With barely a pause for breath, only a couple of months
after the LP Splinters saw their EPs
collected into one disc Liverpool’s Salem
Rages have struck again with their first full length album Aspects of the Deepest Gloom. In fact
not just struck again, but struck hard and fucking fast – this is a more
immediate and powerful beast than previous releases, despite a title which
sounds like it should belong to a member of the Barrier Kult (non-skateboarders
might need the help of a search engine for that one). From the opening crackle
and driving rain of instrumental ‘1692’, the album utilises the same format of
between song samples as heard in Splinters,
but the riff which breaks through the noise is a heavier and angrier than what
has come before. This sets up what is to follow, with the short sharp blast of
‘One for Sorrow’ almost sounding like it could have belonged to singer Russ
Weasel’s outfit Cold Ones. With
attention now fixed, ’13 Times’ pulls on the reins slightly and channels the
gothic spirit which has driven the group from the beginning.
Amongst aficionados of German expressionist cinema the
spiral is a powerful connotation of madness, something which most likely more
people will have seen appropriated in the works of Alfred
Hitchcock.‘Deathtides’ continues in a mid tempo vein - a powerful slice of goth
rock from which The Damned could
learn a thing or two – when out of the murk surfaces a spiralling organ sound,
a brief interlude that nevertheless highlights perfectly what makes Salem Rages
stand out in the DIY music scene. ‘Black/White’ was one of the highlights of Splinters, and is the only song which
resurfaces on Aspects… with added
tinkling ivories at the end, as the descent into madness begins again. Before
falling completely into the abyss, however, ‘A Smokescreen Afterlife’ chugs
slowly into life; a menacingly slow guitar riff and drum beat which is
gradually overlaid by some surf-influenced guitar sounds, think the Night Birds on tramadol jamming an
instrumental. The shorter instrumental ‘1985’ plays through in a similar vein
but acts more as an opening for follow up track ‘Shadow of a Rat’, with the
group starting to rev back up and throwing in a good solid fist pumper of a
chorus as well. B.A.T.S. is an all-out hardcore stomper, male/female vocal
duality used to good effect for what will be a definite crowd-mover live.
The piano which follows is a brief moment of new wave
reflection before the assault continues with the goth rock of ‘New Grave’. The
last two tracks eschew the hardcore thrust of the rest of the record, settling
into a sprawling groove with ‘Fall of Greatness’ before a choral acappella
which would not sound out of place on an early Steeleye Span record opens the lurching album closer ‘Purging the
Flowers’. Slowly building from a TSOL-style
riff and a drawled vocal, it continuously threatens to break into a faster and
heavier beast without ever actually doing so. It is this tension which gives
the song its power, I’ve no idea who I’m quoting here but horror films are
always scarier when you never actually see the monster right? It is this ethos
which drives ‘Purging the Flower’, leaving you not with a feeling of closure
but with a sense that there is more to come – turning back to the horror film
analogy, as the screen fades to black on the survivors slowly moving away,
something stirs in the wreckage…
By Jono Coote
