[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 1951 through 2000 of 4057.

Newly reissued! The four guys in Sloan have always had distinct songwriting styles, but the differences seem much more pronounced on 1998's Navy Blues. And its not as even a split of songs between the four this time -- although there's plenty of tunes penned by Chris Murphy and Patrick Pentland (both solo and in tandem), this album disappointingly has only two Jay Ferguson songs, but surprisingly three written and one co-written by the usually more elusive Andrew Scott. The overall sound though is still very Beatles and Big Star influenced, but filtered through '70s freewheelin' rock. Chris Murphy conjures the glammy rock flamboyance of Kiss on the album's lead-off track "She Says What She Means". Jay Ferguson follows that up with a drastically contrast in the shape of his candy-hued perky number "C'mon C'mon", then Patrick Pentland tumbles right in between the two with "Iggy & Angus" complete with Thin Lizzy sounding guitars. Andrew Scott shifts the band's gears into a more 'grown-up' (Chicago-ish?) feel with funky keyboards and horns... and that's all in the span of the first four songs!

MPEG stream: C'mon C'mon (We're Gonna Get It Started)
MPEG stream: Money City Maniacs

Sloan continue their Canadian pop rock reign with Never Hear The End Of It. The whopping thirty songs long running time might seems a little excessive and overwhelming, but we're not complaining. They pace the album well and keep the energy and focus up-up-up from start to finish. They don't tire and neither will you! With each subsequent album, Chris, Patrick, Jay and Andrew somehow keep things both bright'n'fresh and comfortingly familiar. They get increasingly polished, but never to the point of slick. Their four distinct voices deliver the swoonworthy boyish harmonies and their dual guitar attack launches out the electrifying riffs, embedding irresistible hooks at every turn. Absolute power pop nirvana for sure! Soooo good!

MPEG stream: Flying High Again
MPEG stream: I've Gotta Try
MPEG stream: Someone I Can Be True With
MPEG stream: Ill Placed Trust

One of our favorite Sloan records EVER. Hell favorite records period. Not sure why this never got the sprawling gushing review it so richly deserves. We'll remedy that one of these days, but for now, buy this. You won't be sorry.

A new Sloan record is big news around these parts, especially since the two resident Pop freeks at aQ count Canada's Sloan among their all time pop favorites! But the interesting thing about Sloan, is that every record, bar one or two, are definitely growers. We talked about this in the review of Action Pact, about how somehow all of the past Sloan records are on such constant rotation, even years later, and the songs so firmly lodged in our heads and hearts, that a new record can't help but disappoint. At least at first. Like every Sloan record so far, all it took was a handful of listens, and suddenly Parallel Play slipped effortlessly into Sloan's pantheon of perfect pop. They have a sound that is so distinct, the voices, the harmonies, the sounds of the guitars. A good example was when we were driving the other day, flipped on the radio, and heard two seconds of crunchy guitar, and immediately, we thought "Why is Sloan on NPR?" And whadda you know? It was indeed them. And weirdly enough, hearing Parallel Play in that context, helped win us over as well. Even though these guys are so talented, and write such amazingly catchy songs, you still don't hear them on the radio. So hearing that sound, THAT sound, all we could think was what a revelation Sloan must be for someone who had never heard them. And so it remains. The sound incredibly varied, since the four members share songwriting duties, and thus vocal duties, and each of them can handle whatever instrument is left vacant, bass, guitars, piano, drums, after a while, Sloan fanatics definitely pick their favorites, but fuck it, they're all great, and Parallel Play is no different, right out of the gate, the band kick it off with the crunchy power pop anthem "Believe", a should-have-been hit single if we've ever heard one, and from there on out it's pure Sloan, a sound that could really be no one else, slipping from super bouncy pop, to stripped down rockers, to brooding ballads, and all the various stops in between. As good a place to start as any for Sloan newbies, but we'll always be partial to Twice Removed and One Chord To Another. Another fantastic record from one of our all time favorite pop groups EVER!!

MPEG stream: Believe In Me
MPEG stream: Witch's Wand
MPEG stream: I'm Not A Kid Anymore

It happens to me every time. I can't wait to get the new Sloan record. I excitedly throw it on when it finally arrives and... I hate it. Seriously, every time. Myabe hate is too strong a word. But I am definitely disappointed and seriously bummed. So I

RealAudio clip: The Life Of A Working Girl
RealAudio clip: In The Movies
RealAudio clip: The Other Man
RealAudio clip: I Love A Long Goodbye
RealAudio clip: Are You Giving Me Back My Love

Reissued 1993 debut from a fave band of ours! A brief synopsis of 'way back when': in grunge rock's heydays these then slightly grungey four Canadian lads got signed to Nirvana's label DGC. To put it mildly, back then their music butted heads with the grunge scene and with the label's expectations/demands, and continued to do so as time went on. Long story short, they got dropped from the label. Much to the chagrin of their non-Canadian fans and the misfortune of their potential new fans, this effectively putting a deadbolt on their stateside catalog... until now. Yes folks, it's time to restart you Sloan engines, and get 'em revvin' and rollin' all over again. This is *the* album which contains *the* stand-out song ("Underwhelmed") that started it all for these Canadian power pop/rock dynamos. The very Sonic Youth-y Smeared offers just a glimpse of the clever lyrical twists, fantastic pop hooks and harmonies that were to come.

MPEG stream: Underwhelmed

It's been years now that we've been singing the praises of Canada's Sloan, easily one of THEE best power pop bands EVER. And certainly one of Cup and Andee's favorite bands ever. And while we'd always suggest that Sloan newbies start with Smeared or Twice Removed or One Chord To Another, we'd absolutely stand behind each and every one of their records. And while we often find that some of 'em are slow growers, we realized that it might be because we're always anxiously waiting for a new Sloan record, and all that time we're listening to the one before it, until it becomes our favorite and so the cycle continues. This record though, is kinda crazy catchy right out of the gate, "Follow The Leader" is some seriously hook filled organ driven power pop, and immediately sticks in your head, fuzzy and jangly, with some cool unlikely instrumentation, and that immediately recognizable Sloan melodic sense, and it's also weird, beginning the record as they often do with some strange sonic something, whether it be a fake live audience, or a snippet of a different song, and here they even mess with the end of the song, starting what does in fact seem to be an entirely different song during the last 30 seconds, sounding totally melodically unrelated, until it sort of seems to tie back in, but instead it just becomes the next track, another killer catchy jam. String laden, super melodic, and again jangly and hooky as hell. And so it goes. Of the last few Sloan records this one is definitely the least in need of repeat listens to lodge itself in the pop center of your brain. If you're a fan you already own this. If you're not, but you've got a pop sweet tooth, give this a try, and for goodness sake, grab those other three Sloan records. Odds are you'll become obsessed, as most Sloan fans do, and need em all. We can only do so much proselytizing, needless to say, Sloan is one of the only bands whose records get played all the time by the popnerds around here, all their records, all the time, STILL. And we've been listening to this one like crazy since it came in. Which is really the best recommendation we can think of.

MPEG stream: Follow The Leader
MPEG stream: The Answer Was You
MPEG stream: Unkind
MPEG stream: Shadow Of Love

Yay! Yaaay! Finally the long-overdue domestic release of a bunch of albums by one of Andee and Cup's all-time fave Canadian pop bands... SLOAN! Yaaaaaaaaaay! Before the New Pornographers, before Arcade Fire, before Hot Hot Heat, before Godspeed You Black Emperor, Bassist Chris Murphy, drummer Andrew Scott, and dual guitarists Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland were rockin' and representin' for the land of the maple leaf! Twice Removed is by far Cup's favoritest album of theirs. She pretty much knows it by heart. So does Andee in fact! Perhaps you'll wanna get geekily acquainted too -- y'know, be able to distinguish a Chris song from an Andrew one or be able to recognize Jay's guitar playing from Patrick's? A general rule of thumb: the oft-falsetto-piped Murphy writes a lot of the more bombastic power pop songs such as the lead-off track "Penpals" which reportedly was based on a sneak peek at their former DGC labelmates Nirvana's fanmail, the angelic voiced Ferguson pens the peppier boyish pop tunes such as "Snowsuit Sound" (a definite album highlight if you had to single one out and maybe one of the greatest pop songs EVER!), bespectacled Pentland's contributes many of the slower heartfelt romantic numbers, and the drollest of the bunch Scott inserts a bit of slightly eccentric artiness. And that's not even taking into consideration how they support one another, fleshing out each song with great multi-part harmony backing vocals which elevate things to a whole 'nother level. Soooo good! With each of the four bandmembers contributing an equal share of the songwriting and singing, it's not difficult at all to imagine each of the fellows leading his own band, but fortunately for us they haven't 'cause of course their chemistry does add that significant intangible extra 'something'. While other bands frequently go through line-up changes with varying degrees of success, the founding foursome have stuck together for over a dozen years and maintained their high pop standard and their seemingly inexhaustible fountain of hooks that balances brains and balls. Ultra highly recommended, and if you disagree, well then you'll have to face the wrath of Cup (and Andee too)!

MPEG stream: Penpals
MPEG stream: Snowsuit Sound
MPEG stream: People Of The Sky

We love Riot Season. Easily one of our favorite labels, consistently delivering fucked up heavy weirdness, far out psychedelia, and pretty much every variation in between, Shit And Shine, Acid Mothers Temple, Aluk Todolo, Black Boned Angel, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Todd, Skull Defekts, Mainliner, Circle, Hey Colossus, Aufgehoben, most recently Ultraphallus, and now Sloath, who couldn't have found a more fitting home for their sprawling slo-mo downtuned doomage. The label mentions Sleep and Sabbath and Melvins and Earth (old Earth we presume), and while these guys do carry on the tradition of doomed out heaviness, it's also it's own warped beast. Three epic jams, super hypnotic and mesmerizing, the guitars massive, so distorted that at times it sounds like the speakers are getting fried, but it's also melodic, lumbering and moody and epic, the vocals, wordless and chantlike, the band locking into full on psychedoomdelic space jams, like some sort of ultra heavy Hawkwind, the tracks laced with streaks of feedback, occasionally getting super dynamic, slipping from lurching groove to Harvey Milk like extreme plod to woozy slowcore slither. The final track is a massive 22 minute epic, beginning all post rocky and lightly psychedelic, clean guitars, simple minimal rhythm, but still subtly doomy and heavy, the sort of thing that psych rock heavies should be flipping for, the vocals delivered like some psych doom shamen, and after about 9 minutes, the hammer falls, the guitars explode, even more distorted than before, the track building to a seriously majestic in-the-red space rock doom sludge blow out, wild psych leads draped over the churning Sabbathy swing underneath, totally heavy and epic and fucking incredible. This RULES. These guys are the perfect bridge between the doom/sludge scene and the space rock / psych world, two sounds that really aren't all that far removed from each other as they seen anyway� LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.

MPEG stream: Black Hole
MPEG stream: Cane Trader

It's really crazy how many little scenes there are all over the world, scenes that could very well remain hidden forever, so many bands, some insanely amazing bands, who are perfectly happy to just play shows locally, release cd-r's now and again, never to be heard outside their little circle. Some scenes are particularly rich, bursting at the scenes with kick ass groups that deserve to be heard by folks all over. One such scene that we've been particularly smitten with, is over in the UK, Leeds we think. Their most famous export, at least around aQ, is Like A Kind Of Matdor, who released their first, and only record posthumously on Andee's tUMULt label. A crushing slab of flute flecked accordion laced doom prog. Which leads us to the Slomatics, another incredibly heavy, crushing and pummeling doom behemoth, hailing from the very same scene, and due to have a split 12" with LAKOM come out someday. Their sound is slooooow and doooomy and heavy, but unlike the prog tendencies of their LAKOM scenemates, the Slomatics traffic in a sound more Melvins-y, more sludgey, think Grief, Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Harvey Milk, Electric Wizard at 16rpm, that sort of thing, but a bit more abstract, a little more spaced out, repetitive, the sound layered and dense, a bit psychedelic, but still at its core, heavy, brutal, slow and sludgy. There are some brief moments of off kilter mellowness, clean guitars, loping drums, but those moments don't last long, quickly obliterated by another wall of lurching, lumbering crush. Some of the heavy parts are laced with almost buried wailing leads, and the vocals are howled and heavily reverbed, but not of that really matters as much as the riffs, and the riffs here are amazing, downtuned, blown out crumbling and MASSIVE. Our favorite thing about the Slomatics besides their crushing heaviosity? The line in the liner notes that reads: "Middle-aged professionals by day, aggro-sludge losers by night"! Heavy, heavy, heavy, and so very recommended.

MPEG stream: Griefhound
MPEG stream: By Thor

We first discovered the doomlords known as Slomatics via another doomy combo, now defunct UK trio Like A Kind Of Matador, who released their only record on Andee's tUMULt label, and Slomatics definitely hit the spot, slow, crushing bruisers, downtuned and spaced out, heavy as fuck, and nothing has changed since then. On this limited split, they offer us 3 more slabs of lumbering ultracrush, a sound that falls somewhere between Harvey Milk, Like A Kind Of Matador and Electric Wizard. Churning riffage, howling vocals buried in the mix, big booming drums, all very druggy and hypnotic. The two shorter songs here get downright rocking, at least by Slomatics standards, slipping into a head banging 16rpm groove, that sounds a little like ZZ Top on thorazine, and a LOT like a less melodic, way meaner Torche. Definitely need more from these guys and SOON. Slomatics team up with an outfit called Selaah, who couldn't be more different, solo guitar, looped and cyclical, a bit like a lo-fi Riley or Reich piece played on distorted electric guitar. Super mantra like, and circular, the sound does eventually build to a Sunroof!-like ur-drone finale, before suddenly shifting into a cool shimmering shifty layered upper register dronescape, before gradually growing prettier and prettier, and simultaneously more and more faint. Cool stuff. And definitely a nice way to balance the extreme low end heaviness of the first three tracks. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Hand numbered...

MPEG stream: Superlab
MPEG stream: 17:36

The aptly-named UK dronedoom duo Slomo creep forth once more! These Julian Cope compatriots (the drude dude himself contributes a 30-second poetic spoken word coda to this album) also have given this disc a perfectly descriptive title, The Bog. Slomo's Chris "Holy" McGrail ("Moog Taurus, Sunn Mustang 6 string, clatter") and Howard Marsden ("Korg MS10 & MS20, hiss") exude and extrude one loooong 65 minute track of sinister yet soothing rumbling. This Bog is a fog of burbling electronics and feedback, naturally slow and low and quietly creepy. It's like gastric gurgling from the cathedraloid stomach of some cumbersome, slumbersome, subterranean behemoth. The droning sounds of what may be subtle cymbal shimmer combine with electronic textures from the duo's synths and guitars, sometimes smoothly soaring like underwater whale calls, whilst elsewhere developing into a much grittier, frying, throbbing buzz and crackle. Other gentle chimes and pulsations come in to play as well, layered throughout this mesmeric, mysterious disc, which we could liken to a milder SUNNO))), perhaps sleeping and snoring and drifting in dream. Certainly recommended. (By the way, we have just a few copies of a new cd-r in stock from Slomo member Holy McGrail in stock as well, his infamous plunderphonic Stooges tribute, Raw Power Suite, so please ask about it if you're interested.)

MPEG stream: "The Bog
MPEG stream: "The Bog

Could a band have a more perfect name? And an album a more perfect title? In this case, no. Slomo's The Creep is EXACTLY that. Creepy, creeping, slow motion music. One hour, one track, improvised and recorded live with minimal overdubs and "zero eye-contact" (it kinda sounds like it was recorded in total darkness, in fact). The ominous subterranean echoing seismic sounds of Slomo are the work of the UK's Chris McGrail and Howard Marsden. McGrail, as you might have guessed, is also the main guy behind heavy psych-dronesters Holy McGrail, whose Collecting Earthquakes was highlighted here last list. This heavy-lidded, cave-dwelling creature is a different, more somnolent beast, but if you liked that Holy McGrail disc we think you might like Slomo's The Creep too. It's something akin to a narcotized Earth or Black Boned Angel, but played with the spacious, quiet restraint of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. The crunchy feedback on offer is both spooky and soothing. Appropriately, the cd booklet contains an old rhyme on the subject of this duo's namesake, a folkloric character known as Slomo for his generally slow and slothful ways. The final line says of Slomo: "Whose detractors do call static... but whose champions call Ecstasis?" Clearly McGrail and Marsden are of hold to the latter opinion, as do we. This is a professional duplicated cd-r with quite lovely artwork, released in a limited edition of just 100 copies on Julian Cope's own cd-r label. We did get a bunch, but that's it, when they're gone we won't be able to get any more...so you'd better not be a Slomo yourself if you want one!

MPEG stream: "The Creep
MPEG stream: "The Creep

Sleepers, awake! Or rather, the opposite, as we herald the return of Yorkshire, England's Slomo, a "Highly Ritualised Somnambulant Glumbient Downer band" as they describe themselves - and we couldn't have come up with a better description ourselves ("Glumbient", that's great!). The duo of Chris McGrail (aka Holy McGrail, leader of another, eponymous heavy pagan drone psych unit) and Howard Marsden continue to live up to their band name with over 67 minutes of slow-motion doomdrone bliss on The Grain. Two tracks this time, unlike the one apiece that appeared on their previous albums The Creep (2005) and The Bog (2008), but of course both tracks here are loooong. McGrail is credited with "strings & reeds", Marsden with "machinery"; what we're hearing is a lot of synths and some guitar, but it all of course takes a while to come into focus, the opening title track, duration 42:15, being just about thee ultimate definition of a "slow-build" piece! At the start, it's as if the sounds are emerging from nothingness, the primordial soup of (near) silence. Gradually, subtly, slowly, creepily, they build and build, a deep tone, a drone, another drone, at first purring, then softly growling... the rumble becoming rhythmic over time, echoing, echoing, echoing... When finally recognizable, McGrail's guitar manifests as a gentle subterranean wind-howl, or subaquatic whale-call. The gritty synth machine drones are equally cavernous, and the entire effect, especially after you've experienced the lengthy build up to full mind-altering force, is massively mesmeric, and indeed rather "Glumbient", we agree! Then, track two, "Against The Grain", while shorter (only 25:17) somehow sounds even more stretched-out, the grain of the drones here even more, uh, "granular", with sudden clouds of creaking clicking, like field recordings of some strange bird or insect, drifting about the soundfield, backed by deeper dronier windier waves. It really is a bit like one of those environmental recordings from a pond, the faux-electronic sound of amplified water beetles, their buzz and glitch married to the guitar-leaning-on-amp whoosh of any one of our favorite dronescapers. Nice! Somehow spooky -and- soothing, simultaneously. Definitely recommended to all old-school SUNNO)))-worshippers, if you can imagine SUNNO))), as we stated in a previous Slomo review, "perhaps sleeping and snoring and drifting in dream". Other good references would be old Earth (circa 2), Bohren, Black Boned Angel, Jonathan Coleclough, and Slomo's fellow rural UK, J. Cope-approved dronesters Urthona, with a slight dose of Coh or Ryoji Ikeda in the drone-mix. These two have also been known to refer to themselves as playing "agricultural" doom, as they they're some sort of slowly spreading strain of fungal potato blight or something. But, here, maybe we can hear it - tall fields of wheat, waving and rustling in the autumn wind, those sounds slowed down and amplified, likewise with the chittering of insects living it up inside the grain silos - but still, they sound more like guitar 'n' synth wielding dronologists than they sound like that long-ago AQ fave cd, Insect Noise In Stored Foodstuffs... Slomo's latest sure gives this week's other Record Of The Week honoree, Kompakt's new Pop Ambient comp, a run for its money as ideal going-to-sleep music - and none of the Pop Ambient tracks are this long, either, ever!! Coming packaged in an attractive, slender digi-sleeve, it's been worth the four year wait (with Slomo, naturally not unexpected), for this new dose of the duo's somnolent dronedoom. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: The Grain (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: The Grain (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: Against The Grain

2nd album. AQ-fave mc Sensational guest raps on one track. Definitely for fans of Spectre and the dark, dubby, bass-heavy WordSound "sound" in general.

Some of you probably already know Sloth, a mysterious band of Midwestern sludgelords who in the past shared splits with folks like Corrupted, Grief, Upsidedown Cross, Floor, Noothgrush and Grief, and sonically, these guys were a pretty perfect fit amidst such illustrious company, but even back in the day, the sound of Sloth was a bit cracked, a bit demented, hints of some serious psychosis lurking beneath their lurching, downtuned exterior. Surprisingly, this is their first full length EVER, but maybe not so surprisingly, given a whole cd to stretch out on, the weirdness factor is through the roof. This is most definitely not a proper sludge record, although there are some seriously sludge-y moments. There's also lots of weirdo rock, a bit of classic sounding grunge, some Amrep style postpunk noise, some cracked pop, and some seriously what-the-fuck sonic action all over the place. It sounds a bit like a musical clusterfuck, and it sort of is, but in a good way, and all those disparate sounds sort of fitting together, like some musical Frankenstein's monster. Not to mention, as the title suggests, the record is split into 13 songs and 13 samples, with each sample, some as short as 4 seconds getting their own track. So yeah, even with such an amazing sludge pedigree, we're not sure we would necessarily recommend this to those looking for something like Corrupted, Moss, Bunkur and the like. A Whole Other World Of Fun is more for folks who like their music, heavy, difficult, troublesome, confusional and very very very fucked up. Just have a listen to the sound samples and maybe it will start to make sense. Probably not though... The record opens with some grungy redneck punk rock, somewhere between Scissorfight and Fucked Up, but with some killer riffing, some weird death metal grunts, and some awesome post rock-y breakdowns. The rest of the tracks are really all over the place, from creeping Slintish mathrock (complete with spoken word vocals) and a twisted howled banshee like chorus, to a super blown out space rock groove, with an ultra distorted riff, some bizarre vocals, and some haunting keyboards making it weirdly propulsive and a bit krauty, to a sea shanty forest folk sing along, to killer lo-fi buzzing indie rock, plodding primitive black metal and every stop in between. The only truly sludge-y track is "Pike Flower Shop", a lurching, stumbling ultradirge, but even then, it's peppered with weird electric organs, raspy vocals, and fucked up production. There's also a bit of a Ween vibe throughout the whole disc, that is if Ween were some sort of weirdo power violence band. The record ends with a murky bass and drums plod, run through with buried in the mix group vocals, occasionally interrupted by a feral death metal howl, twice as loud as the rest of the music. Fucked up for sure, bizarre, but pretty damn cool. Which basically describes the whole record. Way recommended, but only for folks with a twisted sense of humor and a taste for heavy, all-over-the-map weirdness.

MPEG stream: The Wooleybear Looked At You?
MPEG stream: A Night At The Park
MPEG stream: UFO Zombies
MPEG stream: Lagoons

Crushing and crusty Sabbath-y doom from the label that brought you Electric Wizard and Roachpowder. Maybe not as earth shattering as those, but definitely worth checking out if you dig that sort of thing.

Underground hometown heavy metal heroes Slough Feg, aka The Lord Weird Slough Feg are back on the attack with this new album, their seventh (not counting their most recent release, the demos/live collection The Slay Stack Grows, reviewed here not long ago). You may recall us raving about several (all!) of their previous efforts, though in our review of Slay Stack, we did say that one was pretty much intended for fans only, not the place to start if you were new to the band. But, if you're someone who still hasn't checked out a proper Slough Feg album, well THIS one would certainly be recommended. And Slough Feg fans who loved their last studio record, Hardworlder, will find Ape Uprising! takes that sound and, well, goes a bit ape with it. Some have called this their heaviest album yet. We'd say, yes, maybe, due to certain doom elements and the thick, '70s sounding production with prominent bass. But it's also perhaps their poppiest! At a tight 37 and a half minutes it brilliantly synthesizes all the best of the band's '70s and '80s classic metal and hard rock influences (Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, etc. - nothing past, say, 1982) whilst also sounding like something only THIS eccentric band of nerd barbarians could or would ever record. Utter heavy metal zeal unleashed via massively heavy, awesome riffage, triumphant vocals, memorable melodies, and twin guitar shred EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME. Yes! For an example of said awesome riffage, look no further than the start of the 10-minute-plus title track. And for an example of the latter, try the dazzling midpoint of "Ape Outro". Or just drop the needle (well, laser for now) on this anyplace! All that plus intelligent, ironic lyrics that make mention of opposable thumbs. It's not exactly a Planet Of The Apes concept album, but it's close... half of the eight songs here have to do with the apes vs. humans theme (as ridiculously depicted in the wonderfully comic book-y cover art, that kinda makes this look like a punk rock album). And those four songs make it pretty clear that Slough Feg are on the side of the apes. Charleton Heston would not approve. In the progtastic "Simian Manifesto", a song full of over the top Queen-like drama, sudden stoner rock groove, and even some jangly placid pop parts, Mike says it best with the immortal lines: "Never coming down from the trees / Never bending down on my knees!" So, we've made it pretty plain we dig Slough Feg and always do our utmost to spread the word - we even had 'em play and slay our SXSW showcase this year. It used to be that Allan here considered himself to be probably the world's #1 Slough Feg fan, but now that honor might go to the guy in Idaho who got a portrait of Mike Scalzi tattooed on his leg! (Seriously, we've seen a photo.) Yep, these days the band has made enough of a name for themselves, that it's not just Aquarius going apeshit for 'em anymore, when we used to be the only place that cared. On the internet, you'll find quite a few reviews of Ape Uprising! already out there in advance of ours, almost all of 'em insanely positive ('cause when you like this band, you really like this band). Even All Music Guide, not exactly a bastion of heavy metal fandom, beat us to it, giving Ape Uprising! a four-and-a-half out of 5 star rating. So, while quite obviously we're always excited when Mike and the gang have a new album out, we're also always a bit apprehensive about being able to do their weird genius justice in our reviews. So this time around, we asked AQ customer Glenn Simpson, a known Slough Feg fan, and also the guy who first turned us on to those '70s heavies Jerusalem that we later made Record Of The Week when it was reissued, to shoulder a bit of the burden and write some more for us about Slough Feg's new album. He was nice enough to give it a shot, so let's turn this over to him: "I want to start by saying that I'm not sure what this review can really accomplish. If you're a fan of Slough Feg, you automatically want their new album, right? If you're not a fan, I don't know what to say to change your mind that Aquarius hasn't already said in reviews of previous albums. But here goes. Ape Uprising! is more of everything that makes Slough Feg one of the best metal bands on the planet. At once familiar and fresh, this new album carries on musical and lyrical motifs that are distinctly Feg-ian, while simultaneously developing its own clear identity. This trait runs throughout the band's discography. There is an unmistakable Slough Feg sound, yet a song from one album would seem out of place on any other album. One of this album's compositional quirks: in the past, Slough Feg records have usually included a few instrumentals. This one doesn't, but several of the songs basically turn into instrumentals halfway through. Scalzi gets the singing out of the way, and then he and fellow guitarist Don Angelo Tringali go to town on their Les Pauls. Maybe that's by way of indicating that the (non-verbal) apes have taken over? Though it happens in several of the non-apey songs as well. Some early reviews of Ape Uprising have deemed it one of the band's heavier albums. With the acknowledgment that "heavy" means different things to different people, I would say instead, I was struck by overall how energetic and frenetic much of this is, displaying attitude which maybe makes sense given the concept implied by the album's title. About half of the tracks on Ape Uprising! share a sort of punk aggressiveness. You'll hear a little more chug in the guitars, a little more gruffness in the singing, and a little more thud in the drums than on the band's galloping and epic sci-fi opus Traveller�(2003), for instance. While I would not come anywhere near calling this Slough Feg's "punk" album, I would say they've scaled back the Thin Lizzy a wee bit and inserted some Stiff Little Fingers - or at least some Motorhead. But maybe that's just me. Also, a few parts of Ape Uprising! expand on the near boogie rock element that cropped up first on Atavism (2005) and then on Hardworlder (2007). This album's "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues" is I guess the NWOBHMish hot rocking ripper "Shakedown At The Six", complete with brief drum solo breakdown. However, Slough Feg also haven't lost their Celtic folk touch, which you'll most prominently in the majestically stirring "White Cousin", with lovely acoustic guitars woven in. Really, its mishmash of influences from the 1970s makes Ape Uprising! sound somewhat timeless. I'll say a little bit about my two favorite songs. (So far.) The biggest surprise on the new album is the first track. Where the previous three Slough Feg albums began with short fast instrumentals, Ape Uprising! throws fans for a loop by opening with a straight-up old-school doom track, a blown out, slowed down, heavier-than-thou dirge entitled, either cleverly or not, "The Hunchback of Notre Doom"! It turns out Slough Feg does doom that is both traditional AND original as well as they do 'true metal' that is both of those things. It also turns out that Mike Scalzi's rich, expressive vocals are surprisingly well suited to doom. Stunning. (This track alone could account for the heaviness ascribed to the entire album by some reviewers.) Slough Feg have dabbled in doom before, in parts (such as Traveller's "Vargr Moon") but never taken it to this extreme. It sounds like Saint Vitus, if Vitus were more influenced by Dio-era than Ozzy-era Black Sabbath [although, we are reliably informed that the other, equally bad pun the band thought up to call this song was "Ozzymodo"]. Doom freaks would probably be happy if the whole album sounded like this, but Mike Scalzi (who admittedly suffers from attention deficit disorder) sure wouldn't. Thus the rest of Ape Uprising! surges with a variety of Slough Feg songwriting stratagems. For example, my other favorite song is the final track, the surprisingly poppy but also totally rockin' "Nasty Hero", which sounds so authentically traditional metal that I was certain it was a cover and spent more than a few minutes trying to figure out what brilliant, obscure '70s metal band wrote and recorded it. To my amazement, it's a Slough Feg original. If a young Iron Maiden jammed with a veteran UFO in 1979, they could not do better than this! I wish I didn't have to wait two years between Slough Feg albums." Us too! By the way, this IS gonna be coming out on vinyl, there's an slightly-delayed, limited edition European import of which we'll be getting a just a few, so let us know if you want the wax and we'll try to reserve a copy for you.

MPEG stream: Ape Uprising
MPEG stream: Simian Manifesto
MPEG stream: Shakedown At The Six
MPEG stream: Nasty Hero

Cavemen on the cover, and a title referring to being a throwback to an earlier era? Stentorian vocals? Powerful riffage? Philosophical concepts? Fleet-fingered guitar godliness? Heavy and hyper, loud and proud, leatherclad heavy metal with all sorts of unexpected twists, music from a band that is perfectly willing to be both silly -and- serious and utterly, un-ironically blur those distinctions? Yes! It must be...it is! A new album from The Lord Weird Slough Feg! (Or just plain Slough Feg this time around, it seems. But they're still plenty weird, lord are they...) We've been singing the praises of this San Francisco heavy metal band for a few years now, so with the release of Atavism, their fifth full-length, I think we can assume that a lot of AQ-list-readers are perhaps already familiar with these guys, and maybe even devoted fans! So perhaps we needn't delve into the usual introductory description of the 'Feg (which would include the following: eccentric, epic, riff-tastic '70s and '80s lovin' heavy metal with a twin guitar attack that owes a lot to Iron Maiden, specifically Maiden's early Di'Anno era circa Killers). Instead we can say, first off, buy this! It's the new Slough Feg fer chrissakes. And it's freaking great -- could be their best yet, up there with Down Among The Deadmen anyway. Heck it's hard to pick a favorite record of theirs, but this one for sure has got all the insane guitar leads, dramatic vocals, exquisite harmonies, triumphal cadences, folky motifs, complex arrangements, and pulse-racing head-banging METAL you've come to expect from these guys. Epic as they are, Slough Feg are also never ones for trying their listener's attention spans -- or their own. So all kinds of awesome riffs and ideas get artfully arranged into lean, mean tracks, all muscle, no flab. Indeed, Atavism clocks in at a concise 38 minutes, with several of the fourteen tracks, like "Robusto" and "Portcullis", being relatively brief (but action-packed) instrumental interludes. Their previous album, 2003's Traveller, was limited somewhat by the strictures of being a concept album, and Slough Feg seems more suited to a free-wheeling fandango like Atavism, that can range through time and space and rock out however and whenever it wants, allowing a song like the majestic "High Season V" to immediately segue into the '70s boogie-groove of "Starport Blues" (the lyrics of which make reference to Devo's Smart Patrol)... Likewise, the Thin Lizzyish "Hiberno-Latin Invasion" sits here comfortably next to an instrumental workout like "Climax Of A Generation", a track quite possibly inspired by Greg Ginn's Gone. Not to mention the declamatory acoustic introspection of "Atavism" or the doomy Homeric epic "Eumaneus The Swineherd" or the rollicking and defiant "I Will Kill You/You Will Die", etc. etc... all of 'em tightly and energetically interlocking, like they do it live. Delightfully prog one moment, headbangingly metallic the next, then suddenly off on a bluegrass-inspired tangent... from stuff that sounds like Slayer to stuff that sounds like show tunes, they are sworn to no rules, yet everything they do is unmistakably Slough Feg -- in large part to the larger-than-life vocal presence and unique style of singer/guitarist Mike Scalzi, whose baritone delivery has been accurately described by another reviewer as "like a warcry -- a lament and an oath all rolled in one". Hammers Of Misfortune fans know him too, but here in his own band he gets to fully unleash his vision of heroic, hectic metal madness. Not too long ago we listed a 7" on which Slough Feg covered an obscure NWOBHM song called "Heavy Metal Rules". So true. And they've followed that up with Atavism to really prove the point! Heavy metal does indeed rule, and bands like Slough Feg (of which there aren't all that many!) are the reason why.

MPEG stream: Agnostic Grunt
MPEG stream: I Will Kill You/You Will Die
MPEG stream: Climax Of A Generation

San Francisco heavy metallists Slough Feg (aka The Lord Weird Slough Feg), led by vocalist/guitarist Mike Scalzi, have built up a deserved cult following over the years, whom we guarantee will NOT be disappointed with the contents of their latest epic, eccentric metal opus Hardworlder, their sixth full-length album. Indeed, Slough Feg's fans should be quite thrilled. And with luck Hardworlder will recruit some new devotees to the cult of 'Feg as well, they deserve it 'cause nobody but nobody makes albums with this sort of peculiar panache anymore these days. Not since the '80s, or even the '70s, from whence the guitars of Hardworlder seem to hail, and there's a heckuva lot of guitar here... memorable riffs and virtuoso solos and Maiden-ized twin axe harmonies... guitars guitars guitars! It's evident that Slough Feg's latest revised lineup (which features a change of drummer, and "Don" Angelo Tringali of cult doomsters Cold Mourning replacing Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett on second lead guitar) has if anything only enhanced the "guitariness" of this band, as if that was imaginable. The Scalzi/Tringali dual guitar teamwork is phenomenal, and both guys peel off leads left and right, not just to impress with the notes they can play but because they simply can't contain their love for the raw beauty that can flow from fully cranked Gibson Les Pauls. They've got the power, and the responsibility, to play like they've taken up the torch of every great heavy metal band from the '70s and the '80s that's fallen by the wayside... This album's title is a word they coined themselves, referring to the idea of a space-travelling adventurer bumming around on a rough planet in a bad part of the galaxy, a loner toughened by life on a "hard world" -- typified by Gully Foyle, the protagonist of sci-fi author Alfred Bester's 1956 classic The Stars My Destination (read it sez Allan and Andee!!). A book and character which provides the inspiration for the track "Tiger! Tiger!" as well as for the Kirby-esque comic-book illustration that graces this album's cover. Interestingly, if you Google "Hardworlder", you'll find that Slough Feg managed to come up with a term that ONLY exists in connection with this album. You'll find their website, their MySpace page, their Wikipedia page, the review of Hardworlder in last week's Village Voice (yes, strangely enough, right next to the new Pharoahe Monch and Smashing Pumpkins -- how'd that happen??? The Village Voice says, "Badass sci-fi metal that it's finally cool to listen to"...we've been telling folks that for years...). You might also run across someone else's MySpace page, who goes by the handle Hardworlder -- but it turns out it belongs to an Australian university student who's a huge Slough Feg fanatic. He's gonna be happy when he hears this! The album's opening one-two punch is hard to beat: the relentless build-up of adrenaline instrumental "The Return Of Dr. Universe" which leads us breathless into the impactful majesty of "Tiger! Tiger!", destined to be considered an instant classic in the Slough Feg canon we're sure! But the rest of the album is up to that mighty task -- the majesty continues with midtempo maritime lament "The Sea Wolf", and thence through to the doomy riffs of the album's title track, and onward... Hardworlder seems to possess an anthemic, sweeping, saddened grandeur, a more uniform overall feel than its shorter and more schizo predecessor Atavism, although you'll find that Slough Feg sashay down all the (un)usual skyways and byways you might expect from them. The manly, melodic doom-paced epics coexist here with rollicking '70s styled hard rockers (such as "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues", obviously a nod to Atavism's equally boogie-riffed "Starport Blues"). "Insomnia" starts off Thin Lizzyish to the max, but halfway through the band rides into the Halls Of Manowar, and a wordless Viking chorus rings out... The galloping requiem of the psychological tragedy "Poisoned Treasures" (reprised from their split 7" with Bible Of The Devil) will get stuck in your head, as will much more on this impossibly catchy album... And one of our favorite tracks here is the lengthy show-stopping instrumental "Galactic Nomad", with an almost-Allmans level of gorgeous guitar interplay, that could illicit a "we're not worthy" from The Fucking Champs themselves. And while Hardworlder's obviously working the science fiction angle that proved popular for 'em on their concept album Traveller, it also serves up ye olde Celtic folk in the Slough Feg tradition -- in fact, one of the two (2) cover songs here is a version of "Dearg Doom" by '70s Irish folk-rockers Horslips. The other cover is "Street Jammer", originally by '80s American epic metal weirdists Manilla Road. Both are tributes to Slough Feg's influences in a general, not specific sense, since we happen to know that they'd never heard either band until years and years after Slough Feg's inception. Speaking of influences, if you listen close to "Street Jammer" you'll hear some Chuck Berry licks thrown in not found on the original... and we'll also note that Slough Feg deliberately selected an early Manilla Road song, that's a lot more hot rockin' than what people usually think of in connection with that band. Further, while we're usually more into covers that DON'T sound so much like the originals, in the case of these two songs it's OK that they do since a) they're pretty obscure and b) both still totally sound like Slough Feg could have written them. Ok, we're rambling, and you get the idea... Hardworlder is another ripping masterwork from a band that will either dominate your metal-addled mind, or you just won't get. We hope you do. 'Nuff said.

MPEG stream: Tiger! Tiger!
MPEG stream: Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues
MPEG stream: Dearg Doom

We thought WE were big fans of San Francisco's most (bizarre) metal export, The Lord Weird Slough Feg... turns out there's a record store, Megadisc, in Poland, who are even bigger fans. This past summer they arranged for Slough Feg to fly to Warsaw and perform a show (just them - no opening acts!), to be professionally recorded for posterity, in the form of this "official live cd" from Slough Feg, the first ever release on Megadisc's new record label. Basically, this is a release for equally obsessed fans. You probably already know if you're interested in owning this! But, if you want some more info... there's 13 tracks here, over 70 minutes of delirious riffery and epic shred. All of Slough Feg's eight studio albums from 1996-2010, with the odd exception of Atavism, are represented, with a song or three. They do "Red Branch" from the self-titled debut, "Highlander" from Twilight Of The Idols, "Sky Chariots", "Warriors Dawn", and "Traders And Gunboats" from Down Among The Deadmen, "High Passage/Low Passage" from Traveller, "Tiger! Tiger!" and "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues" from Hardworlder, "Ape Uprising" and "Shakedown At The Six" from Ape Uprising, and "The 95 Thesis", "Lycanthropic Fantasies", and "Free Market Barbarian" from their most recent record, The Animal Spirits. Great songs, all of 'em. It's a good sampler for those you haven't heard all of Slough Feg's records, and it's cool to hear their earlier stuff done by the current (and, we think, best) lineup. Plus, for their finale, they do a crazed cover of Thin Lizzy's "Sha-la-la", which they had only previously recorded on a split 7" with Bible Of The Devil. The recording quality is indeed pretty excellent, but the disc sure still sounds "raw", 'cause that's the way the BAND sounds, and oftentimes just a bit sloppy, not that it's easy to play this stuff anyhow. As Slough Feg's mastermind, singer/guitarist Mike Scalzi states in the liner notes, and in fact takes pains to point out, they definitely didn't do any overdubs afterwards - this is a legit live document, not faked or doctored in any way. No flubs fixed, that means. And there are a few, definitely some fleeting fuckups, but most of the time the band is in fine form and certainly full of frenzied energy! Scalzi's vocals vary a bit from "on" to otherwise, as well. But heck, he's playing guitar too, and running around, and apparently operating on very little if any sleep... And as any fan would expect, his in-between song stage banter is inadvertently (or perhaps advertently?) hilarious, full of typical Scalzi non-sequiturs that probably puzzled the polite yet enthusiastic Polish audience. Scalzi sounds a bit bemused and abashed by the strangeness of the situation. "Metal night is no time to be polite." If you've never seen Slough Feg, this won't exactly substitute, you'd be missing the full Feg experience, for one thing you don't get to see Scalzi's acrobatic antics and how he interacts with the audience (and we get the idea that this particular show wasn't as wild in that regard as some). But, you do get to hear how they, in the tradition of old style '70s bands, like to extend and jam out on some of their songs in concert, for instance the guitar soloing duel the two guitarists get into in the midst of the 12+ minutes of "Warriors Dawn", which definitely gets a bit wacky... Comes with a huge 28 page cd booklet full of color photos of Slough Feg on stage in Warsaw, and also being tourists about the city, seeing the sights, eating ice cream, shopping at the Megadisc store, etc. Supposedly also soon to be released on vinyl, but we don't know about that for sure.

MPEG stream: Ape Uprising
MPEG stream: Warriors Dawn
MPEG stream: Sky Chariots

Huzzah! San Francisco's idiosyncratic old school metal masters Slough Feg are back with a new record, already! We made their previous album, 2009's Ape Uprising, a Record Of The Week, and wrote, like, thousands of words about it. So we'll be a bit briefer here, whilst still giving this our highest recommendation. If you liked it when they Aped it Up, then you know what you're in for on The Animal Spirits. Kinda... Slough Feg already did an album called Atavism, but THIS is their most atavistic yet. Their most '70s rock. (Heck, most Broadway too.) In part, heavy, ripping, raw. In part, majestically melodic. So very melodic, and often major-key, almost pop instead of metal. But not "pop-metal", no not that. And always, always, eccentric. Also epic, can't forget epic, though none of the songs are even over 5 minutes long. Speaking of epics, what metal band would do a song about somebody named Thor, on an ocean voyage, and have it NOT be about Vikings? Slough Feg, naturally, with this album's "Kon-Tiki", about Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's daring raft expedition across the Pacific in 1947. Another unusual, historical number is "The 95 Thesis", about Martin Luther and the Reformation, maybe the only metal song on that subject and certainly the only one to features the lines "Some hide in sophistry but you had the balls / to nail your thesis to the cathedral wall", as it's not so much about religious history as it is about someone being a badass. So, perhaps even moreso than on other Slough Feg albums, expect the unexpected. Like the crude but cool b&w artwork, for instance, drawn by the band's vocalist/guitarist/mastermind Mike Scalzi himself. Or the Alan Parsons Project (!) cover they do, "The Tell-Tale Heart", which utterly sounds like a Slough Feg tune, Scalzi totally owning the vocal part originally sung by none other than Arthur "I Am The God Of Hellfire" Brown on the 1976 original. It's also perhaps unexpected that this record would be released on cult avant blackened doom label Profound Lore (though they've lately been signing a lot of the Bay Area underground's best, it seems). Sure, PL has put out some somewhat "trad" metal before, like the last Hammers Of Misfortune double disc and the recent, recommended Dawnbringer opus, but this still has to be the weirdest release on Profound Lore ever... who, by the way, claim that Slough Feg are America's most important heavy metal band of the past 20 years! Over those years, especially with their current lineup, Slough Feg certainly have earned a reputation as an incredible live act, really you won't see too many more impressive or entertaining performances from a metal band, or any band, these days. They're a band that rejoices in being on stage, that revels in the skill they possess and the power they wield, and they capture that spirit and energy and showmanship and sense of abandon with these new songs for sure. The Animal Spirits is lively, dare we say playful. Sometimes cryptically, cleverly humorous. Bold and brash and totally unselfconscious. So they can do rockin' tracks like the frantic boogie of opener "Trick The Vicar", or the thrashy closer "Tactical Air-War" (which features special guest vocalist, Bobbie Wright of another San Fran metal cult, Brocas Helm!!), and in between find room for a few numbers that are closer to musical theater, though still quite heavy. We've talked about the unexpected, the other hand, you CAN of course expect plenty of guitar harmonies, shredding leads, bombastic vocals, and memorable riffs... they still sound 100 percent like Slough Feg (and thus a bit like Maiden, a bit like Priest, a bit like Sabbath, and a bit like Thin Lizzy). If you've ever said, nobody makes music like that anymore, well Slough Feg do. But they're original about it too. Oh, and good thing they released this in time for Halloween, as there's songs about both vampires and werewolves on here. The latter, live stand out "Lycanthropic Fantasies", is a show stopper on stage, and one of this disc's best as well. The former, "Ask The Casket", is a ridiculously melodic dirge inspired by the cult '60s TV gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows. Another of our favorite tracks is "Second Coming", which starts off acoustically, and features one of Scalzi's most emotive and heartfelt vocal performances, as well as (more) gorgeous twin lead guitarwork... like Slough Feg's earlier "The Sea Wolf", it's a song inspired by writer Jack London, but maybe 'cause the lyrics make reference to San Francisco, it seems like Scalzi's really singing about himself here, somehow. Finally, by the way, unlike Ape Uprising, which did have a song or two about apes, The Animal Spirits is NOT about animals (or spirits). The title refers to an archaic philosophical concept that Scalzi finds amusing, and we don't think pertains to the content of any of the songs on here.

MPEG stream: The 95 Thesis
MPEG stream: Lycanthropic Fantasies
MPEG stream: Ask The Casket
MPEG stream: Free Market Barbarian

First off: amazing drumming on this new album from San Francisco's Slough Feg - nimble, energetic, imaginative!! Ok, maybe we're prejudiced since their drummer Harry now works here at aQ, and besides we've been friends/fans of this cult metal band for years and years. But still, nice job Harry! Those fills, yeah. We're not kidding. Though we are trying to embarrass Harry a bit... Digital Resistance, Slough Feg's first full-length for big league label Metal Blade, finally follows up 2010's The Animal Spirits (on Profound Lore) with another lively and dramatic, vintage-analog sounding assortment of prog-influenced, super catchy heavy metal / hard rock weirdness, mixing Thin Lizzy & Iron Maiden style guitar harmonies, Celtic folk melodies, nimble drumming (like we said!), equally nimble guitar soloing, proggy keyboards (at least, on amazingly titled opener "Analogue Avengers/Bertrand Russell's Sex Den", a schizoid, especially bombastic track that sounds more like a crazed version of Slough Feg's sister band Hammers Of Misfortune than anything else, and is the most anomalous cut on a diverse disc), and more! This album is perhaps Slough Feg's most 'mature' sounding, with lyrics alluding to getting older in a changing (digital) world, and some mellower moments with acoustic guitars mixed in amidst the rippin' majesty. But they stick to their old school guns, and do it in style, and stay as eccentric and awesome and entertaining as ever. And you just can't argue with the riffs in such killer cuts as "Magic Hooligan" and "Laser Enforcer"! The unique warrior-philosopher-bard persona of mainman Mike Scalzi (vocals, lyrics, riffs) comes through loud and clear as well. Heck don't just take it from us, this album got a 8.1 on Pitchfork, believe it or not (apparently the end times are here - Slough Feg reviewed by Pitchfork??!). It's hard not to go on and on like we've done in many previous Slough Feg reviews, to talk more about favorite cuts like the "The Price Is Nice" (inspired by watching Vincent Price movies on late-night TV) and "Warrior's Dusk" (which seemingly starts off in a typical epic mode of Celtic mythology but turns out to be a more personal lament about growing up), but rather than indulge ourselves and our fellow Feg-nerds we'll pretty much leave it at, totally recommended - as per usual! It's true, that for those of you who find 2001's power metal space opera Traveller to be the be-all and end-all of the Slough Feg canon, then this album isn't going to top that one, that's not where their heads are at these days. But if, like us, you've been a fan through Atavism and Hardworlder and Ape Uprising! and The Animal Spirits, if you've always been digging Slough Feg's idiosyncratic, playful, seventies-inspired take on what "metal" is and can be, doing whatever suits their fancy, then Digital Resistance should be to your liking, a little weirder in some ways, a little poppier in others, definitely Slough-Feg-sounding (and sounding great, production-wise, too!). FYI, this is the domestic cd, but we'll also be getting import vinyl soon too.

MPEG stream: Digital Resistance
MPEG stream: Magic Hooligan
MPEG stream: Warrior's Dusk

Striking another blow for true metal, which as we all know belongs on vinyl, collectable vinyl at that (says Allan, who does not own a record player), our favorite San Francisco heavy metallers (featuring members of Hammers of Misfortune, don't forget) San Francisco's epic metal geniuses unleash their third opus. Sheer heavy metal mastery. Damn! If you like some real, melodic heavy metal once and while (instead of the "brutality" and "evil" of that ol' black metal/death metal stuff we love too) the way they used to do it back in the '70s and '80s, with all the crazy fantasy lyrics and shredding dual lead guitar solos you can handle, then you need to hear these guys. This is their best yet, really, with better production than their previous disc, "Twilight Of The Idols", but with equally wicked songs. This band is usually described as a mixture of Maiden, Lizzy, and Sabbath... That's true, they're all that, and not in just a wanna-be, "those are our influences" kinda way either -- 'cause after listening to "Down Among The Deadmen" you could imagine Slough Feg getting in the wayback machine and sharing the stage with any of 'em at Castle Donnington and holding their own just fine! This is one of the only bands I know of where the musicians started as punk/rockers but realized that instrumental virtuosity and compositional craft characteristic of their childhood/teenage metal heroes WERE valuable and could be put to non-ironic, non-lame use. And were talented enough to do it. So, inspired by the past they are, but they're also their own weird thing, a cult act if there ever was one. With songs about Roger Corman movies ("Death Machine" is based on motorcycles-in-the-future David Carridine flick "Death Sport"), fantasy Celtic mythology (the "Heavy Metal Monk/Fergus Mac Roich/Cauldron Of Blood" tryptych) and the classic science fiction roleplaying game Traveller ("Traders & Gunboats"), with Mike's decidely unordinary (but great) deepvoiced vocal majesty, and the plethora of amazing RIFFS, these guys rule! For those who need an obscure indie/metal reference, it's kind of like The Champs meet Cirith Ungol or something; bizarre, epic, baroque, proud, a bit silly, masterful, very metal. So worthy of the delightful cover painting by cult D&D illustrator Erol Otus. The true heavy metal record of the year. Unbelievable!

RealAudio clip: Death Machine
RealAudio clip: Walls Of Shame
RealAudio clip: Warriors Dawn

Attention all headbanging nerds!! Look out, here's a brand new song from San Francisco's weird metal lords Slough Feg, a propulsive sci-fi themed rocker entitled "Laser Enforcer", sounding, especially in this rough-and-tumble demo version, a heck of a lot like some long lost NWOBHM single. We've heard it played live as well, it's a good one! It's slated to appear, in re-recorded form, on their upcoming studio album Digital Resistance, due out sometime next year on Metal Blade, but why wait? This raw rendition was originally intended for a split with cult Canadian doomsters Funeral Circle, but somehow that fell through, so here it is, self-released by the band on 7" vinyl, and paired instead with another, older recording from their vaults. We're especially taken with the groovy instrumental breakdown, with brief drum break and chicken scratch guitar pattern, that happens at about the 1:30 mark of "Laser Enforcer" and then recurs again a bit later on, both times segueing into emotive twin guitar leads, with lots of zip-zip-zap-zap sound FX swirling 'round. Elsewhere, the superbly melodic verse/chorus vocal parts find Slough Feg mainman Mike Scalzi's distinctive tenor in fine form, as he tells you the fantastical facts about what metaphysical effects his regime of laser enforcement will bring about. Despite the song's driving groove, it also has a sort of moody, melancholy vibe to it, interestingly enough. Definitely makes us look forward to the upcoming album, as if we weren't already. Then, for something completely different, the B side, from a previously unreleased 4-track recording that dates back to the Atavism era, is a Government Issue cover! Yep, the '80s DC hardcore band. Slough Feg do a dead-on job with their raging version of GI's "Blending In" from the 1984 album Joyride. It's a nod to Scalzi and fellow Slough Feg guitarist Angelo Tringali's roots in the punk scene back then; after all they've always cited the likes of Black Flag as an influence alongside Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy. Limited to 500 copies.

Stop right there. FANS ONLY past this point. We're serious. Fortunately, we know that these heavy metal eccentrics have enthusiastic fans (as this release proves). Slough Feg have become one of those love 'em or hate 'em cult bands, where if you like 'em at all, you probably like 'em A LOT. Those of you for whom that's true, you just might be very interested in this double cd archival collection of, as the subtitle says, "Early Demos and Live Recordings". Meant to look a bit like a bootleg (since the band certainly doesn't want anyone to mistake this for a NEW Slough Feg album), it compiles obscure old recordings that many of Slough Feg's most dedicated followers haven't even heard. This stuff's from way, way down deep in the vaults. Be warned, though, the sound quality can be, in a word, rough. Shitty, even. Like we said, for fans only. If you're not already a 'Feg fan, but curious about these weird, Iron Maiden-y San Franciscan metal masters, may we suggest checking out their most recent opus Hardworlder (reviewed elsewhere on our site, along with all their other albums) and going from there? Ok, with that caveat emptor out of the way, we tell you true fans more about what you're gonna find here. Two discs' worth of Slough Feg history, going all the way back to the band's debut DIY demo cassette recording from the summer of 1990. That's what disc one starts with, the nine tracks of "The White Tape" (so called because the cassette they used for the master was white). The, er, "production" quality is seriously fucked up, lower-than-lo-fi with crazy level changes, weird bleed-throughs echoing from other tracks, abrupt edits, buzzing guitars and tape hiss... but give it a few minutes and you might get used to it! What do you expect from a tape made almost 20 years ago by some kids in a basement who barely knew how to work their borrowed 4-track?? However, people who have heard it had been bugging 'em to release it on cd and so here it is, in all its gnarly glory. The first thing a Slough Feg fan will notice is that it's not Mike Scalzi singing! The band lineup back then was quite a bit different from what most Slough Feg fans are familiar with. Band leader/chief songwriter Mike Scalzi wasn't the vocalist, in fact, he didn't even always play guitar. The band's original frontman was Omar Herd, who did his charismatic best to be "the black Paul Di'Anno". Chris Haa (older brother to eventual, erstwhile Slough Feg drummer Greg) was the lead guitarist. And Dave Passmore played drums. Mike, Dave and Omar had all been in bands together before, in the local Central Pennsylvania punk/hardcore scene. On this earliest stuff with Omar on the mic you can definitely hear their punk/hc roots. As raw and crappy as the sound is, the sheer frantic youthful energy and absurd abandon of these tracks is exciting and infectious. And despite the vintage and the variant lineup, it's definitely the Slough Feg fans know & love. You'll even recognize some of the songs, as the band recorded most - but not all - of 'em later on in their career. "Warp Spasm", "Highway Corsair", "Marauder", "Slough Feg", "Highlander"... But you've never heard "Sheets Of Red", "Journey Through The Halls Of Insanity", "Thoughts Of Sympathy", or "The Rock Song", although bits of some of them were cannibalized here and there for other songs. Maybe someday they'll do "The Rock Song" again, though it's hard to imagine Mike singing Omar's love gone bad lyrics about anchorman Dan Rather... Next up on disc one is what might be our favorite stretch of this whole set, a live soundboard recording from a 1990 show at a firehall in Altoona, PA. Mike plays bass, which is mainly heard as a clicking clacking of pick on strings, but very little actual "bass". Omar's vocals come through loud and proud though. And his between-song shit-talking, crowd-baiting banter is amusing. They do five songs off of The White Tape, plus a cover of Judas Priest's "Breakin' The Law". Again, the snotty, adrenalized, off-the-rails metallic madness of the whole thing is exhilarating and fun. Disc one finishes up with two demo tracks ("Highway Corsair" and "Highlander", the latter with completely different alternate lyrics) recorded in 1994, now with Mike on vocals, a couple years after Slough Feg (minus Omar and Dave) relocated to San Francisco. Disc two jumps forward to present live material recorded circa 1999-2002, after Slough Feg had some albums out. Bassists vary, but John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune) shares guitar duties with Scalzi on all of this - stuff from a couple shows in San Francisco, and a gig in Germany (on tour with Solstice in 2000). Tracks from their self-titled first album, Twilight Of The Idols, Down Among The Deadmen, and Traveller all are aired, along with another never-studio-recorded number, a cover version of "Heavy Metal Hunter" by Japan's Metalucifer, which for a while was their standard encore. Though the distorted sound quality isn't what you'd hope for from an official live album, it's ok for a bootleg, which is basically what this is, a somewhat reluctantly authorized boot. We're only disappointed that they didn't include some other old demos, and/or live recordings we're sure must exist - where's their stoner rock jam "Radical Man" or their unlikely cover of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon"?! These discs are packaged with some of the artwork that inspired Slough Feg, from the Slaine comic book. Also there's old flyers from shows "back in the day" with lots of random local bands who definitely aren't still around, that's for sure. The booklet also includes photos, and lyrics to the songs. But no liner notes, unfortunately. As a substitute, you do get, as the final track on disc two, a candid, slightly silly interview with mainman Mike Scalzi done for a German radio show in 2000. Wherein he claims that Slough Feg would be much more popular had he called the band "The Shit Boys" or "Nuclear Fate Europe", cites Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Tiny Tim as his main influences, and openly discusses his gay love affair with Sacred Steel singer Gerrit Mutz. We're pretty confident that all diehard, true 'Feg fans (you might be one, if you're still reading this!) will find the material on The Slay Stack Grows to be of interest... historical, maybe hysterical, and without a doubt headbangin'. Besides, metallers tend to fetishize artifacts such as this, harking back to ye olde tape trading days, and while probably no one has ever traded a copy of The White Tape, that portion of this (and more) definitely evokes the ancient spirit of the eighties and earlier. Heck, maybe the scrappy (lack of) production will attract some underground black metal fans to the 'Feg. And now that The White Tape by 'the true' Slough Feg is immortalized on compact disc, fans can now wonder what the band would be like now if Omar had remained the singer... Oh, and speaking of diehard fetishistic stuff, get this: apparently Shadow Kingdom are gonna also release this on quadruple vinyl!! We'll believe it when we see it, however, 'cause that's crazy.

MPEG stream: Sheets Of Red
MPEG stream: Slough Feg
MPEG stream: Marauder (live 1990)
MPEG stream: Highlander (live 1999)

BACK IN STOCK! We thought we'd relist this, 'cause we finally got a handful back in, and they went so quick the first time, back in April, you might have missed them. You'd think this would be easy to stock since they're an SF band, but the label is in Italy and we've been out of 'em for months... AQ's favorite cult true heavy metal band, The (one and only) Lord Weird Slough Feg, are back with their fourth (can it be?!) compact disc of chaos and conquest, this time conjuring visions of cosmic adventure in a galaxy-spanning science-fictional Imperium of the sixth millenium AD, rather than the battefields of the Celtic fantasy world which inspired such previous Slough Feg albums as "Down Among The Deadmen" and "Twilight Of The Idols", though they've taken some of their trademark Celtic-tinged riffs with 'em into the future. Yep, the Feg boys have come up with a full-on scifi concept album here, each song contributing to a space opera story of far-future genetic warfare. It's convoluted and not just a little bit absurd (we'd expect nothing less from the Lord Weird) involving a megalomaniac mad scientist, dangerous alien spores, a hybrid race of sentient dogs known as Vargr (as pictured on the cover), asteroid miners, and a space pirate named Baltech Budapest who develops psionic powers after being turned into a dog-man! Huh? Well, all this is an excuse for Slough Feg to flex their collective metal muscles, showing off with dueling shredding guitar solos, majestic harmonies, dramatic vocals, shuddering doom riffs, and so forth. The European power metal legions traffic in such wares as well, but none with such flamboyant eccentricity and sheer insanity as the Slough Feg crew. Lost Horizon, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall and the like might be more polished and synthesized, but for indomitable metal spirit and over-the-top anything-goes chutzpah you've got to hand it to San Francisco's Slough Feg, they'll take on all comers musically while upping the bizarreness quotient to impossible extremes. Raw, bombastic heaviness gives way to acoustic guitars, adrenalized thrash collides with show-tune catchiness, and the story of course is completely fucked. With their two Les Pauls going full bore, this is perhaps the last word in galloping, epic, multi-tracked guitar harmony metal... Their forbears like Iron Maiden, Queen, and Thin Lizzy should be proud (and a little confused). What Drunk Horse are to '70s boogie rock these guys are to '80s metal, except... Slough Feg really mean it! Even when it's hard to figure out *what* they mean. Fans will probably agree that the grandiose "Traveller" is the Slough Feg album most similar to "The Bastard" by their sister band Hammers of Misfortune -- both being continuous narratives ("Traveller" having but one vocalist to handle all the roles however). But while the Hammers' masterful metal operetta seemed all Dungeons & Dragons, this concept record is actually specifically based on -- and named after -- a once-popular science fiction role playing game called Traveller, D&D's spacefaring cousin. The cover design, and some of the lyrics, will make a lot more sense if you're familiar with that game!

MPEG stream: High Passage/Low Passage
MPEG stream: Asteroid Belts

Now on cd, as an Italian import. Supreme true metal from San Francisco, for those who find The Champs too "indie-rock" (just kidding). Slough Feg is a cult band that takes their influences not from other cult bands but direct from the masters: Sabbath, Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Queen. Celtic folkisms collide with doom metal riffs, guitar leads run rampant over epic song structures, and the heroic vocals tell stories fantastic and weird...a metal masterpiece! With keen Erol "D&D" Otus cover art.

We've been championing local San Francisco metal masters The Lord Weird Slough Feg for years and years now, so it's nice to see 'em getting more and more recognition. Indeed, they've become something of a cult heavy metal institution. Used to be, their releases were expensive imports from small European labels, then they got picked up by Profound Lore (who put out their eighth full-length, 2010's The Animal Spirits), and now they have just been signed to American metal mainstays Metal Blade. So, in advance of their upcoming new album for Metal Blade, the label has reissued three of Slough Feg's early hard to find albums (well, we usually had 'em, but other places not so much) as a package deal. Not exactly a "box set", though they do come in a slipcase. There's no bonus tracks or new art or anything, so if you already have 'em you don't need to buy 'em again. But if you're a Slough Feg fan who doesn't don't have 'em - or simply want a big dose of weird old school '70s/'80s styled metal done with eccentric aplomb - then you're in luck. This set comprises the band's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cds, originally put out via Italy's Dragonheart label. 1999's Twilight Of The Idols is the oldest, it came out back when we didn't write quite so much, ahem, about things on our site, so our review was short and to the point, and actually serves well as a description of Slough Feg in general. As we said then, they take their inspirations directly from the masters: Sabbath, Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Queen. Celtic folkisms collide with doom metal riffs, guitar leads run rampant over epic song structures, and the heroic vocals tell stories fantastic and weird... a metal masterpiece! Nowadays, a metal band emulating Maiden and Lizzy isn't so strange, but in '99 Slough Feg were out on a limb... and let's face it they still are, even if fashions have caught up (or flashed back) to them. Twilight Of The Idols is a raw, early work, but definitely captures the essence of the band, and contains several of our favorite 'Feg tunes, including the epic (there's that word again) nearly 9 minute "Great Ice Wars", as well as perhaps one of the most obscure cover tunes ever chosen, "The Wizard's Vengeance", a track originally from an absurdly rare, 1979 private-press lp by a bizarre American progressive rock act called Legend. Next up in the set is Down Among The Dead Men, from 2000. This is the one where guitarist John Cobbett of Hammers Of Misfortune et.al. joined the band. At the time, we said, we proclaimed it the "true heavy metal record of the year" and said, if you like some real, melodic heavy metal once and while (instead of the "brutality" and "evil" of that ol' black metal/death metal stuff we love too) the way they used to do it back in the '70s and '80s, with all the crazy fantasy lyrics and shredding dual lead guitar solos you can handle, then you need to hear these guys... This band is usually described as a mixture of Maiden, Lizzy, and Sabbath. That's true, they're all that, and not in just a wanna-be, "those are our influences" kinda way either - 'cause after listening to Down Among The Deadmen you could imagine Slough Feg getting in the wayback machine and sharing the stage with any of 'em at Castle Donnington and holding their own just fine! This is one of the only bands we know of where the musicians started as punk/rockers but realized that instrumental virtuosity and compositional craft characteristic of their childhood/teenage metal heroes WERE valuable and could be put to non-ironic, non-lame use. And were talented enough to do it. So, inspired by the past they are, but they're also their own weird thing, a cult act if there ever was one. With songs about Roger Corman movies ("Death Machine" is based on motorcycles-in-the-future David Carradine flick "Death Sport"), fantasy Celtic mythology (the "Heavy Metal Monk/Fergus Mac Roich/Cauldron Of Blood" tryptych) and the classic science fiction roleplaying game Traveller ("Traders & Gunboats"), with Mike's decidedly unordinary (but great) deepvoiced vocal majesty, and the plethora of amazing RIFFS, these guys rule! For those who need an obscure indie/metal reference, it's kind of like The Champs meet Cirith Ungol or something; bizarre, epic, baroque, proud, a bit silly, masterful, very metal. So worthy of the delightful cover painting by Erol Otus of D&D fame (who also did the cover of Twilight Of The Idols). Finally, batting third, there's 2003's Traveller, this time conjuring visions of cosmic adventure in a galaxy-spanning science-fictional Imperium of the sixth millennium AD, rather than the battlefields of the Celtic fantasy world which inspired those previous Slough Feg albums, though they've taken some of their trademark Celtic-tinged riffs with 'em into the future. Yep, the 'Feg boys came up with a full-on sci-fi concept album here, each song contributing to a space opera story of far-future genetic warfare. It's convoluted and not just a little bit absurd (we'd expect nothing less from the Lord Weird) involving a megalomaniac mad scientist, dangerous alien spores, a hybrid race of sentient dogs known as Vargr (as pictured on the cover), asteroid miners, and a space pirate named Baltech Budapest who develops psionic powers after being turned into a dog-man! Huh? Well, all this is an excuse for Slough Feg to flex their collective metal muscles, showing off with dueling shredding guitar solos, majestic harmonies, dramatic vocals, shuddering doom riffs, and so forth. The European power metal legions traffic in such wares as well, but none with such flamboyant eccentricity and sheer insanity as the Slough Feg crew. Lost Horizon, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall and the like might be more polished and synthesized, but for indomitable metal spirit and over-the-top anything-goes chutzpah you've got to hand it to San Francisco's Slough Feg, they'll take on all comers musically while upping the bizarreness quotient to impossible extremes. Raw, bombastic heaviness gives way to acoustic guitars, adrenalized thrash collides with show-tune catchiness, and the story of course is completely fucked. With their two Les Pauls going full bore, this is perhaps the last word in galloping, epic, multi-tracked guitar harmony metal... Their forbears like Iron Maiden, Queen, and Thin Lizzy should be proud (and a little confused). Fans will probably agree that the grandiose Traveller is the Slough Feg album most similar to The Bastard by their sister band Hammers of Misfortune - both being continuous narratives (Traveller having but one vocalist to handle all the roles however). But while the Hammers' masterful metal operetta seemed all Dungeons & Dragons, this concept record is actually specifically based on - and named after - a once-popular science fiction role playing game called Traveller, D&D's spacefaring cousin. The cover design, and some of the lyrics, will make a lot more sense if you're familiar with that game! So, there you have it, three old classics from Slough Feg, available together for a baaaargain price! You're not gonna find a bigger collection of catchy riffs, weird lyrical concepts, and flashy soloing all in one place! Looking forward to what they have in store for us on their Metal Blade debut, being recorded now...

MPEG stream: Highlander
MPEG stream: The Great Ice Wars
MPEG stream: Sky Chariots
MPEG stream: Traders And Gunboats
MPEG stream: High Passage/Low Passage
MPEG stream: Asteroid Belts

When people talk about the 'happening' San Francisco music scene, they're not usually talking about The Lord Weird Slough Feg -- unless it's a denim-clad German metalhead who's doing the talking! Then, perhaps you'll hear them rave about these guys. Utterly trend-free true heavy metal rock n' roll, equal parts Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Queen, Judas Priest, Manowar, Manilla Road...and some Black Flag too, but you'd have to really pay attention to hear that. Slough Feg's music is epic, rockin', riff-laden stuff with heroic vocals and tons of lead guitar. Their lyrics deal with fantasy, insanity, and Celtic myth. They released their first cd, a self-titled half-hour-long mini-album, on their own Beef Rock label back in 1996, and it has long since gone out of print. Since then, they've managed to develop a bit of a cult following in Europe (with two albums so far out on Italian metal label Dragonheart) as well as among a select group of enlightened American metal fans, including quite a few Aquarius customers. They also spawned the popular metal opera project Hammers of Misfortune (on Andee's tUMULt label). Now Miskatonic, the label run by Rich Walker of the godly British doom metal band Solstice, has done us the favor of reissuing Slough Feg's debut effort, with new packaging and, better yet, seven bonus tracks taken from Slough Feg's pitifully-circulated early '90s demo tapes. All remastered of course -- the demo tracks definitely sound better than before. It's nice to have this be available again, as the original cd featured several of Slough Feg's best songs: the Sabbathy "Shadows of the Unborn", the Irish jig "The Red Branch" (always a live favorite), parts III and IV of their prog-rock epic "High Season", the ripping yet melodic "20th Century Wretch", and others. The bonus tracks are equally great, including such otherwise unavailable Slough Feg classics as "The Mask" and the fuzzy, doomy "Headhunter", along with demo versions of "The Red Branch", parts I and II of "High Season", and "The Room" (a different version of which appeared on an obscure comp called "Metal Injection" a couple years ago). They're definitely one of those love 'em or hate 'em bands, and lots of folks just aren't gonna "get" 'em. They're often seen to be too weird for a lot of metal fans, but also way too metal for everyone else. And the "extreme" metal crowd might find them too melodic as well. But for some -- not just me -- they're one of the best bands around. People who like The Fucking Champs for not-entirely-ironic reasons (or, actually, for those too, why not?) should check Slough Feg out. Slough Feg are *not* ironic, and *are* somewhat ridiculous, but they know it and have the nerve to do what they do anyway 'cause they love it. Besides, all that serious, dark, black, death metal can be pretty darn ridiculous too when you think about it or read the lyrics. Amazingly (note: sarcasm), Miskatonic has managed to totally capture the amateur, self-released design aesthetic of the original in repackaging this. From the black and white cover drawing of the Drune Lord Slough Feg in his cave (by Martin Hanford, who is better known for his Bal-Sagoth album covers) to the crappy caligraphic font used throughout to the poorly reproduced band photos, bad layout, and typos in the lyrics, this might actually look *worse* than the 1996 version the band put out themselves...oh well...at least the "underground" vibe is intact! And it's in print, with bonus tracks, so we really can't complain. Note, though, that Miskatonic also managed to run the songs "Why Not" and "Highway Corsair" together as a single track (#5), instead of being tracks 5 and 6 the way they are listed on the back of the cd. Whoops. Perhaps the vinyl version, slated to appear at the end of the year on German label Metal Supremacy, will correct these superficial problems. But if you're not a vinyl diehard, this cd is certainly recommended now.

RealAudio clip: Shadows of the Unborn
RealAudio clip: The Red Branch
RealAudio clip: High Season IV
RealAudio clip: Headhunter (demo)

Here's one epick, metallic seven-inch piece of plastic indeed, released by brothers-in-metal The Lord Weird Slough Feg and Bible Of The Devil, to commemorate their several tours together (including one upcoming this summer... as part of which both bands will be appearing together at the first annual "Alehorn Of Power" festival in BOTD's hometown of Chicago, IL, alongside Manilla Road and Gates Of Slumber, among others!). From San Francisco's Slough Feg, you get two songs on their side, a new one called "Poisoned Treasures" and a killer cover of "Shalala" by their Irish ancestors Thin Lizzy! Extremely rockin'. It's their first recording with new guitarist Angelo Tringali (of cult doom act Cold Mourning), who takes over from Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett in Slough Feg's dual axe onslaught alongside Mike Scalzi. Meanwhile, on the flip, Bible Of The Devil take their twin flying V's into outer space with a tune called "Galactic Violator". Packaged with cool Masters of the Universe comic-booky cover art to boot, with a Galactus-dude on the BOTD's side of the split, mirrored by a horned barbarian guy on the Slough Feg side.

The Miskatonic Foundation -- the cultish, doomy metal label run by Rich Walker, guitarist for UK's Solstice -- has embarked upon a little tribute project here, releasing volume one of a proposed three-volume set of split 7" records devoted to cover versions of Rich's favorite New Wave Of British Heavy Metal songs. And we're not talking the anything obvious like Iron Maiden or Diamond Head, or even Tygers of Pan Tang or Tokyo Blade, we're talking bands like, uh, Nighttime Flyer and Desolation Angels! Real obscure stuff. And that's making a point about what was so incredible about the NWOBHM, the real underground acts that sprung up for just an amazing 7" or LP or two. Rich recruited AQ faves and SF locals The Lord Weird Slough Feg to appear on volume one, sharing the 7" with Portugal's Manilla Road worshipping headbangers Ironsword. Slough Feg are of course a great choice for a NWOBHM tribute, even though they didn't get to do something off of Maiden's Killers... Volumes two and three are slated to feature Orodruin and Scavenger, and Twisted Tower Dire and Revered Bizarre. And the neat thing about a 33 rpm single? Y'know everything sounds great at 45, that's the rule. Both bands' vocalists have voices low enough that on 45 they still sound like metal singers more than chipmunks... but of course you're supposed to play it on 33, and at that speed this is still a lot of fun! Slough Feg's rough-and-tumble cover of a song awesomely-entitled "Heavy Metal Rules" by Nighttime Flyer will endanger your sanity after the chorus gets stuck in your head, as it will. I don't think Slough Feg ever even had heard the song/band before Miskatonic sent 'em a tape from which to chose a track to do -- it was the b-side to Nightime Flyer's only release, a single from '79 -- but they picked it 'cause heck, how can you resist such a title/lyric? And the riffs are remarkably Fegesque in fact. The NWOBHM nugget "Valhalla" by Desolation Angels is ably essayed by Ironsword, who have improved in leaps and bounds since their first album by the way. And they've always had the proper spirit for this sort of thing anyway. This is clearly meant for serious fans...You gotta know Slough Feg and/or Ironsword, and what NWOBMH stands for. The bands being covered aren't even listed on the sleeve, just the song titles! Numbered and limited to 500. We've just got a few. Buy or die, Slough Feg fans! Same goes for NWOBHM freaks, Ironsword maniacs (there must be some) and rabid metal vinyl hounds.

Here's one for metal vinyl collectors: a picture disc single featuring local heavy metal heroes The Lord Weird Slough Feg on one side, and epic British doom-lords Solstice on the other, each covering a tune by Manowar! (An admitted influence on the Brits, if

First in a new batch of releases from Campbell Kneale and his Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. This one from some mysterious UK outfit called Slow Listener. Kneale has dubbed them slumberpunk which is as good a descriptor as any. Five tracks, the shortest 7 minutes, the longest 14, each an expansive sonic sprawl, from distantly drifting soft fuzzy warbles, to silvery slivers of high end twinkle and glimmer, from full on lo-fi vacuum cleaner hum, to crumbling soundscapes of muted melody and mumbled industrial clatter, from cavernous scrape and shriek, to effulgent streaks of white hot guitar grind, from gauzy soft focus melodic whir, to thick swirling shimmer, from dense blistering abstract space psych blow outs, to upper register sun dappled ur-drones, a gorgeous and utterly dreamy cacophony of sound. Birchville, Skaters, Yellow Swans, Quetzolcoatl, Bonecloud, Bonus, Ghosting, you can now add Slow Listener to that ever growing list... SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!

MPEG stream: Bad Santana
MPEG stream: Sarcasm My Old Friend

The Slow Poisoners do what they do very very well! And that is, mainman Andrew Goldfarb and his merry band of minstrels craft a plethora of gleeful, slightly trippy retro 60s/70s-ish tunes, and they certainly seem to have a splendid time doing so. Their second full length is a characteristically playful affair filled with multi-layered vocal harmonies, gently tweaked lyrics and quirky harpsichord and organ embellishments. Make no bones about it (where did that saying come from anyway!), these Bay Area super-polished popsters have been deeply moved by the works of the Beatles and David Bowie. Song by song, the deep reverence is more than evident. As well, on a number of songs, there's an ample dose of Donovan-esque folky eccentricities too. Toothsome, intelligent and fun.

MPEG stream: Tomorrow Man
MPEG stream: Strange Thing Happening

These SF eccentric songsters have released a new 7" that's chock full o' nuts - five suitably off-kilter new songs. The Slow Poisoners are definitely a hard group to pinpoint. Led by mainman Andrew Goldfarb, they've followed their muse hopping from genre to genre and mood to mood for five years now. Perhaps we could call this folk-glam? Hmmm... sorta, but not quite. Give 'er a spin!

If angels started a pop band, they wouldn't sound like Built To Spill. They wouldn't sound like the Polyphonic Spree. They wouldn't sound like Grandaddy. They wouldn't sound like Elliott Smith. They would sound like Slow Reader. Although they would have to be angels that had broken hearts and who didn't know how to talk to that one girl, and who remember that one summer, and who are lonely and misunderstood, and whosit at home on their cloud writing perfect little pop songs, who even thogh they are angels sound sort of 'emo', who sing in perfect falsettos in perfect harmony and who sing about amputees and lost loves and drugs and stuff. Slow Reader take elements of all of the above bands and mix them into a perfect, dreamy sweetpop confection. Not to intimate that this is light in any way. This is just as melancholy and dark as anything, it's just that the darkness is wrapped up all snug and tight in a radiant, delicate pure white cloud of rapturous sound, all pure and angelic, etherial and heavenly (to stretch this allusion to its breaking point). Heavily strummed acoustic guitars, pianos that tinkle and drop notes around your ears like spring showers, warm and rich organs that wrap everything in a dreamy haze, peculiar rhythms that range from super processed, heavily affected drums that sound almost electronic to "We Will Rock You" style handclap/footstomp percussion. But it's the vocals that really get me. Gorgeous and drenched in reverb, with a whispery urgency like Elliott Smith, capable of turning misanthropic tales of amputees into daydreamy lullabies. Outside of the Goldcard record reviewed elsewhere on this list, this is almost all I've been listening to. Fans of any of the bands mentioned NEED this. Random note: Not sure what it is, but Slow Reader are the second brilliant pop band in recent memory to be born from weird punk/ska band roots (the first being The Stereo, who we've repeatedly raved about in the past). Not sure if it means anything, but it just seemed interesting.

MPEG stream: I Like You Most
MPEG stream: Anesthetic For The Amputee
MPEG stream: Politics Music And Drugs
MPEG stream: Stupid Bet

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. It's a bit of surprise that we actually got some of these, and even more shocking that we got enough in stock to list, as we got the impression that we would NEVER be able to get very many at all, if any. But we did manage to get a handful, not sure how long these will be aroubd, but guessing not long at all... What's all the fuss? Well, Slow Walkers is in fact a collaboration between Liz Harris (aka Grouper) and Lawrence English - one of the preeminent ambassadors of Australian sound art; and their first fruits are as good as any of us had hoped. The album is dripping with all of the haunted, spectral atmospherics that Harris has brought to her Grouper records as of late, with both artists collaborating on the damp, dreary shadows of melody and drone that float, drift, and creep throughout. The two eschew the song and the voice in favor of a dark, lugubrious ambience that's probably got more in common with the morose tendencies of Cold Meat Industries than the ephemeral shimmer of Kranky, but it's totally entrancing and totally beautiful nonetheless. With this limited to 400 copies and sporting handpainted gold artwork, there's no need to belabor the issue. Grab it while you can, you won't be disappointed. And they'll be gone before you know it...

Hurray, available again! Back in 2004, this Icelandic duo's self titled album made its way across the pond and into our welcome ears. Mind you, we had to turn every noisy machine in the store and hope for a respite from the jackhammering road work outside... yes, their music is really that hushed and hanging-by-a-thread intimate. Maybe best listened to late at night in a darkened room or deep in the woods? Daylight would surely overwhelm it. Here's what we said about it the first time around: Slowblow whisper out the gentlest of folk-pop, and they're assisted in their quiet mission by some baby-girl cooing vocals courtesy of Kristin Anna Valtysdottir from fellow Icelanders Mum. Some of their songs are so frail that a full drumkit would surely overwhelm them, thus instead a soft beat is tapped out on a woodblock. The livelier numbers do feature a more fleshed out rhythm section complete with handclaps. Although most of the album is of the hushed and earthy nature, every so often Slowblow take an unexpected musical detour or two. For instance, while the fourth song "Second Hand Smoke" sounds like a secret menagerie of wooden and tin toys, the very next track is a raw, almost garagey and Fall-ish tune with distorted vocals and clatterous percussion. Then, it's back into a somber, countrified number with plucked banjo and beleaguered Arab Strap-y male vocals. Depending on your sugar tolerance, you might find the songs with Kristin's vocals a bit cloying, but overall this album is ultra wistful and pretty.

MPEG stream: I Know You Can Smile
MPEG stream: Aim For A Smile

We had never heard Slowcoach before, but we've learned to trust the Deathbomb Arc label, who not too long ago gave us a killer reissue of late great SF noise rockers Rrope, and now deliver this single sided 12" from syrup sipping Cali downer pop indie rockers Slowcoach, who seem to inhabit a sound that hovers right between, say Pavement and the Grifters or the Radar Brothers and Polvo, or Sparklehorse and the Swirlies, or, well, we could go on and on and on. There are hooks galore, and melodies, and all sorts of pop stuff, but all suspended in a washed out doper haze, a haze that often collapsesinto psychedelic sound collage, or abstract druggy smolder, but always stumbling back into some semblance of cough syrup pop. Way too brief, the 5 songs her clocking in at about 16 minutes, but the replayability is off the charts, and we can vouch for that, since we've already listened to this like 20 times in a row. Be warned though, this is LIMITED TO ONLY 30 COPIES and we got a tiny handful, so grab one while you can!!!

My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive embody the term shoegaze. If you have, have had, or may one day have even the smallest interest in said genre, you have this or you need this. Guitars are simply texture, bass and drums take the driver's seat, and vocals flutter here and there. This is their second to last album, but kinda the last. After this was Pygmalion, which was recorded by only half the band's members (one more than the other) and caused Creation to kick them off the label. Oh, we should mention that Brian Eno produced one song, and he played on two. Not to mention any names, but one (former) AQ staffer has a Slowdive tattoo. This record is more than recommended, it's essential. Includes 4 bonus tracks "not on import".

MPEG stream: Alison
MPEG stream: Machine Gun
MPEG stream: 40 Days

The beautiful Slowsix cd Private Times In Public Places was originally released by Habit Of Creation back in 2004, and it has now been reissued on cd by Western Vinyl! Here's what we said the first time around: Mesmerizing! Something new from the Brooklyn, NY Habit Of Creation label who brought us the two wonderful Edison Woods albums. If you dug Seven Principles of Leave No Trace, you'll surely wanna check this out! Slowsix is very much in the same glistening yet darkly mooded spirit as E.W. but less song-oriented and more soundscape-y. Treading solemnly in the footsteps of Philip Glass, their open, spacious aural atmospheres are crafted primarily from strings, guitars, sampled dialogue and Rhodes keyboards (both processed and clean). Sound good? Yes. And don't let the fact that there is only three tracks mislead you. With a running time of 73 meditative minutes long, this is a perfect cd to sink in and drift off to... especially on such a chilly winter's day as today. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Evening Without Atonement (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Evening Without Atonement (excerpt 2)

With a name like Slug Guts, you might expect some ugly ultradoooooom from this band, but they express their misanthropy and disgust in another genre, as these punks Slug Guts are in fact Aussie underground garage rock wranglers, swampy and sinister in the grand tradition of Nick Cave & The Birthday Party, also sharing deviant DNA with the likes of Bird Blobs, King Snake Roost, Lubricated Goat, The Scientists, and other degenerate Down Under gutter crawlers of that ilk, from over the years... We'd first heard 'em on their import-only debut Down On The Meat a couple years back, and are stoked that Sacred Bones have added them to their fine roster for this sophomore outing. Even if we hadn't heard of 'em before, the SB seal of approval (and the band name!) would have gotten us onboard. Plus we love this sort of thing, being big fans of the bands mentioned above, so we're primed for Slug Guts' insidiously catchy caterwauling and late night, whiskey soaked dirgery. Perhaps not quite so noisy/nasty as Down On The Meat was, here Slug Guts show off their pop side, such as is, the record being a rollin' and tumblin', slow drunkard's stagger consisting of eerie guitar jangle, low-slung bass, and deep, drawled vocals, all bathed in loads of reverb, and menace. Opener "Howlin'" has a bit of a sinuous "Painted Black" vibe and indeed the entire album is cloaked in damnation and darkness.

MPEG stream: Howlin'
MPEG stream: Cold Bones
MPEG stream: Chrome Crucifix

MPEG stream: FTW (Trails Of Slime EP)

Slumber Party's third full length is indeed titled 3! The breezy follow-up to this Detroit, MI quartet's 2001 Psychedelicate album features more of their unadorned jangling electric guitars and casually sung vocals. Although most of their songs are straightforward barebones, lo-fi pop reminiscent of Velvet Underground (particularly on songs like the very "Waiting For My Man"-ish "No Sleep Tonight"), Lois and Marine Girls, they do weave into a porchswing-y, down-by-the-creek laidback earthiness on the harmonica'n'tambourine-laced seventh song "Black Heart Road". Nice.

MPEG stream: No Sleep Tonight
MPEG stream: Black Heart Road

[ aquarius records catalogue — S ]