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Salt the Earth S/T Local
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For any of you who
are familiar with the album Salt the Earth released last fall, you already
know most of their new album. The main difference is that this album
is on Anxiety Records, and has great new artwork. It has the exact same
songs couched in between an Intro, Interludes 1 and 2, and, ahem, the
Outro. Outro?? I haven’t made up my mind yet whether the interludes
offer transitions that gel the album into a more coherent whole or simply
break up the flow of the original songs and fill up time on the album.
They’re solid pieces of music on their own, I’m just not sure
they play well with the other songs. Perhaps they’re just there
to allow me to stop dancing around my living room and catch my breath
between songs. As far as the other
songs go, they are all solid, tight, rock monsters. The first song explodes
out from the ambient Intro in a way that might surprise someone hearing
the record for the first time. All the songs on this album pay pretty
obvious homage to 80’s metal, tempered with a great pop punch and
a little dash of hardcore to keep things lively. They are fast out of
the gate, and never look back; fortunately, STE also has the good sense
to keep the songs short and sweet. Well, maybe not sweet per se…
The call-and-response singing / screaming of Martin Bush and Matt Morgus
works very well and makes the sound more dynamic and fun to listen to.
Baseball is perhaps the strongest track on the album, with the most
mass appeal - the guitars sparkle and you can even understand the words
most of the time. None of the songs slow it down except for the acoustic
outro, affectionately referred to as the “Marty Confessional.”
It is a good song in it’s own right, but I’m not sure that
it fits in with an otherwise energetic, fast-paced album. Metal is a
tremendous instrumental, with the most wonderful moment on the album
when you get to hear every last ounce of air escape Bush’s poor
lungs – that kind of wet, poppy sound is just unforgettable. The lyrics, I’m
told, are basically all about girls. One typically expects an album
full of societal rage from an outfit like Salt the Earth, so the lyrics
were kind of a surprise. I guess they’re like, emo now. Fear not,
this is not a teary album, and you can’t understand most of it
anyway; so just be glad it’s there fueling the fire of the songs. My only complaint
about this album is that, like most albums, it totally fails to capture
the intensity of their live performance. The sound is a little more
distant, not exactly polished, but not a full throated roar either.
Incidentally, if you have the chance to check them out live, don’t
miss it – they put on a powerful show. So, basically, Salt the Earth’s new album is a great piece of rock music. They’ve reinvented metal and made it sound fresh and appealing again. The album is out on Anxiety Records, and you can buy it online or at the Lovegarden.
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