Salem; The NWOBHM Band Whose Time Has Finally Come!

Source // Salem

The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is flourishing. Bands are reforming, fans are embracing new material from their heroes while still worshipping the classics. But for every major success story – Saxon, Maiden, Leppard etc – many bands were lost to the annals of time; truly talented but cast adrift by the sheer numbers of exceptional musicians the UK was turning out in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

Salem were one such band.

After turning heads with some well received demos in the very early 80’s – including the Kerrang endorsed double A-side “Cold As Steel”/”Reach To Eternity” – Salem found themselves slogging their guts out to little or no avail. Playing their final gig on 31 May 1983, the dream looked over….until over 25 years later it turned out that Salem were merely at the beginning of something special.  

In The Beginning…(2010)

Source // shop.undercover-records.de

In the beginning…there was always Salem.

Rewind to 2009, while the glory days of the NWOBHM were long since over there were still those hunting for NWOBHM rarities and Salem’s output was much sought after.

Finally, someone was prepared to answer the call! High Roller Records and Pure Steel Records approached Salem, keen to unlock the vaults and release those recordings from the early 80’s on vinyl and CD to a hungry audience. The result was the 2010 double album In The Beginning…a compilation of all Salem’s early demo work including the double A-side single “Cold As Steel”/”Reach To Eternity” from 1982, now much lauded and sought after by NWOBHM collectors.

An all-encompassing work, In The Beginning… served to prove just how talented Salem had been and how criminal it was that their star shone for such a short while.

An 18 track behemoth, the re-release was well received by fans and NWOBHM enthusiasts around the globe and attracted enough interest to prompt the band to officially reform and play live once again. Salem were offically back and in demand, the next step was to tour and to record new material.

The time had come to prove these old dogs had plenty of new tricks up their collective sleeves.