In continuing with my presenting different horizons to you, our loyal readers, I present to you Salem’s Lott. At first glance if you see the pictures of the band you may be….”WTF?!?….but if you went just off the music alone without seeing them you may say…okay…not too bad. So with that being said, remember these 2 things. Don’t judge a book by its cover and also its not too bad.
Salems Lott is a new band out of Los Angeles and consists of different members from different locales coming together for this creation, the most notable being one Tony F Corpse from the band Willow Wisp. If any know of Willow Wisp they are an esoteric (this being the crucial word), black metal band of sorts with a wide variety influences and that seems to carry on bit here with his latest crew, Salems Lott. For those who were of the age to remember the early days of metal, I’m talking early 80’s, categories where not quite has defined has they are now, so some bands had a distinct look and not necessarily what the music would seem to be. Close your eyes to the bands image and Krank, Accept, Jett Blakk, Vyper, Stormwitch, Diamond Rexx, Witch (L.A.) and even early Savatage comes to mind when listening to this and that also could be a bit of a issue because influences and styles are a bit all over the place.
There is no hair metal sound here, so don’t expect that but what we got here is just a gathering of the aforementioned bands and sounds. Guitarist Jett Black is a guitar wiz of sorts, his guitar wizardry although not all over the place like Yngwie, does play a prominent role in the music and bolsters the tunes and keeps them out of being just a ordinary metal band. The EP starts with a intro of a guitar/bass/eerie sound solo and leads into the most “dark” sounding song of the bunch, “Black Magic”, with its foreboding intro and various sound effects that are throughout the song and its ending. “No Choice to Love” is the most “radio friendly” of the tracks with its more sing along chorus and accompanying video and promotion for this track. “S.S. (Sonic Shock)” is where a lot of the aforementioned bands and the vibes come through. With its speed and tempo angrier vocals and shout along chorus. Guitarist Jett really powers through with his chunkier riffing and also with a slight opera style guitar interlude mid song and drummer Tony holds the pace to keep this song relentless for the better part of the song.
The next song “Smoke and Mirrors” although being slightly slower compared to Sonic Shock it does have that speed metal vibe and with the gang vocals. You can hear again a lot of different bands Savatage, Accept and a lot of Krank here. Twilight Traverse is an acoustic, keyboard interlude, to sort of calm the mood after the previous bursts of energy. The EP ends with “Wings of Duress” with a song similar to the Black Magic with its darker feel and a operatic song leanings. All members are proficient in what they do and having seen Mr. Corpse live numerous times, is a great drummer and a solid showman. People speak of this guy in Vince Neil’s (Motley Crue) solo band Zoltan Cheney being all wild and different in his playing and what he does……well I think I can safely say Tony preceded him and was doing all that stuff long ago. (But I digress and no slight intended) production is standard and clean, bass is a bit buried (but isn’t this usually the case?!) but all in all nothing to complain about too much. From what I hear they have a very theatrical (offensive?!?) stage show that can be enough to get them banned from places ( Shades of Gorgoroth/WASP/ etc come to mind ) and could be interesting for some, for those that want more than the jeans and flannel affair. Which could be a love/hate thing in the end.
Which comes to the end point. There is probably going to be a lot of a love/hate thing about them that will hinder or bolster the band, yes, you may not like the image but musically they are different from what you expect. They are just beginning here and I think with some fine-tuning and maybe gathering a more focused approach musically they could be on to something here offering the (younger/newer) masses something a bit different to see and listen too. They are not called shock metal for nothing.
[Visit the band's website]Find more articles with 2015, Review, Salems Lott, Self-Released, Will 'Bones' Lee
Comments
Leave a Reply
As far as going with the costume-adorned, vintage Metal/Hard Rock thing goes, I’d take this over Ghost any day. Just sayin’.
on Sep 23rd, 2015 at 19:20Yeah,different images /styles for different people I guess. My main thing is to look past the image and listen to the sounds put forth.
on Sep 23rd, 2015 at 19:40These guys have a pretty awesome guitar tone, pretty cool, reminds me of Motley Crue or Dirty Looks but with better musicianship.
on Sep 29th, 2015 at 16:56