Review & Interview 2002 SALEM - Collective Demise cd'02 KMG/ System Shock CD REVIEW So here it is. The new SALEM album. These veterans of metal scene have been around for almost two decades and they are now striking with their new album. Their previous cd which Masterful received at least 3 years ago impressed me so much that I prayed for their career and success. Now "the moment of silence" is somewhere between my dust-covered cassettes and "Collective demise" - the new CD - has not left my player for a few weeks now. What can I say? They are getting better and better. Stronger, heavier and more blasts can be found on their album now. Salem instead of choosing the path of gothic-like playing went into direction of a little bit heavier playing. Perfect! This is just perfect. When you add specific vocals of Ze'ev and even more specific guitars you'll have music you will fall in love. You'll appreciate the balance between melody and aggression which for me has become a trademark of Salem. This time they aslo tried new things like Afro-Cuban Percussion on "Dead Eyes" and "Slave", Arabic darbuka (what the hell is that?) on "Broken Yet United" and "Act of Terror" and few female vocals which really were well chosen and arranged. "Collective demise" is an album which deals with the current situation in Israel. They are about the war, violence, the uncertainity of every day, fear of suicide terrorists. Visit Salem's website for the lyrics and discover them for yourself. Promo pack arrived along with CDR containing 3 videoclips. The first one "Broken yet united" is dedicated to the israeli metal scene and fans which have been supporting Salem. "Act of war" has been done to show what an absurd is the Palestinian politics, which supports the suicide terrorists. This video really impressed me and made me sit in my chair for a few minutes wihtout moving. This is a must-see video for everyone. The last one "Al taster" was based on Jewish anthem and says about the pain, people who have lost their loved ones, feel. address: adres: http://www.salemband.com; http://www.impact-records.de points: ocena: Piotrek...9 INTERVIEW Salem is one of those bands which you have heard of but never listened to. Am I Right? You know bits and pieces of information about them and that is all. I guess that this will eventually change since they have released a new album "Collective demise" which has had a really good promotion worldwide and if it is not in a nearby store then you probably are now in a drug store! We'll begin this interview without any info about history and bio details, you can get these on their webpage. We'll start with what is important - The new album. Hello Ze'ev. Lat's start with your new album "Collective demise" which has been like a real blow straight into my face musically and lyrically. It seems that you play heavier and your vocals are more (let’s say) brutal when compared to "The moment of silence". Collective demise" is very aggressive, although it has lots of melodies and harmonies. I think that "Collective demise" reflects certain adolescence of Salem, the fact that it's more aggressive and much faster distinguishes it from our previous releases. On the new CD I can feel a transition from gothic like playing to more aggressive metal elements in your music. Your kinds of speed, aggression and your voice are not typical for death metal nor doom or black… It’s pretty hard to say what you play. It is very difficult for me to define Salem. In general, Salem plays Death Metal, but if you'll take the songs and separate them, you'll see that every song has it style, for example: take "Coming end of reason" and try to compare it with "Slave", those are 2 completely different songs, and that is why this is so difficult to define what we play. You have to listen to understand the difference between the songs. You also used lots of strange instruments on this album. What the hell is that Arabic darbuka you mention here and there? We are living in an oriental country, and here, in Israel, all those things are very common, we think it's important to add those things to our music. The use of Afro-Cuban Percussion on "Dead Eyes" and "Slave", Arabic darbuka on "Broken Yet United" and "Act of Terror", female vocals on "Coming End of Reason", "Feed on Your Grief", "Act of War" and "Al Taster" and the most sophisticated second guitar harmonies ever submitted to reel. Darbuka is a percussion instrument that is made of clay and on top of it, tied with strings, there are 2 leather layers (usually of camel). You play this instrument with your fingers. You like to color your music in this way. In "Al Taster" the whole track is based on a Jewish Hymn. I wonder what is the reaction of common people who might object to playing it by a metal band. I remember that you had some problems during "kaddish" era with one of your songs. We did have a problem when we did "Kaddish", we had an argument because they thought this isn’t appropriate to play "Ha'ayara Boe'eret" with Metal, This is a very sensitive subject and some people thought the music is too aggressive, but eventually We decided that it is appropriate to cover songs like that, and that is why we did it, after all we have the freedom of speech and creativity. Until now we didn't have any problems with "Al Taster". When you look back on the previous album I have mentioned a minute ago - tell me what mistakes had you made? Right or bad choices? Was the promotion satisfactory? The mistake we did with our album "A moment of silence" was that we signed with the Israeli record company "B.N.E" that wasn't right for us. We didn't get the right promotion and we were very dissapointed. When "A Moment Of Silence" was released, "B.N.E got a deal from "Noise Records" (German label) for 5 albums. The reason that prevented Salem from signing and ruined the album distribution in Europe was a number of clauses in the contract that can fail the band in the future. Therefore the contract with "Noise" was cancelled. The good thing that came out from BNE is that we had the chance to work with Colin Richardson, he is one of the biggest producers, he produced bands like "Fear Factory", "Machine Head", "Napalm Death", "Carcass", "Bolt Thrower" and more. We learned a lot from him, and we are very happy that we had the opportunity to work with him. It is a fact that you live in a country where everyday life is not that easy and safe. You write a lot about that in your lyrics. Terrorism, death in the street. Do YOU feel safe? What about concerts? There are so many people. Is that fear, you write about, everywhere? In Israel it's impossible to ignore the news since it has a direct effect on your daily life and as a result you have songs. It's hard to cope with the fear of being somewhere crowded (like busses, restaurants, or even live shows) without knowing how it will end. The fact that innocent civilians are dying gives you a helplessness feeling. It is difficult for us to see a solution for it right now, but we don't know what tomorrow will bring - therefore we try to keep hoping. The political situation in Israel is very tense. That influences us and you can see it in our lyrics and music. It influences the metal in Israel because foreign metal bands afraid to come here. Also, if we have on the same day terrorist attack and a show, it is possible that the show will be cancelled. Do you think that people will get this message? We just want to show the situation as we live it. In the Video to "Act of War" you directly show what it is like. This one really made an enormous impact on me. I think that every one should see this clip at least once… Are these included on a regular CD? You can’t get the videos for now, but soon Act of war and Broken Yet United will be on Salem site. It is possible that we will release a DVD that will include those videos and more. Another video included on promo cdr is devoted to the Israeli metal fans? Are they really so mad and crazy during concerts? Salem shows have great energies. The audience knows and sings all the lyrics with me, almost every show is sold out (800-1000 people). The show is 80 minutes, and it includes songs from all of our releases. Every show is different because we have 4 CD's, and we try to give the audience something new every time they are coming to see Salem show. In some shows we put video screen with Salem's video clips, or projecting the show. You can see in the video clip that Salem fans are mad and crazy during the concert. We are now working on a new clip ("Slave") from Salem previous show, 1000 fans going crazy - the clip "Broken Yet United" will be delicate in contrast with this one. Your shows are full of energy and you music is full of anger. I think that you play Anger metal. Can we coin it now? There is so much anger in your Voice and music. Our music has a lot of emotions in it, like pain and anger that we experience in Israel as individuals and collectives. I think you can feel it through our melodies and harmonies. New label KMG/ System Shock is quite known in Europe. What are your expectations as far as promotion is concerned? Do you have any numbers? What about the feedback? KMG/ System Shock treats us great, They are doing a great promo for "Collective demise", They are very satisfied from the sales of the CD - they didn't expect that Salem sales will be so good. and if they are happy, we are happy. Until now we have been getting great responses, excellent reviews and a lot of interviews. We appreciate it a lot. This is a good stage to say thank you to all of you for the support and for the good responses of the audience and the media. You have not played outside Israel yet. But you must have heard about maniacs in other countries. Where would you like to play? Salem hasn't played outside of Israel. One of the main reasons is that some of our band members at that time serve the army, and they couldn't leave Israel because of that. We where supposed to go twice to a European tour: with Death, Pestilence and with Cradle Of Filth. In any case, Salem played with such known acts such as: Megadeth, Entombed, Rotting Christ, Cancer, Disharmonic Orchestra as well as headlining tours throughout Israel. Salem was featured on MTV Europe several times and also on the German show: Viva. I think I would like to play in Europe first. Is there any chance of seeing you somewhere close to Poland? from what I can gather you are a live band and you make hell on stage... I will be happy to play in Poland, it is our record company decision, KMG/ System Shock is planning an European tour for Salem on 2003. We don't have the exact details right now, but we will be happy to inform you when we will. Anything I did not ask and you'd like to add? Thanks and take care Ze'ev. I would like to give more info about our 3 new video clips from "Collective demise", the first one "Al Taster" deals with the pain of the people who lost their loved ones, the second "Act of war" shows the absurd of suicide terrorists on busses in Israel, and the third "Broken Yet United" is dedicated to the Israeli Metal scene, to the audience and it shows the relationship between Salem and the fans. Thank you very much for your support. Keep metal alive! For more information about Salem, you can visit our web site: http://www.salemband.com Salem, P.O.Box:566, Givatyim 53104,Israel Masterful - R Masterful - I