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Slough Feg: Ape uprising

06/10/09 || The Duff

Slough Feg are a doom, stoner and raucous heavy metal band, pure and simple, from San Fransisco. They’ve been receiving a lot of very positive press from the only website that matters, including a number of top five of the year features, but this album is the first of theirs where I’ve felt the need that we become acquainted; hot shit, I never knew what I was missing. Although comprising aspects of metal I’m usually not so keen on, such as sloppy-ish musicianship, simple arrangements and slow riffs (uh-oh), there are times when the hard-hitting metal gets to me and I’m brought back to the days of Maiden and Metallica, my youth basically, and so my fiendish addiction to technical death is put aside. Slough Feg are the voluptuous tits of metal, the bona fide source of all that is good about the genre with about as much heart as you’re likely to witness.

So we mentioned appealing to my inner-child, the opening track “Hunchback of Notre Doom” still gets a rise out of me for the title alone – the music, unfortunately, although acting as the introductory segment to the album, is too droning for my tastes, but thankfully this is as weak as it gets; if it weren’t for the vocals (like Matt Pike from High on Fire but more baritone; really gifted if you think about it), replete with hook-y melodies, it would appear a song without direction. The band picks up momentum by the second cut, “Overborne”, which is a return to the glory galloping riffs of Maiden, power singing that will get your blood flowing and many, many solos that mix blues, Iommi and flashy NWOBHM leads – most complemented by beer and the horns, maybe a Motörhead t-shirt covered in jets of spunk too, ‘cos you were too lazy to get up and get the kitchen roll from beside the oven – once you start, eh…?

To say that the album is much more diverse than this later on would be a bold-faced lie, and you can’t even see my face – what does that tell you? Dick all. But yes, I’m real surprised at just how much Maiden influence is all over this thing; some doom is present, but not much, and more as flavor, no longer as the drive to an entire track – the rest is pretty much Sabbath and Thin Lizzy (y’know, the two bands that inspired Maiden the most). The leads are infectious, the riffs very pedestrian but still a requisite component to the band’s sound; I’m not going crazy for the drums (talented, evidently, “getting the job done”), which leaves the final highlight with Mike Scalzi’s vocals – catchy, deep, emotive, pendulous balls and the fire that shoots from them, I bet Mike’s significant other never rests her eyes without the slow, diminishing tremor of a shattered crotch (oh man, I need some new material… and maybe some sex). The lyrics deal with apes, ‘cos apparently they fascinate whoever penned the words to this neat little concept album about chimps; shame they didn’t write a track entitled “Shit-Throwing Bonanza!”, but hey.

The production is very warm, the band seems to be using some very classic-era of heavy metal amplifiers, which is refreshing when usually encircled by most recent Deeds of Flesh and Nevermore productions; not much gain, a very clean sound that gets the message across without overpowering the listener. Eight tracks of ass-kicking metal, you get the feeling the CD could be a track longer, but then the band is very prolific, averaging roughly one album every two years; not the toughest thing to do with such a style of music, but I can’t deny the quality of what’s on display, and I think it’s safe to say that by their seventh studio album, Slough Feg are still on top of their game, and hopefully as the tides of genre appreciation change once more (metal’s resurgence and all with megastar musical sensation Lil’ John using distorted guitars for his dynamite tracks), the band will get the recognition it deserves as being one hell of a kickass throwback band, and one of the few that can convincingly bring back some value to a style that has been legendary for years but never replayed with the vigor of old (except maybe by Maiden themselves, who’re still shitting all over their contemporaries and followers alike).

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Cruz Del Sur
Website: www.sloughfeg.com
Band
Mike Scalzi: guitars, vocals
Angelo Tringali: guitars
Adrian Maestas: bass
Harry Cantwell: drums

Tracklist
01. The Hunchback of Notre Doom
02. Overborne
03. Ape Uprising
04. Simian Manifesto
05. Shakedown At the Six
06. White Cousin
07. Ape Outro
08. Nasty Hero

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