Company: Red Moon Records Release: 2015 Genre: Hard Rock, thrash Reviewer: Greg Watson
Impressive debut
Salems Lott is a strange band to try and put words in a review to since they cover a few styles on this release. The band is a mix of 80's hair metal, speed metal, and thrash with a visual kei look. The music is incredibly well done, especially for this being the band's debut. The vocals are a mix of Udo from Accept, Brian Johnson from AC/DC, and Mustaine from Megadeth. The vocals are quite screechy, delivered like Udo did in the early days of Accept and there's a biting quality to them as well. Songs like "Smoke and Mirrors" and "S.S. (Sonic Shock)" have that thrash chorus with the chanted vocals and some heavy, thumping drums going on. The other three tracks on the album are very hair metal tinged with "No Choice to Love" sounding eerily similar to Motley Crue's "Too Young to Fall in Love", especially during the chorus. The album touts seven songs, but two of them are instrumentals which I would have just as soon seen left off. But the overall feel of this album is that it's a pretty impressive debut. The band clearly know how to play their instruments and have a very unique sound, even if it seems that they've borrowed some of their material from other bands. Keep an eye on this band, as they improve they may make some pretty serious waves in the old school ranks.
