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