Review: The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Traveller Supplement I: The Ephemeral Glades
6 years removed from New Organon, over a decade removed from Digital Existence, and almost a quarter-century on from Traveller, perennial cult stalwarts The Lord Weird Slough Feg are back with an appropriately monikered “supplement” to that latter album. As its full title suggests, Traveller Supplement I: The Ephemeral Glades is an EP that acts as a continuation—in narrative and theme, at least—rather than a big expansion of the original record.
If you were to pick a Slough Feg record to revisit like this, Traveller is an understandable album to continue on from; arguably their most celebrated record alongside Down Among The Dead Men, it’s a record with big scope and atmosphere, drawing explicitly from the tabletop game of the same name, so further exploration of that sound feels tasteful and not cheap. I’m not really too hooked by the narrative content—I love some Slough Feg but yeah, I’m not a tabletop guy, so there’s a limit to my investment in that sort of thing—but it is probably the most immediate appeal for long-term fans who are into the whole Professor Rickets, dog-man, Ice-planet throughline it’s got going on.
Almost immediately the shift in production is noticeable. Although the band recorded the EP with Justin Weis, reuniting with the same man who did the original Traveller hasn’t really resulted in a similar sound to me; two decades on and with a thinner production, there’s a real disparity between the records. The original Traveller is just so punchy and hard-hitting, even in its moderate moments, that its hard not to feel like the relatively anemic mix of The Ephemeral Glades is holding the band back a bit, especially since instrumentally the band hasn’t lost a step. This is particularly apparent with the drumming of Austen Krater, who’s shown himself to be every bit as good as Harry Cantrell or Greg Haa since joining.
“Knife World” is an odd choice for an opener. Its introduction is centered around a main riff that’s a bit weak and underwritten, one that sounds like it’s stuck awkwardly between keys and never feels like it gets properly resolved. It’s technically tight but awkward, I think. Conversely, the vocals are gruffer and maybe less measured than they were 20 years ago but I think this helps gives the record an edge, enhancing its use as narration, like some old warrior is recanting the lyrics second-hand. If you had a perfect soprano rendition of “cascading among the stars,” it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. It’s an uncertain opener ultimately, but vocalist Mike Scalzi helps pull it together as it goes along.
“The Black Circle” is interesting, somewhere between an interlude and traditional instrumental. It offers solid atmospheric, speculative riffing that sounds like how it feels to look off into the horizon. On its own it might have seemed like a loose, underdeveloped demo, but I think it’s still solid, an atmospheric preamble to “Mission On Mithril,” admittedly a song with much more purpose to its writing. It’s got those trademark Slough Feg driving guitar exchanges but with much more confidence than “Knife World”‘s riffing, and evokes a big sense of adventure and scale, like highway music written by Strontium Dog readers.
Semi-title-track “Ephemeral Glades” is less bombastic and more precise, balancing its introductory arpeggiated guitar runs with sharp, staccato power chord stabs. It’s one of the most impassioned vocal performances from Slough Feg in years, not through some big, soaring delivery but through pure grit and throaty OOMPH.
Meanwhile, “Magnetic Fluctuations” is the most outwardly triumphant song on the tracklist, pounding away like a Brocas Helm victory anthem. A lot of bands would struggle with this specific tone without sounding stupid—naming no names—but The Lord Weird Slough Feg are so impassioned and earnest that you believe every bit of it. It’s ostentatious, yeah, but the best heavy metal almost always is. Compare this to the more dangerous sound of “Ice Shelf Stomp,” a track of start-stop, frigid riffing that evokes the feeling of looking around corners, exuding a sense of wariness but always with an edge of excitement to it, punctuated with the best guitar solo on the EP. It’s probably the instrumental highlight too, a track that’s so detailed and precise in its tone and execution, even if it does end a little abruptly.
“Vargr Reprise” is perhaps the most direct thematic throughline from the original Traveller record. That connection does ultimately do it a bit of a disservice though, only serving to highlight the gulf in production and the relative weakness of a lot of the EP’s sound, alongside being the least inspired track vocally. It’s a song carried by the power of the instrumentals but ultimately fades out rather tepidly.
That fade-out could either be read as lacklustre or, as an album operating as the presumed first part of a multi-part “supplement,” it could be read as a tease for more to come, and would likely sound better as more of an intermission when connected to its second part, if it ever comes. The Lord Weird Slough Feg have been around for almost 40 years and haven’t put much of a foot wrong in that time. While the EP is very much a taster course of what they can do at their best, and is often hampered by a dry production, it’s still a testament to their legacy that they’re still this good at this point in their career.
3/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Traveller Supplement I: The Ephemeral Glades is out now on Cruz Del Sur Music.
