One of the revelations of 2005 for me personally is undoubtedly “Atavism”. This album made a lasting impression on me, which is quite astonishing because I’m normally listening to the more extreme genres of metal and not to heavy metal and the likes of that.
The first and most important impression Slough Feg (formerly known as The Lord Weird Slough Feg) made on me is their great love for music in general and metal in particular. Every track, every second is a testament to this love and it just lifts the album to great heights.

“Atavism” is described in the dictionary as: “the recurrence of a genetically controlled feature in an organism after it has been absent for several generations, usually because of an accidental recombination of genes”, which explains the Neanderthals on the front cover.
The term atavism can of course also be used to describe the music of Slough Feg; although heavy metal has not been absent, it has become less popular over the years. It’s good to hear that some bands keep on playing old-fashioned heavy metal and are even breaking some creative boundaries within the genre. The music of Slough Feg can be roughly described as a mix between Iron Maiden (In their Paul Di’Anno period) and “folk” metal bands like Primordial and Cruachan.

The album begins with an short instrumental (“Robustus”) which leads into the opening track “I Will Kill You/You Will Die” which instantly shows Slough Feg’s biggest treat: singer Mike Scalzi.

This man has an almost bard-like performance: he does so much more than merely singing the lyrics, he tells a tale and takes you on a journey trough the world of Slough Feg. A world with inhabitants like “Eumaeus the Swineherd” and the “Man Out Of Time”.

“Atavism” has a variety of songs to offer: the heavy metal tracks (“I Will Kill You/You Will Die”, “Eumaeus The Swineherd” and “Atavism II”), the ballads (“Atavism”, “Man Out Of Time”) and short instrumentals (“Robustus”, Climax Of A Generation”, “Agnostic Grunt”) which are truly brilliant. The production is suitable for Slough Feg because it is really old-fashioned: guitars upfront, a warm organic drum sound and a mumbling bass guitar.

With over 15 years of metal listening experience under my belt, it’s very hard for a band to surprise me anymore. Well, Slough Feg manage to blow me out of my boots and the funny thing is that they accomplice this be playing good old heavy metal. It’s incomprehensible that this band is not more popular than they are but for the true metal fan this is one you cannot afford to miss.