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Slough Feg, Digital Resistance: Ravenous Medicine

Posted in Reviews on February 10th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Moral superiority suits San Francisco metallers Slough Feg. Their sound, rooted in NWOBHM traditions and met with righteousness culled from Celtic folk, is neither that simple nor that limited. They reside in that same hallowed realm of underappreciation as Voivod, whose Killing Technology is lyrically referenced here, or like what would’ve happened if the early metal of Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road had continued an unabated progression. All comparisons due justice to parts of their sound, none to the whole of it. Slough Feg‘s eighth full-length, 2010’s The Animal Spirits (review here), was organic in its sound and presentation, and while their 2014 follow-up, Digital Resistance (on Metal Blade), feels inherently more aggressive, it’s hard to figure where the line actually resides between band self-awareness and reading a narrative into the songs. Certainly, Slough Feg, who formed in 1990 and are led by guitarist/vocalist Mike Scalzi with Angelo Tringali on guitar, Adrian Maestas on bass and Harry Cantwell on drums, can be expected know what they’re doing by now, and as the title indicates, they’re working in opposition — the position beginning with opener “Analogue Avengers/Bertrand Russell’s Sex Den” seems to be (which I say because I haven’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet) resistance to the digital rather than putting up a resistance via or from the digital — so it’s just as easy to think the signs of a struggle are evoked from the music as they are actually present in it. Who ever knows anything, anyway? Rock and roll, goddammit.

The opener sets both the stage and a dramatic tone befitting it, Scalzi‘s voice clear as ever over the band’s dense and rhythmic churn, but the ensuing title-track offers more of a gallop, and much of Digital Resistance seems keen to play the two sides off each other. A seamless blend of acoustic and electric guitar is nothing new for Slough Feg, and though the character and theme of this album is different, one can hear traces of consistency and development both from The Animal Spirits and the preceding outings, 2009’s Ape Uprising! and 2007’s Hardworlder. Slough Feg sounding like Slough Feg shouldn’t be any great surprise to anyone who’s followed the band at any point in their tenure, but that creative will to stand apart suits well the personality of Digital Resistance, and as “Habeas Corpsus” introduces a spacious acoustic strum amid tom roll and multi-layered vocals, the rush in terms of pace is no less prevalent than it was on the title cut — momentum quickly built and even quicker once it gets going. “Magic Hooligan” furthers the pace, bouncing thrash circularity off more technically engaged riff work and slamming into heavy rock groove into its second half as a bed for classic-style soloing and smooth transition back to a double-kick final verse, a sneakier guitar line in “Ghastly Appendage” holding more tension even as it seems to be paying off in its chorus, peculiar and instrumental save for maniacal laughing. Digital Resistance doesn’t feel overtly structured for vinyl — at 10 tracks and just under 41 minutes, it breaks evenly track-wise at 19 minutes for side A and almost 22 for side B, with “Ghastly Appendage” providing a strange, down-the-rabbit-hole vibe to close out the first half.

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