If I was told that, one day, I would find a band that sounded as evil and addictive as Electric Wizard, I would have laughed. Today I’m nothing but serious when I say the occult but also the Mighty Riff are well and truly part of SALEM’S POT wicked mixture. If you like your doom drenched in acid, the 70’s, and (not so scared) virgins sacrifices, then you will love this dark Swedish outfit recently signed on California’s Easyrider Records.
ARTIST : Salem’s Pot
ALBUM : “…lurar ut dig på prärien”
RELEASE DATE : April 1st, 2014
LABEL : EasyRider Records
GENRE : Highly psychedelic doom
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“…lurar ut dig på prärien” is not a record you’d listen on your way to the office, nor even in the street with your headphones on. To fully enjoy this 35 minutes long EP, you have to PLUNGE into it with quality speakers, dim lighting, and why not the help of narcotics. Slowly but surely, the band lures us into its world of vice, darkness and lust: along its fifteen minutes, “Creep Purple” insinuates its crawling riffage and ginormous fuzz in our brains with its crushing doom, after what it burst into a mass of psychedelia thanks to the reverb, the organ and the galvanizing guitar solos. Then the sluggish procession resumes. Something strange is happening in this cellar, and it’s only beginning.
“Dr. Death” largely deserves its central position on the record, for it’s by far the most intriguing and intoxicating song of the whole EP. First, we get entranced by some sort of Indian raga, then the band’s lascive doom and Mentor Mike’s Obornesque moans quickly call us to order (you know, the Great Order of Salem). What is absolutely fabulous with this band, is their ability to numb your brains by lulling you with their über groovy doom, then catching you off-guard with a totally unexpected moment of genius. It can be anything, it can happen at any time. After they used a shruti-box on the intro, who would have thought they would incorporate accordion parts? Despite their super vintage sound and sacrificial orgy atmospheres, it would however be very reductive to state Salem’s Pot are a pale copy of Electric Wizard, because they always add that small detail that makes all the difference. The Swedish are such fine craftsmen. The record ends on mammoth anthem “Nothing Hill” (see video below), a stoner track with a formidable rise in energy and a rad groove, but most of all a doomy descent to hell that would turn any Bible-Christian into a hardcore satanist. It’s just fucking orgasmic. There, I found it. Two words to sum up “…lurar ut dig på prärien”: FUCKING ORGASMIC.
Salem’s Pot is:
Mentor Mike – Organ, Cult Leader
Nateonomicon – Guitar, Accordion, Howls
Pre-historic Pete – Bass, Howls
The Eagle – Drums, Percussion, Shruti-box
Last modified: 11 February 2015
