The Animal Spirits
| The Animal Spirits | ||||
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| Studio album by Slough Feg | ||||
| Released | October 26, 2010 | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal, folk metal power metal | |||
| Length | 38:38 | |||
| Label | Profound Lore | |||
| Slough Feg chronology | ||||
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The Animal Spirits is the eighth studio album released by the American heavy metal band Slough Feg. It is the first album by Slough Feg to be released by label Profound Lore Records. A vinyl pressing of the album was released on February 21, 2011 by Cruz del Sur Music. The album was remastered for vinyl release by Justin Weis to play at high resolution (24 bit/96 kHz .wav).
Leading up to the album's release, Mike Scalzi debuted a series of articles on popular metal blog Invisible Oranges. These pieces, entitled "Bullpen Bulletins" featured Scalzi philosophizing about the current state of the metal scene, particularly about the elements that he felt are causing stagnation of musical creativity. While some readers saws these postings as too critical of the genre, Scalzi reiterated that by voicing his opinions he was trying to stir up debate and engage in discussion with fans of differing viewpoints. Regarding the seemingly harsh nature of some of his comments, Scalzi affirmed, "In fact, I am definitely a MUSICAL SNOB!! How can one not be in today’s musical climate?!" In total, Scalzi contributed four "Bullpen Bulletins," including two after The Animal Spirits was released. While Scalzi comments tangentially about certain aspects of the album, such as Bob Wright's inclusion as a guest vocalist, the subject matter of the articles are decidedly not focused on the album itself. These articles also received a moderate amount of praise from the heavy metal journalistic community. On his NPR-based blog, heavy metal journalist Lars Gotrich defended the frankness of Scalzi's writing, saying, "It's a damning clarion call for quality control, and while Scalzi may come off as a curmudgeonly metal purist, he's really just a bleeding heart."
While no named tour was organized to promote the album's release, Slough Feg organized several shows in 2011 along the west coast and in the Midwest. Several European festival dates are also schedule to take place during the summer of 2011.
According to lead singer and guitarist Mike Scalzi, the album's title refers to an Aristotelian theory of perception that postulated a fluid called "animal spirits" that flowed through the veins of human beings, carrying information of perception in order to be stored in the heart. Unlike many of Slough Feg's albums that are united under a single concept or theme, the songs on The Animal Spirits cover many different subject with their lyrical content, such as "Medieval Catholic theology," "horror themes," and "frustration, misery and madness."
In an interview with Adam Kohrman of The Metal Crypt, Scalzi revealed that some of his ideas for lyrics come from his experience as a professor of philosophy. Specifically addressing the lyrics to the song "95 Thesis," Scalzi said, "It's all just Martin Luther, and putting the different things together that you've read about what he did [for a lecture], and lyrics come [from that process]. . . . So then because you're going through that process of reconfiguring it, making it into a form that people can understand more clearly and all that. Naturally, that's the same process you go through in songwriting."
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