Blog Post
SOUTH OF SALEM - ‘Death of the Party’
Review by GMcA • Jan 13, 2024
In the last few years a new wave of British rock bands have charted and enjoyed wider success due to a combination of good music, good live reputations and good marketing. This has included Massive Wagons, Those Damn Crows and Scarlet Rebels. This has been great for rock music. Following in their wake, South of Salem offer something darker, different, and a little bit edgier or more dangerous … and they’re doing this themselves, without a label.
South of Salem have also been developing a pretty fearsome and well-deserved reputation as a live act with rock fans of all ages, including an attention-grabbing support with WASP earlier last year.
Their second album, ‘Death of the Party’, builds on their debut, ‘The Sinner Takes It All’ (2020), and on the promise shown and expectation created by songs including ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ and ‘Cold Day in Hell’.
Opening with first single and one of the strongest songs on the album ‘Vultures’, there’s an urgency and hunger in their sound which commands attention, holds this throughout the entire album and will not let go. They have also somehow managed to create a sound and body of work within which has the potential to win over and retain both alternative and more mainstream rock audiences – no easy task. With the right breaks, it is no over-statement to say that they could also go on to achieve wider success than any new U.K. rock band within the last couple of decades here and abroad.
Is it rock, is it metal or is it goth? Who really cares? Their sound straddles all three to varying degrees on different songs and on this album leans a bit more towards modern rock, but while still providing something distinctive from the competition. However, labels and genres have limitations and only tell you so much. What I can say about their sound is it’s modern, it’s here and it’s now … and very definitely worth a listen and not just by fans of closer comparators of Avenged Sevenfold and Type O Negative, but also if your tastes include HIM, Alter Bridge or Sabaton and all points in between.
But, this isn’t an album to be listened to in the background - you’ll not get the most from their music and you’ll risk missing out on something a little bit special. The production by Romesh Dodangoda (Bring Me The Horizon, Twin Atlantic) is BIG and top class, providing an epic, lush, sweeping and at times grinding soundscape with clear separation between instrumentation allowing all of the band to own their space and show what they are capable of. It is also designed to provide enhanced listening with volume. So stop what you’re doing, turn it up, sit back and allow yourself to be pinned backed with an alternative wall of sound dancing devilishly on your chest. This isn’t a band just going south (of Salem) … they’re going in all directions and, if there’s any justice, fast.
Highlights include Vultures, Static, Jet Black Eyes, Left for Dead, Stitch the Wound, Hellbound Heart, A Life Worth Dying For and album-closer Villain.
Put simply, ‘Death of the Party’ is a work of dark beauty. Powerful, hard rocking goth/metal with towering choruses carrying them to the big league.
‘Death of the Party’ will be released on Spider Party Records on 19 January 2024.
South of Salem are:
Joey Draper (vocals)
Kodi Kasper (guitar)
Denis Sheriff (guitar)
Dee Vower (bass)
James Clarke (drums)
GMcA