Courtesy: Metal Blade Records
Metal Blade Records’ most recent signees, The Lord Weird Slough Feg—or simply Slough Feg as it’s now known—is quite the interesting band. This Pennsylvania based band is part of a movement to bring pure guitar driven rock music back to the masses. Having recently signed with Metal Blade, three of the band’s previously released albums have been made available to the masses. One of the best of that trio is the band’s 1999 album, Twilight of the Idols. This LP injects a much needed dose of pure rock into an industry that has become far too overpopulated by bands whose music relies on crunchy, down-tuned guitars and cookie monster growls. Listeners will instantly be taken by surprise by the album’s instrumental opener, ‘Funeral March.’ This song is performed entirely on bagpipes. What’s most interesting that for a song titled, ‘Funeral March’, it sounds anything like a funeral dirge. Rather it has more of a major tone to it than a minor. To this critic specifically, it conjures images of sunrise over a country side more so than a funeral setting. And to others it might conjure similar images or something different. It’s all open to interpretation.
From the ‘Funeral March’ the album takes a rather abrupt change of pace as its second track, ‘Highlander.’ Musically, the sound of this song is similar to much of what listeners can expect throughout the album. That’s not to say that every track sounds the same. Rather, the feel throughout the album is much the same, save perhaps for the semi-electric/semi-acoustic jig that is ‘Brave Conner Mac.’ The first thing that comes to mind in listening to this is a comparison to the likes of Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. ‘Wickerman’ follows in similar fashion though this song mixes the band’s Celtic sound with its old school metal sound to make one of the album’s highlights. Just as enjoyable as ‘Wickerman’ is the eight-minute plus song, ‘The Great Ice Wars.’ Yet again, audiences get more of the old school Iron maiden/Black Sabbath/Judas Priest vibe here. The real highlight of the song that late in the song, it breaks into something of an improve session, allowing for vocalist Michael Scalzi to rest his voice if only for a couple minutes and the rest of the band members to showcase their talents. It all leads up to a final moment that could easily be seen as the closer for the band’s live sets, pyro and all.
The band barely lets up even after the intensity of ‘The Great Ice Wars.’ It picks up right where it left off and keeps the adrenaline flowing, hair flying, and horns in the air throughout the remainder of the album right up to the album’s bagpipe based closer that serves as an excellent bookend to the album. The album is available now as part of a triple disc box set released by Metal Blade Records. It can be purchased online at http://www.metalblade.com/thelordweirdsloughfeg. After ordering the band’s new box set, audiences can go to the band’s Facebook page and “Like” it at http://www.facebook.com/sloughfegofficial to get all the latest news from the band. Fans can also follow the band on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/sloughfeg, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Slough_Feg, and on its official website at http://www.sloughfeg.com.
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