Where Are You?

Salem's Wych --FOUND!
US cult power metal

Salem's Wych is the ultimate long lost treasure. Having released one album in their shortened career, an extremely rare vinyl entitled "Betrayer Of Kings", released on Metal War Records in 1986, US cult metal act Salem's Wych mastered a haunting power metal sound in the same vein as the legendary Savatage. One may even suggest that "Betrayer Of Kings" is the long lost Savatage album, with the band playing up to 'Tage standards with nine slabs of classy heavy metal.

This band is so rare that I have no clue where they originate from, with some research showing that they possibly came from the Chicago area. Regardless of their region of origin, Salem's Wych shined with a European flavor. In the early 80s Savatage thrilled the US with their stars & stripes look at gothic power metal, taken from the streets of Europe and reworked with a heavier, stripped down sound as opposed to the flashy polish of Euro stadium acts like Priest and Saxon. The 'Wych emphasized that same attitude with a well rounded sound that borrows from doomy acts like Sabbath and Candlemass, Floridian power metal in Savatage, and a low-bottom version of new wave. The end result is simply astonishing. Even with its basement recording production, "Betrayer Of Kings" soared miles above a majority of the metal bands of that era.

Released only on vinyl, the Salem's Wych debut went nowhere, and the record just came and went, along with all hope of Salem's Wych reaching the superstardom of other big name metal acts.

In 2002 it was announced that the band were unveiling a website at www.salemswych.com, and had plans for a follow-up to "Betrayer Of Kings" entitled "Through All Eternity". A European tour was scheduled as well as an official re-issue of their debut album, finally seeing a CD release.

Now two years later, there is still no sign of the band's new record, nor has their been a website launched.

Salem's Wych has disappeared once again.

Where Are You Salem's Wych?

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Using some internet resouces other than Google, we were able to find an old email addy from Mark Gast of the band. We sent off a note to see what would happen and got this response:

Hello Eric,

Salem's Wych is alive and well.

As a matter of fact, I have been trying to get everyone together and do a new album since the early 90's. Unfortunately, with the other members having families and their jobs and now we all live all over the country we were unable to make that a reality. Once all hope of a reunion were exhausted after numerous attempts, I decided to go on, as I had when I started the incarnation of Salem's Wych that everyone knows from "Betrayer of Kings".

Our album "Through All Eternity" has been finished and mastered since March. It is the best material I have ever done.

Currently, we are negotiating with several labels and taking a few offers to release the album. We have gotten a great response from all who have heard it. We hope to have a deal hammered out very soon as we would like to release the album yet this summer. If we do not have something solid by the middle of June we may release it ourselves as we have several offers for distribution in Brazil, Europe and Japan...hopefully we can find something here in the U.S. also soon.

As for the web site, it was originally hacked and was really messed up. We have a new one ready to go, they are just finishing up the flash intro. We were hoping to secure a label before opening the website, but the focus is now on getting the site up and running. There is a pretty good merchandise section with all the shirts including the Betrayer of Kings through the present...so we hope that will be a start. We are hoping for an early June web presence at www.salemswych.com. The audio page will be added later when the album comes out.

The new album will be a little heavier than "Betrayer of Kings", but it is very much the natural progression of the band and my writing style. A lot of the people who have heard it say that it is in the 80's/early 90's style, (Megedeth, Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Savatage) but to me it is just us doing what we do. We had no reason to sellout or do what a record company wanted. We did it the way we wanted, which is the way music should be.

People can like it or hate it, because to be honest I made this album for me. I made the album I wanted to hear but no one was making anymore. I am sure I will get people saying retro or this and that, but the fact of the matter is that we started in 1983 and were as much a part of the original metal scene as Slayer or Metallica, unfortunatley we lived in the Midwest instead of a coast and were not represented as well as those bands, but we all came up listening to a mix of European Metal and punk rock and we all developed from that. Unfortunately, a lot of great and influential bands from the Midwest did not get their fair appreciation, what can you do? You go on and kick ass and don't apologize for anything, that is what you do.

We have started writing for the follow up to this album in our downtime (which is even a little heavier yet) and hope if all goes well to be able to release that the following summer or fall. So, along with a remastered cd + some bonus material of "Betrayer of Kings", "Through All Eternity" a hopeful European/Asia/Brazil/U.S. Tour and recording another album next March we will be very busy.

We hope to have our album out soon so that everyone else can enjoy it as we have.


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