By J. Tommasino, Special to the Van Nuys News Press
SAN FRANCISCO- Slough Feg, an internationally noted heavy metal band from the Bay Area of California, will return with their signature sound to Los Angeles, on Friday, June 19. Slough Feg will join other metal acts including Christian Mistress, Intranced and Dirty Tricks at the club, Catch One, in Los Angeles.
Slough Feg recently played the Two Minutes to Tulsa metal festival in Oklahoma, as well as tours of Europe with dates in Paris, France, and Athens, Greece. The band is known for their sound reminiscent of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal of the early 1980s. But the meaning behind their lyrics can be found in the deeper context of global mythologies, tabletop role-playing games, and science fiction literature.
“We’ve been accepted by a lot of different audiences of power metal and thrash metal, so whatever you want to call it,“ said Slough Feg founder, vocalist and guitarist Mike Scalzi recently by phone from his Bay Area home. Slough Feg also features guitarist Angelo Tingali, bass guitar by Adrian Maestas, and drummer Austen Krater.
The band’s current lineup has remained stable for several years. Slough Feg will tour California with other dates this month in San Diego, San Franciso and Sacramento.
The band formed in Central Pennsylvania in the early 1990s before relocating to the Bay Area where they made their name playing old school heavy metal at clubs and releasing multiple albums of their original music. The band gained traction in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-nineties in cities such as Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington- at a time when heavy metal had largely fallen into disfavor by the general public. Alternative music like Pearl Jam and Nirvana were still all the rage at that time.
“When we played Portland and Seattle, they were already sick of whatever grunge bands were around, so we gave them something different and they liked it,’ Scalzi said.
In 2025, Slough Feg released Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades, a sequel to their epic 2013 release, Traveller- an entire heavy metal album based on the popular science fiction role-playing game Traveller. Slough Feg will be featured in a documentary film about the game Traveller currently in production.
Scalzi reflects fondly on the experience of playing the game in the 1980s and the fact that his music has brought fans of the game Traveller to Slough Feg concerts and albums. The game has a cult audience of players because it is known for its scientific accuracy and its rigorous character generation system.
“It was hard science and you could die during character creation,” said Scalzi. The band has also drawn on literary science fiction for inspiration for their 2007 release, Hardworlder, which is based on the famous science fiction novel The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Scalzi, a longtime reader of science fiction, says the genre is the primary influence for most of the Slough Feg catalog of songs.
“We got a reputation early for being a sword-and-sorcery kind of band, but we’ve really been influenced more by science fiction. We did songs like Troll Pack but if you look closer, it’s science fiction,” said Scalzi. The singer, guitarist and songwriter noted that his favorite authors in the genre are Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, and Alfred Bester.
Scalzi’s other song writing influence are different pantheons of global mythology. The band draws its name from a character featured in the 2000 A.D. comic book series. But that series and characters were actually based on ancient Celtic mythology, Scalzi notes. Scalzi’s fascination with mythology is often misinterpreted by listeners as being interested in the sword-and-sorcery fantasy genre.
“Look, I read The Hobbit (a groundbreaking fantasy novel by J.R.R. Tolkien) and I liked it, I also like Conan (a sword and sorcery character created by Texas author Robert E. Howard) but I’m more interested in actual mythology,” Scalzi noted.
In 2005, the band released songs including Eumaeus the Swineherd and The Curse of Athena from their album “Atavism”. These songs were based on characters from the ancient Greek epic poem, The Odyssey, by the blind orator Homer.
Scalzi said that the process of writing good songs is what drives him now instead of creating albums as he has done in the past. Playing live is always enjoying and Scalzi promises a good mix of both old and new Slough Feg material on their current setlist. Scalzi is also not concerned about how the band is billed with other heavy metal acts on their current tour.
“I really don’t care when we go on. I’m competitive enough but in all honesty, I really don’t care when we go on,” Scalzi said.
When Slough Feg is not touring, Scalzi is a professor of philosophy at Diablo Valley College. He earned two higher degrees in philosophy specializing in German philosophy.