Slough Feg

After ten years and four albums released under the mouthful of a name that was the Lord Weird Slough Feg, San Francisco's cutting-edge revisionist heavy metal band led by vocalist/guitarist Mike Scalzi shortened their moniker to simply Slough Feg before the release of their fifth studio album, Atavism, in 2005. At the time, the group also consisted of longtime guitarist John Cobbett (a frequent Scalzi collaborator, most notably with cult prog metal ensemble Hammers of Misfortune) and drummer Greg Haa, but both would soon depart from the band, leaving only more recent addition bassist Adrian Maestas in place for Slough Feg's next LP, the typically idiosyncratic, science fiction-inspired Hardworlder. This brought new six-stringer Angelo Tringali and drummer Antoine Reuben into the fold, but the latter would be replaced by Harry Cantwell by the recording of 2009's Ape Uprising!, which thematically meshed the prehistoric/futuristic themes of the prior two albums, and arguably bettered them both in terms of quality songwriting — a testament to Slough Feg's bright future, regardless of their band name.