terrorism Tactics tour.
"His name was Tommy Viator — better known as Tomas. And I think that had a big role to play in the situation, to where, you know, a lot of us aren't going to be around forever, right? So… I had spoken to Dax about this, when we were talking about getting it back together, and I was like, you know, we need to do this before…. I didn't put it that way, but I just kind of hinted. And he was like, 'maybe it's time.' And that's how this whole thing kind of came into play."
Acid Bath's live doings in 2025 so far are:
4/25 New Orleans, LA The Fillmore (w/ Eyehategod)
4/30 New Orleans, LA The Fillmore (w/ Exhorder)
5/8-11 Columbus, OH Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival
5/15-18 Daytona Beach, FL Welcome To Rockville
7/18-20 Mansfield, OH Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival
9/18-21 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life
