{"id":68727,"date":"2018-04-06T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=68727"},"modified":"2018-04-29T11:53:16","modified_gmt":"2018-04-29T11:53:16","slug":"album-review-salems-lott-mask-of-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-salems-lott-mask-of-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u0100LEMS LOTT – Mask Of Morality (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u0100LEMS LOTT
Mask Of Morality<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nR\u0113d Moon (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s time for brutal honesty. I really don\u2019t know what to make of S\u0101lems Lott? Having grown up and grown my hair through an era where W.A.S.P., Lizzy Borden, Twisted Sister, M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce et al provided the soundtrack, I\u2019m not sure if this Californian freak show is aimed at people like me, with a penchant for shock rock, or young kids who still think emo crap and Black Veil Brides are the \u201cin thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t overly convinced by the band\u2019s 2015 self-titled debut EP, which was caught somewhere between the riff-heavy glories of early Cr\u00fce and yet suffered in the vocal department at times, particularly with tracks such as \u2018No Choice To Love\u2019 where the parade seemed somehow stuck in nostalgic yet ineffective limbo.<\/p>\n

I asked myself if these hairsprayed horrors would have the same appeal without the glam rock, blood \u2018n\u2019 sweat image, and I\u2019m still asking the same questions today as the band\u2019s debut opus lands on me fully armed with lipstick, leather and paint. <\/p>\n

Mask Of Reality<\/em> provides ten tracks of unadulterated schlock, whether in the form of emotionally-charged epic ballad \u2018Shattered To Pieces\u2019, with its typically 80s \u201chair metal\u201d design, or the straight up rocker \u2018You Can\u2019t Hide From The Beast Inside\u2019, which is rather glossy and contemporary musically.<\/p>\n

The latter initially rushes like some sort of glamourised power metal anthem, distinctly European until the howls of Monroe Black come into the fray. But even then it\u2019s a familiar gallop that\u2019s actually a world away from the joyous, sticky yet often raw glam rejects of the 80s. Instead, there\u2019s an air of the manufactured. Hard to believe then that \u2018You Can\u2019t Hide From The Beast Inside\u2019 is a cover of a 1985 Autograph gem that appeared on the Fright Night<\/em> movie soundtrack.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s my problem, because for all the frills \u2013 and there are numerous, like \u2018Gestapo (Enigma\u2019), \u2018When Heaven Comes Down\u2019 and \u2018Mother Of Chains\u2019 \u2013 there\u2019s clearly an influence of Japanese rock and an all-too-modern feel which seems to have been constructed with a teenage audience in mind. I could be wrong, but tracks such as \u2018Royal Desperado\u2019 suggests a band in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll limbo. One moment they\u2019re chugging hard with a strong Cr\u00fce vibe, but the raps of Monroe are at times less convincing. And yet in spite of the numerous, obvious flaws, here\u2019s a band that if left to their own devices can provide thought-provoking metal as expressed on the impressive closer \u2018Alexandria’s Genesis\u2019.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the band is very much heavy in their structures and the influences are there for all to see, whether it\u2019s in the archetype gang chants or the sicklier sweet glam metal stomps and darker guitar tones that harken back to the days of lesser known shock rockers Krank or Witch.<\/p>\n

But for me something is missing, and that \u201csomething\u201d may well be what the band evolves into with time. For now though, I\u2019m still on the fence; not exactly swayed by the look or the vibe, but still open-minded enough to let the mimicry soak in. However, while those old W.A.S.P. albums and the like are still around, S\u0101lems Lott will always play second fiddle. Now, if only that sound was a bit dirtier.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\u0100LEMS LOTTMask Of Morality R\u0113d Moon (2018)Rating: 7\/10 It\u2019s time for brutal honesty. I really don\u2019t know what to make of S\u0101lems Lott? Having grown up and grown my hair through an era where W.A.S.P., Lizzy Borden, Twisted Sister, M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce et al provided the soundtrack, I\u2019m not sure if this Californian freak show is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3958],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-salems-lott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68730,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68727\/revisions\/68730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}