Saturday, November 21, 2009

I write band bios sometimes.


Here's one I did for my friends in Salome (www.myspace.com/salomedoom - they SLAY).


SALOME BIOGRAPHY

Fort Awesome, Virginia’s slow-motion destroyers Salome came into being in 2006, after Kat and Aaron Deal decided to take their mutual love of Thorr’s Hammer and Khanate and start up a slow, heavy project of their own. Joined by Rob Moore on guitar, the trio started writing songs for what became their self-titled debut album. Salome was released in 2008 by Vendetta Records, and featured 45 minutes of pure sonic excess driven by Deal’s megalithic drumming, Moore’s soul-crushing riffs, and Kat’s cavernous roar. Drenched in feedback, downtuned to the point of no return, and tempered by moments of eerie calm, the four songs on Salome were nothing short of obliterating, and gained them a considerable amount of positive attention from the media and the fans alike.

A series of high-profile gigs followed, and saw Salome opening for doom god Wino’s solo project, sharing stages with the likes of Ocean, Black Anvil, and Woe as part of Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy series, and appearing at the inaugural edition of the Scion Rock fest alongside Neurosis, Mastodon, Boris, High on Fire, Nachtmystium, and dozens more. Vocalist Kat has also contributed guest vocals to a Pig Destroyer song (“Lost Cause” on 2004’s Terrifyer) and pulls double duty behind the mic in spazz grinders Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

In September 2009, Salome took their furiously cathartic live show on the road with Hull and Batillus on the aptly-christened “Beard Destroyers” tour, and a triumphant performance at Asheville, North Carolina’s Planet Caravan festival this past September saw them treading the boards with the immortals in Pentagram, Clutch, Wino, and dozens more. In addition, this past October they headed north to raise the dead on NYC’s Lower East Side as part of a high-profile Relapse Records/Brooklyn Vegan-sponsored CMJ showcase. They’ll be entering the studio in late 2009 to once again open up the gates of hell and record the follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut, which will proudly be released by Profound Lore Records in the first half of 2010. In the meantime, fans hungry for new Salome material will have a new split 12” LP with Baton Rouge sludge fiends Thou and a Fugazi cover (recorded for Blind Date Records’ CLONE compilation LP) to chew on.

As purveyors of the avant-garde, the up-and-coming and the criminally talented, this highly respected Canadian label provides a perfect home for Salome’s punishing down-tempo doom, and sets the stage for bigger, meaner, heavier things to come. Salome’s future is dark with promise.




- Kim Kelly 2009

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