Review: SALEM “Dark Days”

SALEM “Dark Days”
Pure Steel records

When I saw this name my connotation was practically automatic. But this time I was wrong! It’s not this SALEM from Israel about which I though. This one is much older one – even if they had more than 20 years’ break in existence. I think that it can be reason why I didn’t connote this name with these English guys. Well, to be honest I didn’t know that band with this name existed coz they spited-up in 1983 – four years before I begun to listen to Metal (so it seems that I’m not so very old… hahahahahaha…). Anyway, as I see there was and are quite many bands with name SALEM. That’s why residents of Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire on Wikipedia or Myspace are under the name: SALEM (UK).

So our heroes play Heavy Metal (they use popular in 80’s and historically by all means authorized term: New Wave of British Heavy Metal). What to write more about this music?!? I really don’t know. If somebody plays this kind of music more than 35 years (even if there was some longer or shorter break) it’s clear that technical abilities are on very high level. If you play Heavy Metal more than 35 years then you know exactly how it should “look like”, how to find right balance between melody and heavy sound, when to play solo, in what way to sing, what riffs to use… And here we have here exactly that! Guys play just Heavy Metal without any quirkiness or bizarre and totally unnecessary experiments. We could always say that SALEM hasn’t even ounce of originality and they play just like another English band where Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith or Steve Harris are members. In some way it’s a truth. But I prefer by far bands like that than some stupid “artists” with overgrowth of ambition and will to show for every price to all how great ideas they have. Here we have everything just like it should be in old good Heavy Metal and that’s what I like in this band!

Maniacs of mentioned above music – get this album as fast as you only can!!!