One of the pioneers of witch house, SALEM's impact extended far beyond their initial run in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The group's heady, heavy fusion of shoegaze, frosty electronic atmospheres, and Southern rap's slow but hard-hitting beats made for music that was filled with an overpowering and seductive bleakness, and sometimes tinged with beauty. Their prolific burst of releases -- which included numerous singles, EPs, and their 2010 debut album, King Night -- often polarized listeners, but SALEM managed to maintain their cutting-edge appeal while remixing the likes of Gucci Mane and Britney Spears. SALEM disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived, but their genre-mashing approach cast a long shadow, informing the brooding rappers and bedroom pop that became popular nearly a decade after their heyday. By the time they returned with 2020's Fires in Heaven, mainstream music had finally caught up with their boundary-blurring D.I.Y. style.

Prior to forming SALEM, producer/rapper John Holland made freewheeling, juke-tinged electronica as Young Cream when he was still a high school student in Traverse City, Michigan. He started SALEM as a solo project in 2006 during his time studying drawing and installation at Chicago's School of the Art Institute. The following year, his best friend Heather Marlatt joined the project. Holland knew Marlatt from their studies as art majors at Interlochen Arts Academy, where they honed the fascination with dark imagery that eventually shaped SALEM's aesthetic. They were soon joined by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jack Donoghue, another Institute student who was creating his own electronic music.

SALEM's official debut release, the Yes I Smoke Crack EP, arrived in 2008 on Acephale Records in a limited edition of 500 copies and introduced their blend of dark, ethereal electronics and slow-motion beats. This EP and 2009's Water EP, which Merok Records released in another limited edition, marked the band as one of the most distinctive underground acts of the late 2000s. A pair of singles, "OhK" and "Frost/Legend," also appeared in 2009, along with remixes of tracks by Gucci Mane and Playboy Tre and a pair of mixtapes, XXJFG and We Make It Good. SALEM were especially prolific in 2010. Along with issuing remixes of music by Mane as well as HEALTH, HIM, and These New Puritans, they delivered mixtapes including Raver Stay Wif Me and I Buried My Heart Inna Wounded Knee and released their debut album, King Night. Mixed by Dave Sardy, the record arrived that September on IAMSOUND Records. The trio remained busy in 2011 with remixes for artists including Blonde Redhead, Britney Spears, Charli XCX, and Light Asylum, and issued mixtapes such as Bow Down and the Im Still in the Night EP.

Following 2011's remix EP Mother Always, SALEM's releases slowed to a trickle. A remix of the Cult's "Elemental Light" appeared in 2012. The following year, Donoghue did production work on Kanye West's Yeezus. In 2016, SALEM contributed a reworking of photographer Wolfgang Tillmans' "Make It Up as You Go Along" that appeared on his 2016 EP Device Control. By that time, Donoghue and Holland were working odd jobs and living in an old fishing camp in Louisiana, where they also wrote songs together. SALEM resurfaced in 2020, first with May's Stay Down mixtape and again in October with their second full-length, Fires in Heaven, which featured collaborations with experimental hip-hop producer Shlohmo. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi