SALTPIG – Saltpig

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · Published December 3, 2024 · Updated December 3, 2024

The bio on the Heavy Psych Sounds website (the label the band is on) describes the origins of SALTPIG perfectly: “SALTPIG is a bit of a mystery. The band just showed up seemingly out of nowhere, album in hand, with the music loudly speaking for itself. As it soon became known, SALTPIG is a two person band with Fabio Alessandrini (formerly of Annihilator) on drums and Mitch Davis handling vocals, guitar and all of the other layers of noise that can be heard on the record. The music that came out of this pairing has elements of doom/stoner/psych/occult metal and others, but they didn’t go into it with anything that specific in mind. They just make the music they want to hear. Davis has been working with bands/artists including LA Guns, Damon Albarn, Billy Squier, Stephen Malkmus, Mark Lanegan, Sunbomb and U2, but SALTPIG is obviously a very different animal. For his own band, Mitch created a sound that is much darker. When he started writing the SALTPIG tracks, it pretty quickly turned into this debut album. Most of the tracking was done in their respective studios, with Fabio in Italy, and Mitch in New York where he’d do all of the final recording, production and mixing. It’s melodic but embraces dissonance. It’s noisy and dirty and evil sounding. Underproduced and real. It embraces imperfections as only a human can do.”

The Self Titled six song debut album is quite peculiar and fascinating too. The sound is a unique blend of garage 60’s and 70’s psychedelic acid rock with a noisy doom layer. I actually enjoy this recording a lot. It took me a little bit to understand what was going on as I started listening to them. I have grown to appreciate the raw production of this vintage rock sounding album and actually enjoy the songs a great deal. The release date on Heavy Psych Sounds was May 31st 2004.

“Satan’s War” begins with the drums leading the way into a dark and distorted wall of static guitar riffing and retro rock vocals. The recording sounds like it came right out of the early seventies reminiscent of the JPT Scareband with the rawness of The Stooges. The song has a rocking groove with a vintage fuzz sound, with crazy drumming and crashing cymbals, courtesy of Fabio Alessandrini. The chief songwriter/ guitarist and all around instrumentalist Mitch Davis, provides some good guitar riffs and leads throughout. The second song “Demon” is another cool track of heavy rocking madness. Davis has a unique voice that sounds right out of the late sixties. “Demon” is a catchy song with a straight forward tempo riffing along to simple drum beats with intricate rolls and fills.

“Burning Water” begins with the guitar and kicks into a heavy distorted rhythm. The vocals are a little aggressive but retro-fide. The dirty guitar sound adds a dark texture to the song with the heavy crushing drums as a guide. The overdriven sound is an added touch of brilliance to the track. The fourth song, “When You Were Dead” sounds a bit haunting and diabolical. The almost torching rasp vocals of Davis with the doomy guitar sludge is a devil’s delight. With the groundwork laid out, SALTPIG leads us into “Burn The Witch”, the second longest track on the album at nearly six minutes. The occult classic is a varied song of musical discharge. The cool swinging drum beats with the garage guitar riffing are a great match for the eccentric vocals. The singing combines low death growling to a higher sinister tone. It’s an all around interesting tune with sample parts at the start and end, where the echo chants of “burn” fade out into obscurity.

The sixth and final track is the nineteen minute and fifty second dirge called “1950”. The feedback raging raunchy cut is a doom sounding catastrophe. The ultra fuzz drenched sludge riffing and tortured wailing of vocals are psychotic and hypnotic. This is noise rock in its most disturbing and electrifying. The song will lead you into a long trance and if you’re not careful, you’ll be lost forever.

SALTPIG is a very intriguing band that might not connect with the listener on the first few attempts. Don’t let the dark occult themes affect your judgement though. I respect SALTPIG for doing their own recordings and not allowing anyone to dictate their musical style. Based on the repertoire of musicians and artists that Mitch Davis has worked with, I think it’s cool that his own project is so diverse and such as this band, SALTPIG.