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Slough Feg - Hardworlder Review

by Matt Hensch

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Unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade, The Lord Weird Slough Feg has probably reached your eyes or ears one way or another from glowing fanboy rants and reviews prophesying them to be one of the best metal acts ever. While some of this worship is rather inflated, our American friends have established a dependable popularity among loyal metal fans with consistent release after consistent release, and you can honestly apply that observation to any of their records, like Hardworlder. They say a golden egg leads to a golden farm, and that's quite true as Slough Feg's sixth CD continues down the valuable track of excellent heavy metal compressed into mild folk atmospheres.

These guys have no problem sticking to an agenda that focuses more so on catchiness and beefy textures rather than technicality or heaviness; in fact, this CD is solely based on those two qualities without anything else interfering, but that's where the intelligence resides. Strictly relying on a traditional metal agenda allows Slough Feg to build a metallic house of heavy riffs, memorable melodies, sweet harmonies and other great qualities while balancing stellar percussion and bass audio; I'd move there without question. Also, whoever wrote the guitar solos deserves an award as they are perfectly written and flow superbly through all instrumental shows regardless of speed and tone; it is really a neat addition to such a fundamentally-based album. Throughout Hardworlder, there are several positive observations one will make, but the utter bulkiness of it all will certainly be the record's highlight for many people.

Though downright heavy metal at heart, our friends at Slough Feg use cosmic originality beyond what anyone could expect from a group related to their natural genre. Of course, Mike Scalzi's vocals are as abnormal as it gets, but his signature gruff tone fits in magnificently with all musical anatomies whether he's facing a whirling melody or some catchy riffing section. The folk edge is repressed a bit here compared to previous full-length efforts, yet it lightly flutters around while dropping in on occasion just for a warm greeting. Still, Hardworlder really glows with its two flawless covers of Horslip's "Dearg Doom" and Manilla Road's "Street Jammer" in which Slough Feg literally bends completely opposite sounds into high-powered rockers worthy of being labeled some of their most genius tunes. I guess a hundred heads really are that much better than one, right?

When the day ends, Slough Feg's sixth full-length effort rightfully shows a chivalrous reputation this American-born crew formatted years ago by exploiting relaxing atmospheres and heavy designs into one mega-original disc that simply rules in every way possible. Yea it's a bit overrated, but Hardworlder will still rock your planet with its dynamic structure; something Slough Feg has mastered over the course of several mighty studio records. Hardworlder will definitely hold a steady place in your CD player as any excellent release would, and nobody should miss out on its charming cleanliness.


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Slough Feg - Hardworlder

Rating:8.8

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