Review: Marriages – Salome

Marriages

Salome

Sargent House

Street: 04.07

Marriages = A Perfect Circle + Björk

The pain exuding from my speakers is nearly drowning me. An onerous drone of pulverizing backing guitars stands out in stark contrast to seething and smeared higher-register lead guitar. Overlaid, diaphanously blurry synths add a modernized new wave element, such as on “Less Than.” Emma Ruth Rundle’s vocals range from low and breathy to powerful and lamenting, always translating an animalistic agony only understood through intonation and not words. Rolling and intricate drums sew all the songs together. Ultra-heavy bass lines add even more to the dragging heaviness and heroin swoon—see “Love, Texas.” Hidden in the wall of sound is a smudge of ’90s grunge and a rabbit hole of wretched instrumentation in an excellent album. –LeAundra Jeffs