UPDATE: It looks like this is just temporary for Summer Slaughter, and Burnette is NOT out of Darkest Hour. So that ends me having five minds about this.

Last week, we got an anonymous e-mail from someone claiming that Salome drummer Aaron Deal had found a sweet new gig: bass player for perennial MetalSucks faves Darkest Hour. And at first we thought this tipster must be mistaken; after all, the band had made no announcement about parting with bassist Paul Burnette, who has been on all of their albums since 2003′s classic Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation. And Burnette was still listed as a member on Darkest Hour’s Facebook page.

But then a Google search brought us to a website called American Aftermath, which in turn directed us to this tweet from Salome’s label, Profound Lore, which also said that Deal was now in Darkest Hour. So it was starting to look like, yes, the Deep Throat of Darkest Hour was telling the truth.

And then we sent our newest member of the MetalSucks Photo Squad, Miikka Skaffari, to shoot some pics for us at Summer Slaughter in San Francisco this past Friday night, and, hey, guess what? He just happened to capture an awesome picture of Deal playing bass for Darkest Hour:

So, we doubt no longer: Mr. Deal has found a new home.

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Well THIS FUCKING SUCKS THE BIG ONE.

Kat Katz, who has to be one of the best goddamn motherfucking vocalists working in metal today, has posted the following message on her Facebook page:

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Hard to believe it’s almost November already, but there ya have it. And while the bad news is that it’s only gonna get increasingly cold and dreary, the good news is that on November 9, Profound Lore will release Terminal, the debut full-length from Salome. If you’ve read my review, you already know that I think this album is fucking capital-”S” Sweet, and if you’ve listened to the already-released “Master Failure,” than you’re already excited to hear this monster.

Now our pals over at Brooklyn Vegan are streaming the title track, too. Seriously, the only reason not to check it out is if you hate yourself. You don’t hate yourself, do you? Oh, you do? Oh. Oh.

[long, awkward pause]

Well, listen to it anyway. Maybe then you’ll hate yourself a little less, ’cause at least you treated yourself to something cool. Then come back here and thank me for brightening your day a little. “Brightening” in this instance meaning “dooming.” Or whatever.

And while we’re on the topic of Salome, our friend “Grim” Kim Kelly also has a cool interview with drummer Aaron Deal over at Noisecreep — check it out.

-AR

I’ve been waiting for Terminal, the debut full-length from Salome, pretty much since I heard the band’s self-titled EP back in 2007. And I’m happy report that it was worth the wait.

What sets Salome apart from the doom metal crowd is that they never do quite what one would expect from their genre. Doom’s most satisfying aspect might be, as the brilliant Justin Foley would put it, that the genre allows you really feel the weight and physical exertion of the music — but it’s biggest pratfall is that it can become redundant and boring in a hurry. For too many doom bands, drone isn’t the appetizer — it’s the main course. It’s like they’re testing the listener: “Oh, yeah? You think you’re hard? Well, how long can you listen to this shit? IT’S LIKE WATCHING PAINT DRY, MOTHERFUCKERS!”

And so by the standards of their peers, Salome might be considered progressive — downright schizophrenic, even. I will freely admit that I will most likely never listen to the seventeen minute experiment in feedback known as “An Accident of History” again, but unless you have really, really bad ADHD and literally can’t sit still under any circumstances, it’s the only cut on the album that will test your patience. For the most part, Salome songs are in a constant state of flux, seguing from one section of pure, unadulterated sonic evil to the next in a manner seemingly designed to repeatedly remind you, “Oh, hey, this band is awesome.”

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“With Hell for a Mouth,” live in Raleigh, NC

Virginia doom crew Salome have been busting eardrums and making waves across the Eastern half of the US on their latest tour, with stops at NYU (with Shrinebuilder/Wolves in the Throne Room) and at the SXSW madhouse, where they decimated showcases from Profound Lore/20 Buck Spin and BrooklynVegan alongside Coffinworm, Yakuza, The Atlas Moth, Zoroaster, Landmine Marathon, and tons more. The next leg of the tour is taking them through the Dirty South, and they’ve brought their buddy “Grim” Kim Kelly along for the ride to sling merch and document the whole thing, Almost Famous-style. You can read the first day’s report here, the second day’s report here, and the third day’s report here… and now we come to the bittersweet end…

Well, holy shit, Raleigh. Tonight was absurd, in about a million and a half different ways. We got to Slim’s and loaded in, then settled in for a longer than anticipated wait. The opening band, Gringo, kept pushing the start time back from 10, to 10:30, to 11pm; they finally hopped onstage at about 11:15.  During the interim I sold a few record, took a walk about the block, and, alongside Kat , Rob and Aaron, made the acquaintance of  a fellow named John. John was very drunk, and very talkative. During the space of a few minutes, we learned that not only was John an Iraq war veteran, he’d been blown up three times, sustained skull fractures and brain damage, smoked weed “to keep from killing himself,” and, just that morning, had been acquitted of a handful of drug charges (misdemeanors/felonies) “because,” he said as he tapped on his Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran baseball cap, “of this.” God bless America, I s’pose. He stuck around for a couple more hours, arguing with Kat and I about vegetarianism, extolling the merits of drunk driving, and talking weed with Aaron, then disappeared a few minutes before Gringo’s set. He was still drunk as a skunk, and with a 45 minute drive ahead of him, we could only hope that luck was once more on his side and he’d gotten home safe.

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Virginia doom crew Salome have been busting eardrums and making waves across the Eastern half of the US on their latest tour, with stops at NYU (with Shrinebuilder/Wolves in the Throne Room) and at the SXSW madhouse, where they decimated showcases from Profound Lore/20 Buck Spin and BrooklynVegan alongside Coffinworm, Yakuza, The Atlas Moth, Zoroaster, Landmine Marathon, and tons more. The next leg of the tour is taking them through the Dirty South, and they’ve brought their buddy “Grim” Kim Kelly along for the ride to sling merch and document the whole thing, Almost Famous-style. You can read the first day’s report here and the second day’s report here… and now we re-join Kim and the band in Raleigh, NC…

Current time: 5:41pm
Current location: A Best Western in Raleigh, NC

So it’s almost 6pm, and we’ve just now woken up. Sounds like we must have been partying ridiculously hard last night, right? Not quite; after playing the show, loading out, and raging a respectable amount with Dark Castle, we decided to drive straight through the night from Atlanta to Raleigh. Aaron is a MACHINE,  and as soon as we got into the city and spotted a cheap-ish hotel, we were all down for the fucking count. With Domino’s ordered and much-needed showers showered, we’ve got a couple hours of downtime before heading down to Slim’s for the last show of the tour (with locals Gringo). Seinfeld marathon? Yes please.

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Virginia doom crew Salome have been busting eardrums and making waves across the Eastern half of the US on their latest tour, with stops at NYU (with Shrinebuilder/Wolves in the Throne Room) and at the SXSW madhouse, where they decimated showcases from Profound Lore/20 Buck Spin and BrooklynVegan alongside Coffinworm, Yakuza, The Atlas Moth, Zoroaster, Landmine Marathon, and tons more. The next leg of the tour is taking them through the Dirty South, and they’ve brought their buddy “Grim” Kim Kelly along for the ride to sling merch and document the whole thing, Almost Famous-style. You can read the first day’s report here… and now on to Birmingham, Alabama…

Current time: 2:14am
Current location: Jamie’s house in Birmingham, Alabama

“It’s whiskey, weed, and beer night here in Birmingham,” declared our host, Jamie, his good-natured drawl rising above the crackling Zeppelin record that had replaced the free jazz Aaron keeps cranking in the van. An affable chap with a talent for vegan cooking and a good ol’ Southern boy accent, he had set up the gig, made us dinner, kept us drinking, and was putting us up for the night in the rambling, comfortably worn-in house he shared with a handful of roommates and a menagerie of pets.  He’d come out to greet us as we rolled up to Magic City Wholesale a little after seven and helped us haul the now-familiar mountain of gear up a rickety flight of stairs, then produced a pot of curry something-or-other to take the edge off before Salome’s set.  The venue doubled as an art space and community center, and besides the usual broken windows and concrete you’d expect to find, was decorated with tons of off-the-wall art and murals. It was also cold as BALLS  inside– we couldn’t get over how damp and chilly Alabama was, especially after the Texas sunshine and muggy warmth of Louisiana.

The drive up wasn’t quite as eventful as yesterday’s, although, as usual, the hunt for vegetarian-friendly restaurants proved to be an adventure. We gave the Creole Bagelry an honest shot, but after realizing that they had not only were not serving breakfast items and employed the least-friendly Southerners we’d encountered so far, but were out of coffee on top of it all, we peeled out and drowned our sorrows at some overpriced sandwich place (instead of the $18 gallons of daquiris I suggested). Louisiana melted into Mississippi, we passed through a town called Philadelphia (!!!!) and when a gas stop took us through Meridian, Mississippi, we encountered one of the most depressing sights of the tour so far. The place was a goddamn ghost town. Desperation peered out of every boarded up window and empty storefront, dripped off every misspelled sign and leered at us from every shady check cashing stand. The streets were empty, the curtains were drawn tight, and Meridian, Mississippi, was clearly struggling to draw its last labored breaths. I’m sure there are dying towns just like it scattered across the country, but I’d never driven through a place that seemed so utterly devoid of hope. We were glad to get back on the highway.

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Virginia doom crew Salome have been busting eardrums and making waves across the Eastern half of the US on their latest tour, with stops at NYU (with Shrinebuilder/Wolves in the Throne Room) and at the SXSW madhouse, where they decimated showcases from Profound Lore/20 Buck Spin and BrooklynVegan alongside Coffinworm, Yakuza, The Atlas Moth, Zoroaster, Landmine Marathon, and tons more. The next leg of the tour is taking them through the Dirty South, and they’ve brought their buddy “Grim” Kim Kelly along for the ride to sling merch and document the whole thing, Almost Famous-style. First stop: Baton Rouge, Louisiana…

Current time: 3:13 am
Current location: A Super 8 somewhere outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Louisiana is a pretty desolate state to drive through. For hours at a time, you’ll be cruising down battered highways lined with billboards for “adult super centers” and “Buy 1-Get-11” fireworks stands (talk about recession-proof – if not death-proof – pricing!), staring out into the scrub pines and swamps in the shadow of a thousand Waffle House signs. It’s also not what I’d call “cosmopolitan” by any stretch of the imagination, judging from the reactions we got whenever we stopped to refuel and grab munchies. [Salome vocalist] Kat and Rob [Moore, guitars] look pretty “normal” by anyone’s standards, but Aaron [Deal, drums] and I caused some waves – he with his massive septum ring, tattooed arms and Wolfman beard, and me for my piercings, neck tattoos, 1” lobes and, especially, the inverted cross gracing the back of my Dragged into Sunlight hoodie.

“Dude, they were totally talking shit about you in there,” Aaron chuckled as we pulled away. “Did you see all the religious shit in there? I heard one of them say, ‘That one girl had an upside-down crucifix on her shirt, I never seen something like that before in my life!’”

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Salome, who just might be our favorite modern doom metal band on the planet, are about to hit the road with Hull and Batillus as part of the Beard Destroyer Tour 2009 (Best tour moniker ever? We think so!). The band also recently completed a split with Thou (cover art above), which is being mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, Sunn O))), Isis, etc.) and should be out on Vendetta Records in the next couple of months.

But why wait a couple of months when you can hear some new shit right this very second? The band has been cool enough to graciously allow us to debut a brand new track, “With Hell for a Mouth,” as a free download. Like all Salome, the song is slow like honey and crushing like an anvil, with Kat’s inimitable vocals from the bowels of hell bolstering the performance of guitarist Rob Moore and drummer Aaron Deal. It also marks the next evolutionary step for Salome, as it features slightly brighter production than their EP and even has – gasp! – some sections that are kinda bouncy. It is, in a word, awesome.

Download the song, absolutely free, below. Then, after the jump, get dates for the Beard Destroyer Tour 2009. You need to see Salome live; they are truly otherworldly.

Salome, “With Hell for a Mouth”

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I haven’t sung the praises of Salome in awhile, so here goes: this band crushes. Everyone I know who has seen them live has just been floored with them. Guitarist Rob Moore and drummer Aaron Deal (read my interview with Mr. Deal here) play as though they’re actively attempting to use soundwaves as a weapon, and vocalist Kat… well, she goes to some other place. Like, she temporarily becomes psychotic or something. (Actually, maybe she’s always psychotic. I’ve never actually met her, but her art is pretty dark. I once considered buying a piece because I think it’s so cool, but I was afraid if women saw it on my wall, I’d never get laid again. Of course, right now I’m having trouble finding the link to the page where you can buy her art, but just take my word for it. It’s bleak.)

Now Salome have signed a deal to release their next full-length – actually, I think it’s their first full-length – through Profound Lore. That makes them label mates with Agalloch, The Gates of Slumber, Cobalt, Alceste, and some other awesome bands. In other words: it seems like a good fit.

The band is still writing said full-length, but they have a split with Thou coming out sometime soon (more details as I get them!), and I strongly encourage you to check out their EP in the meantime – or, even better, go see them live. As we reported before, they’ll hit the road in September on a tour with the equally fantastic Hull and Batillus, and will even be playing the MetalSucks co-sponsored Planet Caravan fest in North Carolina alongside Clutch, Kylesa, Burst, Wino, and a whole bunch of other great groups. Really. Go see them. It is truly a fucking experience.

Complete tour dates after the jump. If you don’t know Salome, visit them on MySpace ASAP.

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In the past year, Salome – who allegedly hail from a magical land called Fort Awesome, Virginia – have quickly become one of our favorite doom metal acts on the planet. Slow like molasses and heavy like a tumor, Salome’s music is a big middle finger to convention and cliché.

The band is playing a show this Sunday, February 15 at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, alongside Ocean, Batillus, and Riff Cannon (get details here – the show is sponsored by Pitchfuck but don’t let that deter you from attending). In anticipation of the event, I recently e-mailed some questions over to drummer Aaron Deal. After the jump, get Aaron’s thoughts on Sunday’s gig, the upcoming Scion Rock Fest, the influence of The Wu Tang Clan on Salome’s music, and more.

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