Salomé

Salome, who hail from Virginia, are an extreme doom metal power trio whose sound is equal parts sludge, speaker-shredding volume, and noise -- all played to a watching-paint-dry tempo. Salome's MySpace page describes their sound as "the end...." Influenced heavily by Black Sabbath's funereal riffs, the Melvins' dynamics, and early Swans' power and punishing volume, they are fronted by vocalist Kat Katz; she is backed by drummer Aaron Deal and guitarist Rob Moore. The trio formed in late 2007 and released a self-titled debut EP in 2008, which garnered excitement in the metal underground. The band is unique in that it has no bassist -- an anomaly in doom metal. Katz has also lent her voice to recordings by Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. In 2010 Salome played their first South by Southwest showcase. Their debut album, Terminal, was issued by Profound Lore in November of 2010. It was preceded by unprecedented -- and unsolicited -- publicity for an underground metal act: NPR's <I>First Listen feature streamed Terminal weeks in advance, and a week before its release, Salome were the subject of a full-page story in The New York Times. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi