CD REVIEW The Lord Weird Slough Feg

Band : The Lord Weird Slough Feg
Album Title : The Slay Stack Grows
Label : Shadow Kingom
Distributor : Clearspot
Release Date : June 2009
Review : CD  

The Lord Weird Slough Feg (currently Slough Feg) is a folk metal/heavy metal band that formed in the early 1990s and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Taking their name from the Celtic folklore-influenced comic Slaine, the band released their self-titled debut album in 1996. With the release of Atavism in 2005, the band officially shortened its name to Slough Feg. (Read review of their latest album Ape Uprising, one of my favorite albums of 2009 so far).This double-CD includes two early demo tapes from the nineties and 4 short live recordings.

The first disc takes me back to the eighties when i listened to very bad live recordings of  Manowar, Overkill, H-Bomb, Mercyful Fate,…and traded demo tapes of Sceptre, Have Mercy, Mefisto,… So, the first thing you've got to get past here is the sound quality, which isn't up to today’s standards. .And the second thing which get on my nerves are the mediocre vocals by Omar Herd who just ruined any potential enjoyment I could have got from this first disc; he sings so plainly horrible that I found myself reaching for the stop button.  Luckily The Weird Lord Slough Feg was aware of this vehicle, so they threw him out and band leader Mike Scalzi took over vocal duties.

The quality of the live music performed in Stuttgart 1999 (Twilight of the Idols-era) and base town San Francisco 2000 (Down Among The Deadmen-era) and  2002 (Traveller–era) contained in the second CD is strong enough to make one curious about the band’s earlier material. And there's lot of that to be explored.
For Slough Feg-fans, this album is recommended to complete their collection. I don't know whether it's interesting enough for other people, especially because of the continuing stream of killer albums coming out. I enjoyed the second cd quite a lot, but I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't get this promo. So, you better decide for yourself!

Cosmicmasseur.