There can be little doubt that Swedish doom rockers Salem’s Pot have a sense of humour, and don’t take themselves too seriously. What makes me think that, I hear you ask for the purposes of this review? Well, with a the cover photo of the band in assorted dominoes that barely mask (sorry for the poor pun) grins, and equally puntastic track titles such as ‘The Vampire Strikes Back’, clearly, nothing is too dour. Even the album title ‘Pronounce This!’ is a throwback to their 2014 EP ‘…lurar ut dig på prärien’, and no, I’ve no idea either. Let’s face it, if you’re a fan of written horror, even the band name should harken back to a certain Stephen King classic.
Joking aside, the music doesn’t take itself too seriously either; that’s not to say it is any way sloppy or badly made, but rather comes together in a loose, naturalistic way that denotes musicians comfortable with their own style and not desperate to please others with compromise. ‘Tranny Takes a Trip’ opens with a howl of a tortured synth, and straight away I had in mind an image from the seventies of a keyboard wizard twiddling dials on a massive Moog festooned with glowing valves rather than some nerd clicking at the keyboard of their laptop, a suitably retro sound reinforced by laid back guitars, laconic vocals and a sound that Captain Brock and his crew aboard the space ship Hawkwind would doubtless appreciate. This blissed out freak-out sound carries through the whole eight minutes plus of the track, stoner blues riffs keepin’ on truckin’ over lyrics that pronounce “even pacifists will need a gun.”
‘Just For Kicks’ follows in same vein, but with a country sounding slide guitar thrown into the mix, along with a sneering punkabilly delivery to the vocals; again, the track is double the length of the average single liable to be played on commercial radio channels, but the diverse elements that the band throw into the mix and somehow blend, means it in no way drags or sounds stale. Even the middle break of Theramin stabs that are replaced by a crushing doom riff do not jar, but just simply work. In the middle of ‘Pronounce This!’ the band even channel their inner ELP with the instrumental ‘Coal Mind’, a massive track that starts with sweeping keyboards full of pomp that are reinforced by a near funereal rhythm before developing into the sonic exploration so beloved of early Pink Floyd; think ‘Live at Pompeii’ and you won’t go far astray. Their continued eclecticism is ably demonstrated by following this track with ‘So Gone, So Dead’, a three minute ditty with lyrics that could easily have been written by a certain Mr Butler to accompany the riffs of his cohort in doom Mr Iommi, but are instead delivered with the hippyfied country sensibilities of a Grateful Dead number. Rounding out the album is ‘Desire’ a track that could have played on the soundtrack of the ‘The Satanic Rites of Dracula’, combining cinematic horror with what was then the early days of dark hard rock prog music.
Some naysayers might decry Salem’s Pot as just another act jumping on the retro bandwagon that started rolling a few years ago and seems to show no sign of running out of momentum. That is one very negative way to interpret the album, as undoubtedly many classic acts are respectfully referenced throughout. However, to those folks I would say relax, take a chill pill, and just enjoy the music. Either that, or go away and gaze at your shoes some more as you try and find the meaning of life in being miserable; Salem’s Pot is not for you.
(8/10 Spenny)
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