What happened.
Robert D. Watson | www.green-machine.info | 09/04/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I think that Slough Feg is one of the most brilliant bands of recent years, which perhaps means I'm being a bit too harsh on them with this review. I loved Hardworlder, and all of their previous releases, but I'm having a whole lot of difficulty finding something to like about this new release.
The lyrics and a lot of the music are pretty straightforward, as a previous reviewer stated, and that's not a good place to start. Whether they opt for the slightly goofy ("I am in space, I bet you know my name"), or the quietly sophisticated (like almost anything on Atavism), the lyrics are a high point for this band. Here, the lyrics are goofy, but not in a good way. It's about monkeys taking over the world, or something like that.
Slough Feg's attempt at Doom in "the Hunchback of Notre Doom" falls in the territory of boring, and the next track is about as memorable as your lunchtime meal three years ago to the day. The 10-minute epic is pretty good, but you have to sit through 3 minutes worth of uninspiring vocals before it gets interesting. Many of the rest are strange rock-inspired tunes or rambling, chorus-less pieces of blah. "Unmemorable", if it's a word, is the best word for this mess.
I know that the band has been experiencing some turmoil lately, and I can only hope that this latest effort is a product of the fact that Scalzi seems to be the only person who's consistently working on this effort. Hopefully they'll get it better next time."
Disappointing at Best
A. Alman | Tacoma, WA USA | 05/27/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I'll start this review by stating that I am a big fan of Slough Feg. Been listening to them for years, and still do.
That is why I was so disappointed in this album. After the schizophrenic brilliance of Atavism and the solid sci-fi beats of Hardworlder, Ape Uprising! simply did not stack up.
Let us start with the lyrics. If you're a Feg fan, you probably love the crazy stuff that the group usually comes out with. They are almost always original, and contain hidden meanings and subtext that are not apparent until you've listened to the same track a few times. You will not find this here. I found the lyrics on AU! to be be both repetitive and derivative - while the Feg usually skates the thin line between brilliant and B-movie, the brilliance just does not show here.
The tracks themselves are, without an exception, mediocre. Riffs and leads tend to be repetitive and are occasionally out-of-place. The vocals are at times unclear and difficult to understand. This is where the real disappointment lies, for the vocals and guitar solos are delivered with the same conviction and hard-edged skill as before, but without the structure and cheeky innovation shown in prior albums.
Bottom line - I cannot recommend this album. Get any of their other albums instead. Any of them, seriously. Pass this one by."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1