Salem
Salem EP

Buzzing into life with the morose chorus line of “save yourself; fall out of love”, it’s not long before Salem’s ultra-pink EP has won me over with its pacey anthemic sound.

‘Fall Out of Love’ is a dark All American Rejects, or a brighter My Chemical Romance – ultimately a great emo-mantra with an impressive vocal range to preach to us in the chorus. The rhythm is switched between a blazing post-punk and a stomping march. It’s a winner, and it’s neatly paired with the bouncy ‘Destroy Me’, no less anthemic with it’s massive chorus line.

Things take on a dark sparkle in ‘Throat’, which echoes Ace Enders in the stuttered verse. The chorus has the Salem signature, being a half-beat of the verse. Edgy lyrics like ‘wrap your hands around my throat and hurt me like you love me girl’ are countered by the oddball sweetness of ‘there’s a killer on the streets of my heart’.

‘Eyesore’ takes a musical turn for a tinge of Americana in the verse before a nicely angsty counter-culture verse that arrives to remind us that this, after all, Salem’s new EP, before things are brought to a close with the melodic rush of ‘Doomed’.

This is a great record. Not a single bad track on the whole EP and some nice ragged lyricism that pulls everything firmly into the alternative camp. We all want to hear more stuff like this.

Watch Salem – Destroy Me

Salem

Salem Articles

Written by Smith on 2nd November 2020

Stuart 'Saur' Smith was a prolific writer for The Mag throughout the magazine's lifetime. He combined a day job of temporary office jobs in London with a nightlife of trawling the capital's music venues looking for talent. As well as writing about music, he was a session musician who featured on a number of singles in the 90s. Today, Stuart is a Chief Writer for Phonotonal.