Fires In Heaven - Salem: Review
is a Michigan based band who's early mixtapes in the 2000's and 2010 debut album King Night are considered pioneering for the witch house subgenre. After a 10 year absence in which they shrunk from a trio to a duo the band began to make noise with new music earlier this year before releasing their long-awaited sophomore album just last weekend.
Review By Lavender:
I am just about the right age to remember when Salem and their subgenre with house were a pretty big deal. Salem's debut record King Night was an old favorite of mine during my formative years and while it may not have all that same luster today that it once did I still thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the project in preparation for this release. With so much time between releases I really had no idea what to expect from Salem going into this record but as it turns out they tend to stick to their guns on this project with only one major exception, an onslaught of trap drums.
The record didn't get off to a fantastic start for me as neither of the singles released in the lead up to this record particularly wowed me. Starfall is a combination of rattling trap drums, trippy synths and an EDM style hook that will have Lil Peep fans salivating. The song dips its toes in emo while also pulling from hip hop and even shoegaze at points and while the blend is interesting it is no doubt derivative. Red River was the far bigger disappointment as it's essentially just a trap song with deep moderately intoxicating vocals. I wish the rapping was a lot more expressive because the instrumental does bring a strong personality with distant and wiry synths fading in and out of the mix. When all is said and done the track is far too minimal and uneventful for me.
Thankfully those are some of the bigger disappointments on the record and the only other complaints I have go with tracks that simply aim to set up a vibe. Fires In Heaven pairs minimalist whispered vocals with a massive blown out EDM style instrumental which makes it pretty difficult to make out the vocal nuances. The refrains aren't that rigorously performed in the first place, while the song is definitely a vibe it's a shallow one. Old Gods is an eerie abstract electronica cut with looped vocals and distant alarm wailing. The song explodes into a massive rager at around a minute in with Clipping auto-tuned vocals and huge distorted bass. I'm not head over heels for the track but it at least has a transition that makes it compelling.
The rest of the record is honestly pretty good and the band does it with a variety that is quite refreshing. Capulets is a grand opening track with classical music instrumentation behind a spoken word caliber rap verse. The vocals certainly hit hard and deliver a lyric or two worth remembering. As far as intros go it really throws you into the fire in a way I appreciate. Crisis features some really strange rapping that sounds like Death Grips in slow motion yet it retains so much of that intensity. The crushing keys and rattling drums on the track certainly help the and dizzying combination is something I find myself quite enamored with. Sears Tower brings an absolutely crushing wall of industrial fuzz with distant pulsating percussion underneath. The dreamy refrains occupy a distant spot in the mix getting nearly overpower by the instrumentals loudest moments. The song is a manic blur of sounds with something new to uncover every time you hear it.
Wings is an interesting change of pace track with a quieter more focused instrumental centered around ghostly synth leads and oddly paced vocal refrains. They add up to this haunting spacious environment and it's actually some of my favorite singing on the entire record. The whole song sounds like an ominous nursery rhyme and I dig it. Braids is a short shoegazey track with walls of distorted sound and cloudy synth chords. The combination is harsh but is a beautiful way that I love as a shorter track. DieWithMe has some more prominent trap style drums but with a much more interesting background this time around. The song pairs ghostly vocal melodies with a dark meditative haze that is sometimes punctuated by distant screams that keep me on the edge of my seat for the entire track. Finally the closing track Not Much Of A Life is one of the only songs here that really prominently features its lead vocals in the mix. Those vocals are slathered in cold, robotic manipulation but it works with the depressingly beautiful refrain. It is brief but very catchy and the dreamy instrumental mixed around it makes for a surprisingly charming and emotional closing track.
Fires In Heaven is less than a half hour of witch house revivalism with heavy influences from trap music that is definitely not going to be for everyone. If you were riding with the band in their heyday however I think I can comfortably recommend giving this thing a listen because the sound scapes and surreal genre fusions the band is diving into work more times than not. While this record isn't going to be nearly as influential or impactful within this nearly forgotten subgenre I think Salem has proved why they were the kings of witch house in the first place. 6.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
This cover is a little weird but I think the colors make it striking. I don't love the subject and I think it looks a little derpy and could have been detailed better but the mixture of layers and color create a depth and nice space to fill the composition. I would appreciate some branding in the lower corners because I feel that it's wasted space and not helping anything with the breathing room. 6/10
For more electronica check out my review of Oneohtrix Point Never's Magic here
