Salem's Pot - ...Lurar ut dig på prärien (2014)

 

I am so hyped and fried at the moment; it’s hard to start this review. Be aware that the amount of fan girling might exceed the Chandrasekhar limit. If you’re someone like me, chances are that Salem’s Pot can easily be among your favourite bands. Well, not really, as they have only released a few songs so far; but you would definitely dig them. Dig them hard.

For a starter, their three songs album sounds like Electric Wizard, only if they cared what was going on. So much slow sleaze, it feels like crawling through dirt in electric colours. The vocalist is buried under five tones of smoke and blurts out lyrics like Clayton from Satan’s Satyrs. If you have listened to both bands' latest records a lot, you'd probably find a lot of resemblance in the vocal "style". The production sounds super garage, may I say, basement; and altogether the feeling is one of being in an 80s giallo horror movie.

After having listened to this album for ten times, I find myself whining it’s not any longer - and the mere fact that I was in utter joy after finding they have two other demos, can only give a hint about them being something more than your average three man down-tuned shit ass doom fuck. As a whole, the music sounds driven by drugs and psychedelia, no idea how true that is, but what matters is that it sounds rightfully in its own space and dimension. There is no ray of positivism, no female infused vocals and no retro chicks, sorry. Actually I have no idea if there are any female members, but thankfully you can’t hear any tiny voices.

 

The pace of the whole thing is real slow (wah, surprise!) and feels more like you are being dragged rather than led to somewhere. The coolest down-tuned guitar solos enter here and there, always being distorted and sludgy.

Many bands in the stoner/doom genre use vertigo for their artistic presentation (booklets, albums covers, etc.) but I can only guess most of them do it because it's considered to be retro and probably because of Black Sabbath. However, these folks here do sound mind fucked to an incomprehensible level and I think they are finally someone whose music is cool enough to use it. The fact they've decided to use Soledad Miranda is another thing I like them. People with good taste should support people with good taste.

Now go listen to them, kids, load another one. Get hype.

http://salemspot.bandcamp.com/

Bölzer - Roman Acupuncture (2012)

Bölzer's first physical release is the most crushing, not giving any fucks black/death metal demo that I've listened to in the latest years. The Swiss band consists of two members only but they blast hatred for a hundred. The richness of the sound achieved is quite striking and in my own opinion, it shouldn't be perfected in any way as it is already as it should be.

I'm trying to think of any smart adjectives to describe this band, but If I have to go with a plainer approach they sound like fucking Bolt Thrower of black metal. The experience of the listener can be equalled to a thousand canons being fired at your ears. The blast beats sound kinda garage and the riffs go from slow to fast to highlight the tortured screams. Come on, you don't expect a song called "Roman Acupuncture" to contain chilled vocals, do you?

The riffs sound ominous and ancient, as if produced in some blackened cavern while a dancing tribe follows a ritual. On overall, the vocals are decently audible with a lot of "Ughs" and no unneeded black metal falsettos.

My favourite of the 3 tracks is the first one as it is a total beast with ass kicking riffs in a whirlwind of evil sound. The riffs power off just one after another, with some time for the drums to slow down and kick you below the belt.

Top class black metal, check it out.