review by: Mladen Škot

Great, great music. Wrong tempo. Wrong rhythm. That about summarizes the latest, sixth, effort by the San Francisco crew (The Lord Weird) Slough Feg, who should, by now, have nothing to prove and by all rights they should be selling enviable amounts of CDs. After all, they have always been doing what Iron Maiden SHOULD be doing, not to mention myriads of bands who just attempt to play heavy metal without inspiration.

Slough Feg has never lacked inspiration, but on Hardworlder, a concept album about a fantasy character, they probably wanted to prove to themselves that they can play some sort of ‘70s Irish hard rock. They succeeded... and they haven't. Depends on which side you look.

On one side you have the classic Slough Feg trademarks. Mike Scalzi is a fantastic vocalist. What he might lack in range, he makes insignificant with the sheer believability of his voice. It's like listening to a medieval bard, a wizard, a sorcerer gone mad or an insane, bizarre stage performance. There's no way of not listening to him sing, and the melodies and lyrics are as rich and elaborate as ever. The guitars (by Scalzi and "Don" Angelo Tringali) are breathtaking. The solos actually mean something, the Celtic melodies and excellent twin guitar harmonies arrive from all the suspected and unexpected places, and when they slow down for a doom moment you can just enjoy the sound, natural and without extravagant modern distortion gimmicks. You can hear every note, warm and clear, the way it has been played, like it was recorded straight from some classic amplifier.

On the other side there are the rhythm issues. Maybe Antoine Reuben just isn't the right drummer for Slough Feg. Compared to the guitar and vocal wizardry, the drums just do simple beats for extended periods of time and really detract from the general picture — or what it could have been. Flat and uninspired nearly all the time, and then when he does, just once, a double bass drum beat (on the instrumental "Galactic Nomad") it just goes on for the whole song — and never appears again.

Then, the tempos. Artificially trying to slow down, Slough Feg have played each and every song a couple of BPMs slower than necessary to make the dynamics just right, so Hardworlder ended up sounding like a great heavy/power metal record played at eighty percent speed. Or not. The slow parts could have been slower and more powerful. Has someone been messing with Slough Feg's metronome?

The thirteen songs follow the concept and there's no point in describing most of them separately because, alone, some of them are just introductions to the others, but it's a bit hard to understand why, for instance, "Hardworlder" and "The Spoils" weren't joined into one track. The tracks, on their own, often seem too short for, once again, what could have been. Musically they offer everything from high (but not high enough) speed metal to long hard rock moments reminding even of Led Zeppelin ("Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues"), diverse, catchy, full of memorable moments but not without superfluous parts. The two covers ("Dearg Doom" — hey, I thought I was the only one who knew Horslips — and Manilla Road's "Street Jammer") are done with care and passion.

For the old Slough Feg fans, Hardworlder will be a nice addition to the collection, but some might complain about the new direction. For anyone who has not heard Slough Feg before it might be wiser to start with Traveller, released four years ago. (6.9/10)

review by: Roberto Martinelli

I could not have analyzed Hardworlder better than Mladen just did, but at the same time I think he’s being far too kind. Hardworlder is not a success by any means for veteran heavy metal gods Slough Feg. The album is a sad example of a metal band trying to show there’s musical life other than metal and thus not playing metal, but still being marketed as a metal band. That’s almost guaranteed failure for any genre of band, but in Slough Feg’s case, the new album is some sort of super cheesy, ‘70s rock thing that isn’t even so cheesy that you can have a good time listening to it. It’s dullness embodied.

Adding another nail in the coffin, Hardworlder is a very bland recording of some pretty weak songs, at least by Slough Feg’s standards. Mike Scalzi is superb at what he does, but you can only do so much with the supporting cast and how the production presents them.

Some questions: Who is the mook now playing drums for Slough Feg, and when will Greg Haa return? What about John Cobbett? Can he be persuaded to at least be on the records? And how about getting Scalzi back in Hammers of Misfortune, while we’re at it, as that band is also suffering as greatly without that essential pairing.

And most importantly of all: What is there to be done when a metal band doesn’t think of metal as the best thing they could be playing? It’s time to change names or move on. Listen to Mladen and get Traveller or Down Among the Deadmen (followed by the obligatory Hammers of Misfortune discography). Together, they’re approximately a million jillion times better than Hardworlder. (4/10)