It takes a certain combination of talent, timing, the stars aligning, and luck to pull off what The Lord Weird Slough Feg is currently trying to pull off: delivering a sequel to a beloved classic. And yes, to most of their fans, 2003’s Traveller is absolutely viewed as a classic, not to mention a trad metal sci-fi romp loaded to the brim with scorching riffs and Mike Scalzi’s inimitable vocal charism. It rules. A ton. The Feg is returning to this (tabletop RPG) universe on Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades, which, from the title, is only the first of these sequels.
Anyway, the immediately good news is that nothing in these 23 minutes reflects poorly on the original album. Quite the contrary actually, as The Ephemeral Glades largely finds Slough Feg being Slough Feg. They gallop and wail and trill and play Maidenesque harmonies all over the place, while Mike Scalzi’s vocals remain as appealing as ever, despite having a touch more gravel than in the past. In other words, you won’t be surprised, but you’ll be rocked. There are also fun little lyrical and musical nods made to the original album without directly copying anything. For example, opener “Knife World” definitely kicks off with a sort of inside out version of the riff that started “High Passage / Low Passage,” and the hooks in “Mission of Mithril” likewise seem designed to be a callback, even if overall the song has a lighter, somewhat subdued form of bombast compared to the original album.
The bombast being lighter is definitely a key trait of this EP. Traveller is one of Slough Feg’s heaviest albums ‒ likely thanks in part to the presence of John Cobbett on second guitar and a particularly chunky production ‒ and The Ephemeral Glades simply doesn’t have that kind of overall intensity or fat to the sound. Not that it’s lacking in galloping giddyup or righteous riffery—there’s plenty of that, in fact, it’s just that it also has more of the laid back Thin Lizzyisms of more recent albums than the urgency of songs like “The Final Gambit.” For example, the shreddy harmonies in “Ice Shelf Stomp” aren’t so much rippin’ as they are buttery smooth; instrumental “The Black Circle” has an almost somber tone to it; and “Magnetic Fluctuations” has one of the most righteous and triumphant-sounding Lizzy-ish lead hooks Feg has ever put to tape. The overall effect is that, despite this being a sequel to Traveller, the EP more closely resembles albums like Twilight of the Idols or Hardworlder. I don’t think any longtime fan will take issue with that.
The lower level of urgency relative to the original isn’t all that surprising, considering both the less aggressive style on Slough Feg’s last few records and this EP’s title. The existence of Traveller Supplement 1 implies that we will be getting a Traveller Supplement 2 at some point, after all. This is probably why the end of closer “Vargr Reprise” feels a little “to be continued,” because it’s literally an incomplete album—it feels like a cliffhanger because it’s probably an actual cliffhanger. Hopefully the band is already hard at work to the conclusion of this sequel.
Overall, even if The Ephemeral Glades doesn’t quite recapture the magic or fire of the original Traveller, it’s a worthy (half?) sequel that finds the band to be in very good form 35 years after their formation. So maybe this wasn’t some grand or desperate swing by Slough Feg, but merely a case of a great band having some new things to say in a familiar universe. That’s okay too. Whatever the reason, they thankfully also brought all the expected riffs, memorable vocal melodies, and glorious gallop for which they’re well known.
