Out of all the musical trends of the late 2000s and early 2010s, witch house didn't seem likely to have especially long -- or stable -- legs. Its mix of Southern rap's drowsy beats, shoegaze-indebted walls of sound, and dark electronic pop flourished mostly because of SALEM, who helped invent and perfect the style during the handful of years that they were first active. However, witch house cast a surprisingly long shadow; ghostly traces of it can be heard in the genre-mashing artists that thrived after SALEM largely disappeared following the release of 2011's I'm Still in the Night EP. When they returned seemingly out of nowhere after nearly a decade, it sounded like they'd been paying attention to this evolution. On Fires in Heaven, John Holland and Jack Donoghue double down on their hip-hop influences, augmenting their bleak arsenal of sounds with death rattle trap rhythms on songs such as the title track and "Starfall." It's a natural extension of what they were doing before, and it sounds as genuine as when Donoghue spits "I should have died on that pavement" on "Crisis." Working with experimental hip-hop producer Shlohmo, SALEM strip away some of the claustrophobic atmosphere that evoked overwhelming despair on 2010's debut album King Night. While the murky mystique of that record is missed, Donoghue and Holland's doomy beats and numbing atmospheres need remarkably few tweaks to sound relevant ten years later. King Night's "Sick" feels like the jumping-off point for Fires in Heaven's alternately assaultive and dour tracks, and the cleaner production values mean it's that much easier to hear the screams in the distance on songs like "Red River." SALEM may still be at their best when they temper their gloom with touches of beauty and vulnerability, as on the bruised standouts "Sears Tower," "Old Gods," and "Not Much of a Life." While it might be impossible for them to be as shockingly distinctive as they were back in the day, they've kept up with the times, and Fires in Heaven is a return that's as strong as it is unexpected. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

1		Capulets
2		Fires in Heaven
3		Crisis
4		Sears Tower
5		Starfall
6		Wings
7		Red River
8		Old Gods
9		Braids
10		DieWithMe
11		Not Much of a Life