Salem’s Pot - ...Lurar ut dig på prärien

Salem’s Pot - ...Lurar ut dig på prärien (Easyrider Records, 2014)

“Things are getting pretty strange” sings vocalist/guitarist Knate in the first lines of the opening song “Creep Purple” and believe me it is strange from the beginning.

Seething, bubbling voices from outer space intertwining with the guitar frequencies, a slow Sabbathian tune, the drums come in slowly and we are back in the ‘70s. Or even in the ‘50s, in a bizarre UFO movie. Nothing rushed up here, slow spacey doom metal with of course heavy riffing, even more heavy bass work, cool Martian keys, a psychedelic voice and lot of weed.

While many bands are trying to make this low-frequency murky horror/doom thing, this team from Sweden is outshining many of the current doom bands. Why? The themes are pretty well-written, the very long songs don’t bore you, there are a lot of changes to keep it more than interesting. From time to time keyboards from Mars are coming in, giving the whole thing a nice cosmic vibe.

Don’t think mega-dark stuff, but more swirling effects from Ed Wood movies.  Second song “Dr. Death” has a bit of oriental vibes reminding me of OM, then crunchy riffs comes in, just to fade out with nice harmonica melodies. Guitar solos are dirty but with good taste. Lyrics are about things in your head, nightmares, and whatever psychic visions weed can provide. Everything sounds so nice and natural and healthy, even the alien keyboard parts are lovely, warm-sounding. Combine these with the top song-writing and you got one of the coolest space doom bands around. Placing Soledad Miranda on the album cover is another good plug.

This basement doom album will appeal in the first place for people into ELECTRIC WIZARD, BLACK SABBATH, SLEEP, OM, ORODRUIN and also for the wild folks into hallucinogenic stuff like ACID WITCH.   

“I tried but when they tell you to adapt I just don't see the reason why
as the world outside just makes me wanna go berserk.”

Rating: 8/10

Written by Rob

March 2015