Band: Salem
Title: Playing God And Other Short Stories
Label: Pulverised Records
Distribution: Sure Shot Worx
Release date: 15/03/2010
Review: CD

First a confession: I have never been that crazy about Salem. I don’t dislike their former efforts, but I really can’t get thrilled…
But… Playing God And Other Short Stories will change my opinion. What the band does on this album is so surprising and I cannot but get happy with this evolution.

First some documentation: Salem hail from Israel (!), and they started twenty five years ago (!). The band was (one of) the first featured on MTV, and in the past, they did work with, for example, Colin Richardson as producer, as well as Attila Csihar (Tormentor, Mayhem, Plasma Pool, Burial Chamber Trio / Korog and many others) during a live session, covering two Mayhem hymns. The band was also able to perform with ‘huge’ names as Behemoth, Slayer, Obituary, Machine Head etc.

This seventh full length is different when it comes to the lyrical approach. Before, all texts were politically influenced (in Israel? Can you imagine?), but this album deals with super-heroes and what they are able to do.
Musically, the band’s Death Metal remains extremely varying, but the whole just sounds so much better, stronger, more intense etc. The tracks have been written with the most professional approach to date, and the performance is skilled-experienced. And what a variation… Not one tracks sounds like another, and every single song has so many levels, lots of tempo-changes, and a superior technical point of view. And (almost) everything fits. The vocals (mainly death grunts, yet also, for example, melodic female vocals or blackened growls), the injection of somewhat ‘apart’ instrumental passages (like the war drum instrumental Downfall Of Paris Part I), the addition of elements from Thrash Metal and Folk, Gothic and Black Metal, the progressive influences (without exaggerating or pathetically trying to), the full, overwhelming and somewhat Hellas-alike sound (easily comparable to the nineties-sound of the Greek (Black / Death Metal) scene – and that’s a compliment), it all fits in the concept of a pulverising atmosphere.

Additional info: the album has been mastered at Sterling Sound with UE Nastasi of  Sepultura / Biohazard / Clutch / Soilwork / Cradle Of Filth-fame, and it features guest vocals by former At The Gates / The Crown / Lockup / Behind The Scenery / …-frontman Tomas Lindberg.

87/100

Ivan Tibos.