San Francisco metal band Slough Feg (also known as The Lord Weird Slough Feg, but that’s a mouthful) are set to release their new album Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades on April 11, 2025 through Cruz Del Sur Music.
This is their first release since 2019’s New Organon, and is apparently a continuation of the science fiction story line from their 2003 record Traveller (see below).
Here is the pitch from their bandcamp release page, since SlougFeg.com still looks like an untouched Geocities site from the 1990s (design wise at least – it does have the tour dates from their March 2025 European run).
Asteroids! Vegetable spores! Space pirates!
The long-awaited return of the Traveller saga!
Bay Area underground metal heroes Slough Feg revive the classic Traveller storyline on the Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades EP—seven songs of pure weird metal glory!
This episode begins with a drone-clone orbiting Mithril– an icy planet in the Sword Worlds subsector. The android/clone is created by the exiled professor Ricket, who remains a transformed Vargr (carnivore chaser stock), living on his secret asteroid-ship “The Rock”, and plotting his revenge on the Zhodani Consulate, while searching for his arch-nemesis Baltech Budapest (still in half-human half-Vargr form as well). The Professor’s research on the effects of Psionics on Zhodani society is now being used in an attempt to attack the Zhodani with their own psychological weapons.
Meanwhile our hero, Baltech Budapest, is hiding on Mithril beneath layers of ice in the Ephemeral Glades. Ephemeral Glades are frozen pools on the planet’s surface which remain impenetrable until temperatures rise above freezing. When temperatures rise, seeds of flora germinate and sprout, pushing shoots above the snow, producing a lush glade within a day. Insects and small reptiles rapidly mate in this environment, creating a rich flora and fauna, which will die as soon as the temperature drops again. It is during this brief window that the drone can detect and possibly capture Baltech in his cave below the Ephemeral Glades. Once detected, the drone calls in reinforcements to capture and abduct Baltech. Can he escape the Ephemeral Glades and flee planet Mithril? Or will he be re-captured by Professor Ricket and forced to serve as leader of the new Vargr-hybrid race!? These songs tell the story………
I first saw Slough Feg exactly 29 years to the day that I’m writing this (that’s weird), way back on March 19, 1996! They were supporting Old Grandad at the famed Nightbreak on Haight Street (now a Cafe a few doors down from Amoeba records). Many good times were had in that club (see below - $2 cover, $2 mickeys).
I remember liking Slough Feg way back then, they didn’t sound like a lot of other bands, especially in 90s San Francisco, which was more punk / crossover and death metal influenced. They had progressive and classic metal influences, even Celtic influences if I remember correctly.
They are still keeping up their unique sound (though perhaps nowadays with “trad metal” becoming trendy a lot of other bands are sounding like Slough Feg!). I most recently saw them headlining the Kilowatt in December 2023 and they are still great, probably more polished than 1996 which I have few memories of (see: $2 mickeys)
Anyway, I’m excited for this new record, the first single Knife World sounds great. Don’t sleep on Slough Feg, pre-orders are live on their bandcamp, check this release out!
--Hectic