SLOUGH FEG - THE ANIMAL SPIRITS
CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC
Metal To Infinity
I
wrote the review of their previous album as well, and at the end of my comment,
I quote: “I have to indulge that except for the title song, the quality of the
remaining 7 songs is just above the average”. Although ‘Ape Uprising’
received critical acclaim, I wasn’t pleased all the way about the quality of
the arrangements. Now, this time,
it’s totally different! It seems
like Slough Feg worked hard on the new material as all songs have a really cool
vibe and they all sound so honest that it’s hard to believe that we are
talking about the same band. Slough
Feg is in the meantime celebrating their +20 years anniversary, and I’m sure
that they had a hell of a time during the writing process of the new songs.
Title
of the new album is ‘The Animal Spirits’ and the front cover artwork is
really typical for this passionate heavy rockers.
The opener is called ‘Trick The Vicar’, and I guess that the angry
looking man on the front cover is the named person. The artwork is done by
drummer Harry Cantwell, by the way. The song is really fast for Slough Feg, and
is a real smash in the face. No
slower intro, or modest openings riff, this is straight forward heavy metal with
good instrumental craftsmanship and vocals that really fin into the arrangement.
The next track is a little slower but has a cool melody line, while at the
meantime variety is present. Next one is called ‘Materia Prima’ wich starts
like an instrumental song, but after two minutes, the direction is changing
drastic, which results in a really great instrumental track with a lot of
attention to the guitars of Mike Scalzi and Angelo Tringali. Mike is also the
mainman of the microphone and perhaps you will recognize his voice from his
other band Hammers of Misfortune…
Anyway,
the new Slough Feg is an album that you MUST listen to, as it’s so honest and
with respect from deep within the heart and mind, that there are no competitors
in sight! Check their homepage http://www.sloughfeg.com/
or
the site of the label to find out more about this interesting release: http://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com/
My rating: 90 / 100 (Review by Patrick De Sloover)