SLOUGH FEG - Hard-Boiled Eggheads Page 2
by Martin Popoff

So now we have Mike and Angelo as the new twin lead guitar team of the US under-carded underground, giving to Hardworlder an excellent '70s vibe somewhere between exiting Thin Lizzy and entering Maiden. Pointing out one of the subtleties of the new team, Scalzi notes that "one big difference, which sounds kind of superficial, is that Angelo plays an SG and I play a Les Paul. And with John and I, we both played Les Pauls - it sounds like it doesn't matter, but it does. Because the style is much different."

"Oh man, they're exactly the same," continues Mike, asked about the music bank from which both guitarists draw. "That's the thing about it - we got lucky. With John and me, I was worried that we weren't going to be able to find somebody else who was that similar, who had the same influences. And more importantly, a person who is interested in getting the same kind of guitar sound. John and I were both looking for the same sort of overdriven, '70s, pure volume, distortion sound - a Thin Lizzy guitar sound, or old Maiden or Sabbath. And the first thing I thought was I didn't want to get somebody who uses a Jackson or a Charvel. I want somebody who uses an old '70s rock sound. And Angelo is one of the first people I thought of. And we were going to go ahead after John as a three-piece for awhile. I was saying, I don't care, I don't want to play with another guitar player, except for John. But I had known Angelo and we just hung out and it worked."

There's a new drummer too - bassist Adrian Maestas was a mainstay, meaning half the damn band was new. "Antoine (Reuben-Diavola) brings sort of a more rock sound," points out Scalzi. "Greg (Haa) was more of a speed metal drummer. He was always into Slayer and stuff like that. He played a lot of double bass. And he was really good for Slough Feg, but sometimes he wanted to go faster, and wanted to basically break into thrash drumbeats. I mean, it usually worked when he did it, but it was always like he was sort of holding back. With Reuben, he's more like a solid rock-style drummer."

SLOUGH FEG - Hard-Boiled Eggheads Page 3