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Salem > Playing God and Other Short Stories > Reviews
Salem - Playing God and Other Short Stories

Short of Expectations - 57%

doclindgren, May 3rd, 2010

Ever since being turned onto the Salem album Kaddish a few months ago, I have found myself wanting to hear more from this band. What surprised me was that when I went to look through the band’s history, I found that the band had been in existence for a while and that Kaddish was released in 1994. So it came as a shock when Pulverised Records signed the Israeli band recently, and with the signing naturally comes a new album.

Playing God and Other Short Stories is the band’s latest effort and really the first album that most of the world at large will know about. Seeing as I had listened to one of Salem’s previous albums, I had expectations for this album, even though the length between the two albums is about sixteen years or so.

The album kicks off with “Drums of the Dead Part 1” and immediately, the album seems to have an Atrocity feel to it. Listen to the track and Atrocity’s “Reich of Phenomena” and tell me if the two songs don’t sound similar in parts. Aside from that, the production values are very clear and there are even some native folk elements thrown in for good measure. Even though this is a good sign that Salem is developing its own identity in terms of music, I also feel that including female vocals detracts somewhat from the overall sound, as it doesn’t do as much for me as I would have liked. As with many concept albums, the listener will either get the ideas behind the songs on Playing God and Other Short Stories or they won’t, so obviously, it will take more than a few listens to fully grasp what is on the album. At least the clear production values allow for the vocals to be heard without much trouble. While the production values are clear and work for the band, it also robs Salem of that certain charm of having that lo-fi quality that Kaddish had. Also included on the album is a cover of the Bob Marley song “Exodus,” which isn’t too bad for a cover song, but would have likely been better remembered had it been closer to the end of the album instead of in the middle of the album.

I wanted to like Playing God and Other Short Stories more than I actually did. There are points where Salem’s music shines through, thanks to the stellar production; however, the same production values also take away the rough edges that a death metal album should have. The vocals are distinct and the native folk elements add a nice touch to the death metal sound, but the role of the female vocals could have been reduced a little. Beginners to Salem would be best served to check out Kaddish first before going into Playing God and Other Short Stories.

Originally posted on http://www.metalpsalter.com

Salem - Playing God And Other Short Stories - 40%

ThrashManiacAYD, April 30th, 2010

Israel's Salem are widely regarded to have been the first (extreme) metal band to emerge from the Middle East having formed back now in 1985 and in that time have released a healthy number of albums as well as been subjected to an unsuccessful mailbombing attempt from everyone's favourite Nazi, Varg Vikernes, who one imagines was not in awe of their Jewish heritage. Now in 2010 the elder statesmen of metal in their region already possess an authoritative and recognisable name, but with sixth album "Playing God and Other Short Stories" it seems they are merely living off this reputation.

Around the time I was getting into extreme metal the band's "Collective Demise" record garnered a decent amount of spins with its brutal death metal sound touched with Middle Eastern vibes and lyrics bearing an interesting juxtaposition to other albums I was buying at the time. However, eight years later Salem have released the kind of album that would have interested me more before I entered the hall of extreme metal; "Playing God..." is, I'm sad to say, a mish-mash of downtuned nu-metal styled guitars playing some of the most mediocre riffs I've heard from a death metal band in a long time. Save for occasional moments in the album's only genuinely alright track, closer "Playing God", and one or two others, authentic Middle Eastern touches are conspicuously absent, a fact made more damning in these post-Orphaned Land times.

Not just suffering from an absence of decent riffs, but a bass heavy and muted guitar mix, momentum-destroying female vocals and a cover of Bob Marley's "Exodus" that sounds nothing like the original, have all prevented "Playing God..." from growing on me over its numerous spins thus far. Salem have never written about conventional DM topics (Israel's politics provides much more ammunition than Sweden's for instance), and so it's likely a deeper meaning exists to the songs on offer here, but even that grace doesn't save Salem's last effort from coming in lower than average.

Originally written for www.Rockfreaks.net