Pretty much everyone I know begs to differ, but Salem had me at hello. Between the smog machine, the Dimatapp-PM arpeggios, and the half-hearted white boy freestyle attempts, the show they put on at Pendu’s Horror Scores for the Dance Floor series in Brooklyn last January was too epic to be taken seriously. In fact, the spectacle was so over the top and ridiculous that I kind of wanted to believe in it, to abandon my heartbeat to the slow irregularity of the bass and bask in the sensation of my entire body slowly evaporating into the ambient B.O.. Other people just laughed at them, and that’s ok, too.

Salem premiered the song “King of Nights” on Gorilla vs. Bear this morning, and I’m afraid that it is even more debilitatingly overblown than the late night court they held at Glasslands this year. It is beyond the neon fantasia of Dark Side of the Moon, cheesier than a projection of Wizard of Oz catching on a beam of glittering narcotic dust in an empty password-only bar on the LES. I would even venture to say that it is more camp than the party that is raging downstairs when Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes meet by the fish-tank in Verona Beach — though there certainly some classical choral swells that sound like they were ripped straight off that racket. Is it possible, dare I say, that Salem is the 21st century’s answer to prog? If “King Night” is just the prologue to their debut full-length, I’m a bit frightened to find out what comes next.

Salem, “King Night” (King Night, IAMSOUND Records)

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King Night is out on September 28th on IAMSOUND Records.
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