photos by Ryan Bardsley
The Haunted, the hammering fifth LP by Chicago-based noise rock trio SALVATION, is now playing exclusively at New Noise Magazine, ahead of its release this Friday on Reptilian Records.
The Haunted delivers an expectedly slamming dose of groove-laden dirge that SALVATION’s diehard fanbase has come to expect and love. Throughout the album’s ten tracks, the band fuses bits of bluesey Americana, punk, and alternative into their driving noise rock delivery. Recorded in Chicago at Electrical Audio by Taylor Hales and at Palisade Studios by Erik Rasmussen, who also handled mixing and mastering duties, The Haunted is completed with cover photo by Ceyda Tekin, insert photos by Brian Santostefano and Arman Mabry, and back cover photo and layout by SWZ.
Guitarist/vocalist Jason Sipe writes, “I’d say this new album was a real different endeavor for Salvation. You work on music in life if that’s your passion but all the while we all have to keep pushing forward in regular daily life and sometimes you make the most of what you have and where you’re at. That’s where this album begins. Our drummer Brian was having a birthday and his wife Alison gifted him three days at electrical audio (the late Steve Albini’s studio) Studio B to record with all his most current projects and with his family.
“We had four songs ready to go so we tracked two takes of each… guitar, bass and drums with studio engineer Taylor Hayes and wrapped it. We were pleasantly surprised with what we ended up with so then met with Erik Rasmussen over at Palisade Studios and after playing him what we had he was on board to help us with the completion of not only those four songs but also tracking some songs I had written on my own as more ‘solo’ type performances as well as being open to taking some new full band songs on. I had written some new songs that we tracked literally thirty minutes after showing the boys in the studio and one idea that formed from a band practice jam off of Victor’s bass line he was practicing and after Brian and I jumped in, we kept it 100% improvised. We ended up recreating that particular song that exact way over at Palisade and that’s where we finished the album.
“So, this has definitely been a nontraditional journey. I also found myself going through a transitional period in my life as far a stable place to live and income, so the whole completion of this album is a complete passion project and was completed in an almost miraculous way. Artistically I feel that it also pulled us into some different places than the last album Mock that was our first album with Brian on drums. I can say that no matter what the future holds… Salvation is here to explore the boundaries of what it is to be a band, to be multi-instrumentalists and composers working together. I will always continue to chip away at trying to understand the great song writers that have come before my time and that are in my and our time and I’ll continue to explore and respect what’s been built and explore breaking down all walls of what’s expected… being an artist is more important than people tend to realize. It’s what helps bring this world culture and beauty and connection… and I can’t express how fortunate I know I am and we are to have these opportunities to share our craft with all of you. So, thank you so very sincerely for your time.”
Hear SALVATION’s The Haunted first only on New Noise Magazine now at THIS LOCATION.
The Haunted will be released on LP and digitally this Friday, October 16th. Preorders can be made at the Reptilian Records webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE. If you missed it, the “Depression” video is playing HERE.
Additional videos from the record will drop over the weeks ahead. SALVATION is also booking shows in support of The Haunted, with shows for November and December in the works.
Since the release of their first album in 2015, SALVATION has hammered the masses with a pummeling brew of infectious racket blending the enduring traits of noise rock with a touch of more accessible grunge approach, stacked with hooks and even more amplification, resulting in blown-out glory, spiraling downward like a party on the last night on Earth. Moments of their songs invoke Nirvana’s sweet, melodic annihilation, others verge on the unhinged twang of Lollipop or Cows. Drummer Brian Wnukowski (Big’n) hammers the skins like he’s avenging an unforeseen crime while bassist Victor Riley fleshes out the thundering low-end, and guitarist/vocalist Jason Sipe holds court with a formidable voice – a mix of power and pain, confidence and vulnerability, he commands attention with every holler and howl.
Their first three albums Royal Fucks (2015), Sore Loser (2017), and Year Of The Fly (2019) were released through Forge Again Records, after which SALVATION joined with the long-running Reptilian Records for the 2022 release of their fourth album, Mock. Decibel Magazine once wrote, “The space afforded by the band’s relative compactness allows the bass to build while a key noise element, feedback, stretches. The resultant workout runs through exercises that touch on trio peers past and present: Whores, Unsane, the Melvins and Nirvana. Hell, a slightly more metallic edge would turn it into a full-on metalcore banger. It’s a full flex of the musical muscles of mayhem…” Of Mock, No Echo proclaimed, “The group’s classic Sub Pop meets AmRep noise rock has built up into a lean and mean beast of an operation,” and Idioteq stated, “SALVATION have pulled off one of the great albums in the genre this year, a masterpiece of dark, raucous, noise rock…”
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