I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I was really fuckin' stoked to hear this one. Yeah that may be a surprise considering how much I disliked their most recent album, Digital Resistance, but it's true. A lot of things haven't necessarily been falling in Slough Feg's favor over the last decade. In the last ten years they've only managed to release three albums, one of which sucked, one of which had some good songs but some really bad ones that brought it down (Ape Uprising!), and thankfully at least one that was really good (The Animal Spirits). In addition to their new slow pace of releasing albums, they had the unfortunate honor of helping introduce the metal scene to one of the most talented drummers on the scene today only to completely underutilize him. Harry Cantwell is incredible at what he does, but in order to hear any of his skill you'll have to look towards Bosse-de-Nage or Succumb, because in Slough Feg his was moderately quirky with his off kilter rhythms but that was it, only fully letting lose in his other bands. I was always hoping he'd shine on a future Slough Feg album, but sadly he dipped out shortly after the last album. So now the band is left here in a weird time, immediately following an underwhelming album, immediately following the departure of an invaluably talented bandmate, and they responded by... just kinda disappearing for half a decade.
But they're back now, and they've reached pretty far back into their history to deliver to us New Organon. Surely one of the first things you've noticed is that they've gone back to using the lengthened version of their name, now officially "The Lord Weird" once again. This in itself doesn't really mean anything since the two eras can barely be separated thematically. Slough Feg has always been all over the place in that regard. You're never sure if an album is going to be about the future (Traveller, Hardworlder, Digital Resistance) or the past (Twilight of the Idols, Atavism, Ape Uprising!, The Animal Spirits), generally speaking, and that's not to say that individual songs on each album won't stray from whatever lose theme they're working with anyway. The point is that somehow they always sound "primitive" regardless of whether they're spinning yarns about ancient myths or fantastical science fiction. I guess they always remind me of a Harry Harrison book I read many years ago, Deathworld. The basic premise is that it's the far flung future, and there's a colonized planet absolutely infested with hostile flora and fauna that spend every second of every day attacking the technologically advanced human settlement, and the only people who have managed to fully adapt to the toxic hellscape are the semi-nomadic outcasts who have learned to live off the land and live in harmony with the strange creatures that inhabit it. The protagonist of the story tries to bring the two lifestyles together in some way to maximize survivability, and likewise Slough Feg is this weird, roving hermit of a band who seems to have all of these bizarre forward thinking ideas and visions of a weird, horrible future, while at the same time understanding the land itself completely and thriving as a primitive group of hunter-gatherers.
This all comes up partly because I'm bad at organizing my thoughts, but also because I just don't know how else to describe a track like "Headhunter". The album starts off with this groovy, rollicking thumper of a track that hearkens back to their late 90s era, with the only notable difference being Mike Scalzi's voice being much more throaty and hoarse than before. It is so refreshing to hear a song with this much fucking life in it after the mostly drab experience of the previous album. Despite my usual coded language, I mean it plainly this time. This is exuberant and exciting, but it's not fast or aggressive or anything like I usually imply when I use words like that. New Organon is a very laid back and midpaced album, with only "Being and Nothingness" and "Uncanny" truly breaking into higher tempos. This is Slough Feg's niche, nobody else really seems to take these walking gallops and trot them out with nearly as much spirited efficiency. They've always been good at this, and I think Mike's outspoken desire to let this album happen at its own pace was a huge boon to the final product. Digital Resistance was by no means rushed, but it did feel like it was done mostly on autopilot. New Organon on the other hand is inspired and lively.
As per usual, there are a ton of ideas at work here. From the bluesy heavy rock of "The Apology" and "Exegesis - Tragic Hooligan", to the searing metal assault of "Uncanny", the groovy throwback jams of "Headhunter" and the title track, and you're going to think I'm crazy here, but I think you could simply change the instrumentation of "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" and it could pass as a 50s doo-wop single or a lame 60s hippie song or some hybrid thereof with minimal raised eyebrows. Slough Feg is so fucking good at everything they do here, and it showcases their incredible ability to sound both new and old simultaneously. The whole album has a very 70s feel, throwing back to a time when heavy metal wasn't even really a thing yet but they managed to accidentally invent it anyway by playing in 2019, 1972, and the Paleolithic Age all at once. It's so strange that they're objectively decades late to the party, playing almost three decades into their career, and still sounding like they both somehow invented the whole style and have the only definitive vision of where it's going. It's like some bastardized New School Proto Metal or something. I don't know, I love it. Most of New Organon sits in a very comforting groove, making the few fast tracks hit all the harder. And they're so good at riffs and hooks anyway that it stays engaging regardless of the tempo.
If there are any flaws, they're fairly minor. "Sword of Machiavelli" and "The Cynic" just kinda happen without much consequence, but the latter is saved by the band's trademark dizzying soloing. The album as a whole kind of loses steam as it goes on, but the A side is such a stunner that it barely matters and the back half has grown on me a lot in the few days and already countless spins I've given this. "Uncanny" is kind of awkward at first because Adrian sings it instead of Mike, and... well there's a reason Adrian isn't the singer. Even so, his nasally voice has grown on me as well in the context of the song proper and the song was an instrumental highlight right away, before I had gotten accustomed to his voice in the first place.
Without a doubt, Slough Feg are the Weird Lords again. This is by far their most metallic album in a decade and it still retains their trademark Thin Lizzy-esque blues rock swagger that they've spend the last few albums honing. This isn't their best album by any stretch, but that's also taking into account that they have at minimum four albums I'd score above 95% already. Basically this is the exact kind of thing that legacy bands should be doing in this day and age. Yeah they're a lot younger than Judas Priest or something, but New Organon is a great example of reaching back to a your roots without being a dry rehash of something you've already done. There is only one truly unworthy song on here, and the rest of it ranges from good to great. "Headhunter" and "New Organon" are easily right up there with any of their previous classic tracks, and "Uncanny", "Being and Nothingness", and "The Apology" are barely a hair behind.
RATING: 90%
No comments:
Post a Comment