‘Less is More‘ opens the album and blasts right at you from the start. A melodic metalcore song with a lot of harmony in it with on top of that the clean and scream vocals of lead singer Marko Duplišak. Just like it fades in at the beginning, it also fades out at the outro.
A wind up toy is wound up and starts playing. Smoothly, the sound of a toy goes into the sound of electric guitars. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. ‘For Suffer We Must’ is a wise song. Let me quote it:

‘’I cannot run away, I just stay true to myself. I shall not look away. The more options I have, I let it go.’’

The bass is strong on the third track ‘Underdog’. A low tuned riff comes on top in combination with the same riff played a bit higher. Marko comes in and ‘Underdog’ is off. Another smooth song that makes this album go by fast. A song that talks about feeling alone in this world, but not giving up having faith in yourself and trust that all will be allright in the end.
A psychedelic intro opens ‘Here For A Reason’. A song that gives us a valuable life lesson. The first line reads:

‘’I am not a prisoner of past, I am the architect of my future’’.

If that doesn’t get you thinking about your own life and how you’re living it, I don’t know what does.

With title track ‘The Salt’, Inmate participated in a contest in Slovenia to play at Eurovision 2020. They made it to the finals, but unfortunately, they didn’t win. The meaning of salt can be viewed in many ways. It’s used in myths to keep evil spirits away, It can be used as a symbol of purity for certain beliefs. It’s also the one thing that differentiates sea water from other waters. Since the album cover shows a darker sea on the bottom, with a clouded sky above, and above that a mirrored, lighter colored version of the sea, I think the album cover managed to frame all the meanings of salt in one image. Impressive.

‘No Time to Die‘ is brought to you as a metalcore love song. The lyrics are sung rather high, on top of a nice but simple riff. Not the most impressive song on the album, but still a nice breather in between.
‘Nobody is Innocent’ has the drums built up, while the melody is already at full volume. This creates a special effect while getting ready for the song. The drums are heavier on this one, as are the vocals. Marko uses more scream vocals in this one.    

‘Coming Back to Life‘ has an extremely catchy chorus. A calmer song, but with a heavy vibe that creates the catchy rhythm. Second to last song ‘Shadows’ is fast and clear.

‘’If you don’t like what you see, change yourself, not me.”

The lead guitar takes you on a journey from one part of the song to the other.

Closer of this album ‘To Higher Self’ starts off calm and compressed. Then, one last time, it releases its powers.

‘’No man can grow to heaven, unless they reach hell’’.

Everybody has highs and lows, ups and downs. Embrace those, and you’ll find yourself. That’s the message I take from this song and this album.

‘The Salt’ is an album with a lot of feelings. There’s positivity, there’s negativity, there’s love. And all of that matches together with the album cover and name. It makes you think, wondering if you are doing the right thing. I feel like this album could mean a 1000 things to a 1000 different people, but that’s what’s music is all about. All of this is poured into a Trivium-like melodic metalcore style. Mostly clean vocals, but some screams are in there too. And then, you turn the booklet around. The answer was there all along.

‘’ The salt is a parable for an honest person who wants to make the world a better place’’.

Inmate is:

Marko Duplišak – vocals
Andrej Bezjak – guitar
David Vodopivec – guitar
Jure Vertelj – bass
Jure Grudnik – drums

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