EPK – Slug Comparison – A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife (2025)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
“My past work includes a lot of acoustic guitars and delicate layering. The new material is all electric and has more upfront rock production. If anyone starts to miss the old stuff, don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more moody, acoustic-based songs in the future. Those are piling up in the shadows and will get their turn. Prog fans might like “Metal Roots Came Twisting” for its expansive journey. I love being able to throw a long, developed song like that onto an album. I wish I could write 8 or 10 of them in one stretch, but they take up a lot of brain power. Enjoy this high energy, uplifting, exhilarating musical experience.” – Doug Harrison – Slug Comparison
For fans of Mother Mother, The Killers, Rush, Porcupine Tree
Band: Slug Comparison
Album Title: A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife
Release Date: May 9, 2025
Label: Self-Release
Slugcomparison.com | Instagram.com/slugcomparison | Facebook.com/slugcomparison
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“Canadian auteur explores expectancy and desperation to find cathartic cleansing of his soul. 4/5” – Dmme.net – Let It Rock (When You Were Living Here 2019)
“One of my favourite songs of the year” (about “Bringer of Doom”) – Dutch Progressive Rock Radio (Self-Titled 2014)
“Simply engulfs the imagination and emotions” – The Ringmaster Reviews (Self-Titled 2014)
#30 of The Rickter Scale’s Top 100 albums of 2014 – Rickter Scale Rock Radio (Self-Titled 2014)
“Stirs the senses, taking the listener on a voyage of imagination and emotion.”-Sonic Abuse (Self-Titled 2014)
Slug Comparison Self-Titled Album #5 on DPRP’s Top Progressive Metal Albums of 2014
“Spell binding” -Your Music Blog (Self-Titled 2014)
“Songs that are all of the highest caliber” – PowerofMetal.dk (Self-Titled 2014)
“a true gem of prog rock” – Living Music Blog (Self-Titled 2014)
“Ahh, the glorious beauty of the brooding and gloomy mind of Doug Harrison” (5 stars) – Sea of Tranquility (Self-Titled 2014)
“a lot of work and effort has gone into this album, and it pays off spectacularly” -Wonderbox Metal (Self-Titled 2014)
9.2/10 – Metal Imperium – (Self-Titled 2014)
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Band: Slug Comparison
Album Title: A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife
Release Date: May 9, 2025
Label: Self-Release
Track Listing:
1. Wish to Adapt (3:46)
2. March through the Forest (3:54)
3. Game of Repression (3:57)
4. Undead Plots (4:06)
5. Outta the Jam (4:51)
6. A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife (4:13)
7. Too Much Love (5:04)
8. Metal Roots Came Twisting (6:45)
9. Played for a Centipede (2:36)
10. Of Being Apart (5:19)
11. Hamsters in a Tub (3:02)
Album Length: 47:33
Album Recording Credits:
• Doug Harrison: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Programming
• Flavio Cirillo: Drums
• All songs written by Doug Harrison
• Album produced by Doug Harrison
• Mixed by Ben Kaplan
• Mastered by Brock McFarlane at CPS Mastering
• Album Artwork by Bailey Ennig
• Member of SOCAN
• Canadian Content (MAPL)
Album Band Line Up:
Doug Harrison: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Programming
Flavio Cirillo: Drums
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About The Album Artwork:
The artwork is meant to convey the scattered life of a creative, the challenge of balancing life’s basic demands with the unrelenting and financially unrewarding pull to make art. The artwork is a mess, and a bit ugly.
About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife is an overdramatic description of trying to squeeze the creative process into the demands of normal life. Most musicians don’t make much money, if any. And one’s schedule doesn’t tend to open up great swathes of time for creative work. Every minute you get to work on music is the spoil of a battle won against the forces of daily life. Sacrifices are made. Metaphorical limbs are lost.
Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
1. Wish to Adapt
It’s about reaching the end of yourself, that point when you know what you’re going to do in virtually every situation, and you’re bored, and you want to change, and you wonder if you can, if you can break out of yourself. This song captures the yearning that might lead to the purposeful breaking of patterns.
2. March Through the Forest
This song was inspired by a November hike in the North Shore mountains of Vancouver. It started off damp and cold. As we climbed, it started snowing, and it turned into a complete whiteout by the time we reached the summit. The song is a factual account of that joyful experience, a recording of that memory.
3. Game of Repression
I’m one of those people who tries to glide through life without causing a lot of offense. (Very rock’n’roll, yes.) But it’s been said the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and sometimes I do a little roadwork—I want to say the right thing, but some ugly shit comes out and it’s hurtful because there’s some truth to it. I think the lyrics spell it out pretty clearly. The keening and moans at the end of the song do a decent job of conveying the aftermath of such verbal slips: the regret, the self-berating, and loathing, the pain of the person on the other end.
4. Undead Plots
I write songs. I also write fiction. But I’m not as good at finishing stories as I am at finishing songs. And those unfinished stories have been piling up (while I’ve been working on music). As proof of this, I’ve written a song about all those unfinished stories confronting me as a group and pleading for me to finish them. Unfinished stories do not go away. They drag on you. They haunt you. My hope was that in writing a song about them I’d be inspired to finish them. I try. But then another recording needs to be made…
5. Outta the Jam
The title track of Fen’s latest album Dear Mouse is about a dilapidated house we used to live in. We jammed there all day, often starting at 8 in the morning, and we had little reason to leave. That was my first time being a shut-in, and it led to swelling anxiety about the outside world. I felt exposed walking along the sidewalk to get groceries. The cawing of the East Van crows sounded sharper than ever, even threatening. Entering the world outside was a get-in / get-out mission. The best survival tactic was to have a riff looping in my head, so I never lost connection to the basement jam space, which was the center of my existence.
6. A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife
The feel and chords of this song are so much outside of what I’m comfortable doing that when I started playing them during a jam with Jeff and Sam from Fen, they thought I was joking when I told them it was a new song. The irony is that it’s a serious song underneath, and maybe the jokey feel made it easier to write about. I’ve been making music for over 25 years and pouring time, energy, and money into it, while at the same time trying to exist in a “normal” life. It takes constant pushing, constant sacrifices, and the support of the people closest to me. It’s a precarious balance to maintain. And this song is a tiny window into that lifestyle.
7. Too Much Love
Sometimes life is very good. Gotta celebrate those good days.
8. Metals Roots Came Twisting
I spent a few months in Nelson, BC, which is known for its laid-back, arts-minded residents, many of whom share an appreciation for reggae. My roots are in metal. This song is about the clash of genres that would sometimes occur at open jams. The lyrics are all in good fun. I left Nelson with an appreciation of Bob Marley and I guess the seeds of this song that I’d write half a lifetime later.
9. Played for a Centipede
Most musicians don’t get their dreams fulfilled, and I’m no exception, along with most musicians I know. Even though it’s common to fall grossly short of what you hoped for, it takes some getting used to. To let go. I’ve written a few songs around this topic.
10. “Played for a Centipede” is a head-on look at the disparity between dreams and reality. While you play, you want a stadium of adoring fans, but you get a centipede doubling back on the carpet towards you.
11. Of Being Apart
This is an anthem for introverts. It’s the story of someone whose society puts them in solitary confinement for being an introvert. They thrive there, and when the extraverted society gives them a second chance at freedom, instead of joining the crowd, they go further into the cage and burrow deep into the earth to be even more alone. The vocal has some of the highest notes I can produce.
12. Hamsters in a Tub
I wish I could explain where these lyrics came from. They just came. It’s the story of a boy who despite his love for hamsters inadvertently causes their death in the jaws of the family cat. So he buys another one from the lady down the street, who has an endless supply. Sometimes a kooky riff calls for kooky lyrics and a kooky vocal character to deliver them. I’ve written a lot songs now, and a weird one like this is a gift because I don’t have to worry if I’ve written this type of song before.
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Fun Facts / Story Angles:
1. Doug Harrison is from the Canadian rock/metal band Fen, who just released the widely appreciated album Dear Mouse.
2. The Slug Comparison songs were recorded over the same period as Fen’s Dear Mouse. Both recordings had been a long time coming, and then by chance they converged to completion at the same time. It became a bit of a competition to see which one would be mastered first. In the end, it was pretty much a tie, because I had a couple of recalls for the Slug Comparison master, but I wanted to put out Dear Mouse first, because it had been so bloody long in the making, and we were desperate to wash our hands of it.
3. The album was mixed by Ben Kaplan (Biffy Clyro, Mother Mother, Ninja Spy).
4. Drums were played by Flavio Cirillo (Art of Dying, Puddle of Mudd)
Doug Harrison (Slug Comparison) – Photo Credit: Bailey Ennig
Slug Comparison is the solo project of Fen vocalist/guitarist Doug Harrison, whose songs glide over a landscape of grunge, progressive rock, indie, and metal. The Ringmaster Reviews says music “simply engulfs the imagination and emotions.” Expect more new music from Slug Comparison in 2025.
Discography:
2025 – March Through the Forest (single)
2019 – When You Were Living Here – album
2014 – Self-titled – album
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