Description

For twenty years now, San Francisco act Slough Feg has been slowly and painstakingly building a rabid cult following by performing their thrilling brand of folk infused classic heavy metal. After hitting a creative peak with their near-perfect Traveller and Atavism albums in the mid 00s, the band seemed to settle into a less metal, more rock terrain with 2007's Hardworlder, but returned with full metallic force on their 2009 offering, Ape Uprising. This album isn't nearly as experimental as Ape Uprising was, and that makes me pretty happy, since much of what made that album distinctive (the 10-minute epic, the droning Doom tune in the beginning) didn't really please me. sure, there are some escapes from the normal, like the guest vocalist on the album closer, but this stays more true to what most of the band's fans have come to appreciate about they had done on early releases. What you have here is a combination of Deadmen, Atavism and Hardworlder, which can only give you some indication of how much I like this, since those are three of my favourite albums of this band. On a recent interview at metalsucks.com, Mike Scalzi, while commenting on the album's artwork, declared: ‘That's how the music looks to me. The scratchy pen and ink, that's how it looks to me. That's how Slough Feg music always looks to me. We've always had artwork that's too modernized, too slick. It never should have been like that, it should've been more scratchy, because those are the images that inspired what our music was to become. More scratchy, more primitive… more comic book-y’. And that's exactly how the album sounds, there's a loose, relaxed, ‘let's just bash some tunes and have fun’ approach to both song writing and recording that keeps the record fresh. Mike Scalzi brings his trademark voice, and the great galloping riffs from Down Among the Deadmen back into action. In fact, theres a lot on this album that is very reminiscent of that era of the band. There a fast punchy tunes like The 95 Thesis and Materia Prima, and you also get the melodic anthems like Ask the Casket and the Second Coming. I also like the opener Trick the Vicar, with it's comic wordplay that reminds me of Heavy Metal Monk from years past. If you have even a passing interest on classic heavy metal, give Slough Feg a chance. You won't be disappointed, and you'll get a lot more bang for your buck than with any recent Iron Maiden or Judas Priest release. . Track listing: 1. Trick The Vicar 2. The 95 Thesis 3. Materia Prima 4. Free Market Barbarian 5. Lycanthropic Fantasies 6. Ask The Casket 7. Heavyworlder 8. The Tell Tale Heart-Alan Parsons Project cover 9. Kon-Tiki 10. Second Coming 11. Tactical Air War