Slough Feg - Ape Uprising!

When the boss at Ripple sent me this new Slough Feg record I really didn’t know what to expect. I had never heard any of their previous records but I did see about half their set at South By Southwest in March 2007. The first thing I noticed was that singer/guitarist Mike Scalzi took his shoes and socks off when he got on stage. Then he held up a George Benson album to show the crowd before setting it on top of his amp. That made quite an impression. Once they started playing I really liked what I heard. They reminded me a lot of early Iron Maiden and Dio Sabbath with some extra Thin Lizzy and Raven thrown in. I was only able to stick around for about 15 minutes before I had to split for a previous engagement but I was impressed.

Then I completely forgot about them. Their new album Ape Uprising! has guaranteed that I will remember them from now on, and investigate their previous 7 records. Turns out these guys have been around for about 20 years and put out their first album in 1996 under the name The Lord Weird Slough Feg.


This is great old-school metal. If you love the first 2 Iron Maiden records as much as I do you’re gonna be into it. It sounds like this band rejected most metal created after 1982. There are some contemporary doom metal influences but very little thrash. The best way to describe this is to imagine if Wino from Saint Vitus replaced Paul Dianno in Iron Maiden rather than Bruce Dickinson.


Ape Uprising! is a concept album about our friends in the hominoid kingdom rebelling against their human oppressors. As a fan of all the Planet of the Apes movies (and Jerry Goldsmith’s incredible soundtracks) I knew this was going to be interesting. Not a lot of metal bands would tackle a topic this weird but I get the impression Mike Scalzi is kind of a weird guy. He’s a philosophy teacher after all. You can never be too sure about guys like that.


Album opener “The Hunchback of Notre Doom” sounds exactly how you would expect it to – slow, heavy, doomy. You’ll be dragging a giant cross up the nearest hill as soon as you hear it. “Overborne” is a short, speedy tune that sets up the epic 10 minute title track. The lyrics are very funny with references to “opposing thumbs/but our battle's begun.” “Simian Manifesto” has the apes screaming that they’re never coming down from the trees over a riff straight out of Motorhead’s “(We Are) The Road Crew.”


“Shakedown At the Six” is a fast metal tune with scorching axe solos. I hope they get to play venues large enough so they can put one foot up on the monitor when they jam out. “White Cousin” gets my vote for funniest song on the record and has some Zep III acoustic guitar to give things a little variety. “Ape Outro” and “Nasty Hero” wrap up the album and story with some solid rocking. How does the story conclude? You’re just gonna have to buy it and find out.


Buy here: Ape Uprising


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