### Mount Salem: Endless

#### 29/03/14 || gk

Mount Salem is the latest band on the female fronted 70s doom metal wagon. That usually rocks my boat and my love for bands like Witch Mountain, Blood Ceremony and Jex Thoth is well documented but there’s something about Mount Salem that prevents me from whole heartedly recommending “Endless”.

The album starts with Good times and it’s a pretty basic stoner doom stomp that never really gets all that heavy but is saved by a pretty catchy vocal line from front woman Emily Kopplin. “The tower” is all shimmering guitars and a nice, fat bass tone. There’s nothing remotely inventive about the riffs and Black Sabbath is a familiar partner through this song. Kopplin pretty much does the same thing over and over. Her slightly nasal, high pitched delivery is alright when she has a nice melody backing her up but can get a bit grating at times. Lucid feels like it was already recorded by Blood Ceremony on their debut album and it’s another ho-hum, doom metal song that doesn’t do much. The two part “Mescaline” simply fades into the background and makes little impact while album closer “The end” benefits from some decent organ playing but the main riff sounds really familiar and ends the album on another bland note.

The problem I think is that there are a lot of these bands around and to stick out of the pack you need to have really good songs. Mount Salem is not there yet. The band sounds like they listened to the first Blood Ceremony album and then decided to form a band. Everything sounds the same here and Kopplin’s vocals tend to get monotonous after a while. The band also seems hesitant to take any risks. The songs all play it safe. No guitar freak outs, no huge doom riffs and everything’s too fucking clean.

There are probably people who will dig this album. Mount Salem is like a safe bet for people who don’t listen to a lot of doom and Metal Blade probably have a winner on their hands. Still, if you want something substantial in your doom metal then Mount Salem will disappoint. It’s pretty inoffensive and dare I say it, doom-pop at times. Wade in at your own risk.

- Information
- Released: 2014
- Label: Metal Blade Records
- Website: Mount Salem Facebook
- Band
- Emily Kopplin: vocals, organ
- Kyle Morisson: guitars
- Mark Hewett: bass
- Cody Davidson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Good Times
- 02. The Tower
- 03. Lucid
- 04. Full Moon
- 05. Mescaline
- 06. Mescaline II
- 07. The End