Slough Feg has a pretty decent history of solid releases. Down Among The Deadmen and Traveller are often referred to as modern day heavy metal classics, and their first two albums were flawed and very raw, but still great pieces of folk and fantasy inspired heavy metal. But after dropping “The Lord Weird” portion of their name, there seemed to be a light dip in quality. They’ve yet to release a bad album, but something seemed missing.
The intro, Return of Dr. Universe, starts the album off in a somewhat confusing manner. Slough Feg are no strangers to short instrumentals, and even if I don’t like all of them, they usually aren’t bad. This one on the other hand is particularly weak. It’s ok musically, but doesn’t really go anywhere or do anything. Having heard the demo album, this is obviously a shorter, instrumental version of a song called With Thoughts of Sympathy, which makes me wonder, if you want to do a throwback to the demo, why not just do what you did with Spawn & Die/Overborne, and just re-record the whole song? Galactic Nomad is a little better, but both it and Whirling Vortex both scream ‘under-developed song’ rather than ‘well-written instrumental.’
The album also contains two cover songs. One is a cover of Manilla Road’s Street Jammer. Manilla Road is a band I enjoy a great deal, but Street Jammer is one of those songs I’ve always thought is just ‘ok.’ And while Slough Feg do a decent job with it, and it fits the album, I could probably write a book about the Road songs I’d rather hear them cover. The other cover is Dearg Doom by Horslips. This one is significantly more fun, and is a welcome addition to the album, with its upbeat, Irish tinged riffing.
One problem I have with a few of the original tracks is that, while they’re almost all good, a few seem to go on a little too long. Tiger! Tiger! Is a wonderful song which has a great epic outro, but could probably be trimmed down by a minute or so. Almost half the song is the outro riff. The title track is also a little overlong, but by nearly as much. Insomnia is a great track that almost reminds me of something Di’Anno-era Maiden would write, but it transitions into an ending that sounds like some epic Manowar ending, and while the transition is, oddly enough, smooth enough, it seems entirely unnecessary.
On the other hand, a few songs seem to suffer from a problem that was common on Atavism, which was that they feel like they end before they really get fired up. In this case the culprits are The Spoils and Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues. On the other hand, The Sea Wolf, while short, does a great job of knowing exactly how long to continue, without overstaying it welcome, or seeming too short.
In the end, this is still a solid album. It has its flaws, and doesn’t quite live up to the band’s classic period, but the flaws can be overlooked. Karma-Kazee, Poisoned Treasures, and even Tiger! Tiger! and Insomnia are among my favorite works by the band. But I have to recommend that if you’re new to the band, you temporarily overlook this album in favor of some of their earlier works, or maybe Animal Spirits. Just don’t forget to come back to it if you enjoy their other works.