Hallow’s Victim

Saint Vitus’s second album and the three-track The Walking Dead EP, with which it shares the song “White Stallions,” would be their last releases with original vocalist Scott Reagers for a decade. On the album, the band is in strong form, galloping forward like warriors on the steppes. Indeed, the first track, “War Is Our Destiny,” is an all-time metal anthem — guitarist Dave Chandler’s riff is a total monster, and/but his solo sounds like he’s having a stroke. (That’s a good thing, in the context of Saint Vitus.) The title track, “Hallow’s Victim,” features a hardcore punk rhythm that feels right on the brink of slipping sideways and out of control, and “The Sadist” is another face-punching eruption. The band’s core sound is unchanged from their debut, a mix of Sabbathian riffage, punk-primitive drumming, and Reagers’ almost musical-theater vocals, but it feels like consolidation, not stagnation. They’re playing to their strengths.