REVIEW: SALEM’S POT – PRONOUNCE THIS! (2016)

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Pronouncing it is no problem. Understanding it on the other hand…..

Sometimes you just know a record isn’t supposed to make sense.

Claiming to come from Hell, and keeping their masks on has granted Sweden’s (we think!) Salem’s Pot, a degree of anonymity, but on “Pronounce This” they appear to have decided to reveal more of themselves, simply by really, truly going for it.

When the “Vampire Strikes Back” single – here in slightly shortened different format – emerged last year, it hinted at the idea that Salem’s Pot were prepared to change their doomy attack slightly and what we have here is the sound of a band who are truly trying what they like – and you can take that however you want to.

“Society is the reason you want to take drugs” offers up what you’d guess is a key line on “…Strikes Back” and that feels like a key song too, given that one minute its cheerily doing down a Deep Purple type path, then the next its off into the realms of Hawkwind with a glint in its eye and some mind-altering substances in its pocket.

That seems to be a metaphor for the whole record, kicking off with a synthesiser riff and giving way to fuzzed up guitar on “Tranny Takes A Trip” – the sprawling eight minute long epic that they choose to start things off with here  – lays down a marker, and if the phrase “anything can happen and usually does” is one when, used in connection to most things, is one to chill the blood, its apt here.

“Just For Kicks” and you suspect the whole album is just that, is a wonderful piece of psychedelic blues, but the astonishing “Coal Mind” a 13 minute and incredible instrumental, feels like the album’s centre piece. The band almost seeming to say “look what we can do, bitches” at the end of it.

“So Gone, So Dead” which follows, is a chance for everyone to catch their breath, but is a countrified, and country fried ode to Satan, tablets and beer, cos, y’know….

Things end in a dark place too, “Desire” – all ten minutes of it – is sinister and almost foreboding, but despite it all, and despite it too having a real kitchen sink approach to the music, it is never inaccessible – plus the line “if you love someone you don’t want to call her a whore” is just good advice, surely.

And that’s because, contrary to appearances, Salem’s Pot know exactly what they are doing. Yes, there are more ideas and tangents here than some bands manage in a career, but “Pronounce This!” more than lives up to its aims.

Rating 8.5/10

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