Back in the summer I was sent a video by a new British band. “Cold Day In Hell” by South Of Salem was and is a fabulous thing. Utterly glorious, dark rock n roll, with dreams of arenas, and a sound big enough that it had been 1989 we’d have watched them get there.
It was also one of those videos that makes you wonder where the band have come from. There’s no way after all that a new band, one releasing its own records, just appears and makes stuff like this with Scott Atkins – a metal producer to the serious stars – at the helm.
Two bits of truth are revealed a few months later when the album comes out. First, Messrs Joey, Fish, Kodi, Pip and Dee (like Cher, these boys aren’t arsed with surnames) are veterans. I quote directly from the Press release here: “Having spent the best part of a decade working on various musical projects supporting the likes of Iced Earth, The Damned, Wednesday 13, and The Birthday Massacre….”
The second truth is evident from where they put “….Hell”. Track six. Like it isn’t a big deal (it is), but the other nine are just as good. “Sinner Takes It All”, to cut to the chase, is a fabulous record, and SoS know it.
So will you after about 45 seconds of “Let Us Prey”. You remember H.I.M, right? This is the new them. If you see what I mean. Equal parts AX7 and gothic rock, bluntly, if this was an American band, the magazines are falling over themselves to put them on the cover.
Swagger. Riffs. Choruses. Danger. Sleaze. It’s all here, and mixed in with the feeling that a) they have a crossover potential, and b) there’s a darkness lurking just below the surface.
Take “The Hate In Me”. Big, thick, but it still wants to do some strippers in the cloakroom in the Cathouse. And for all that “No Plague Like Home” is a Wednesday13th type anthem, its essentially hard rock from the top draw.
The bass groove of “Pretty Little Nightmare” propels it, and oddly, this doesn’t sound like an English band at all. The polish, the shine and indeed the whole feel of the album is an “American” one (no bad thing, I grew up in the 80s listening to millions of bands like this, most not as good)
“Made To Be Mine” is like a glam rock cousin to that Marilyn Manson record a couple of weeks ago and they get bonus points for their commitment to puns. “Demons Are Forever”, the ballad (basically just a slowed down version of what they do anyway to lurk in the shadows a bit more).
Some of this is pretty heavy, and “Another Nail In My Coffin” is a good example. Energy, a bit like The Cult, but with a brilliant turn of phrase – “I am so lovesick, because I am sick of love” Joey spits here.
“Severely Yours” which gets bonus points like so many more for its lead bit, is one of the few that doesn’t bother with death – just demonic possession for this one – and “Dead Hearts Don’t Break” is basically more of the same, but here’s the thing. It’s all so good. Why change it?
Not the world’s most original record, but that makes no difference when there’s a quality like this on offer. One of the most polished, fully formed debut album you will ever here, witch ever side you’re on, make it South Of Salem’s (I couldn’t let them have all the pun fun…..)
You’ve only got to look at the elite everywhere to know there’s money in sin. Spend some of yours on this.
Rating 9/10
