HEX

Bigelf is such a joy to listen to, especially for someone like me that was around when a lot of their obvious influences were current. This music is simply awesome. It is so reminiscent of 70s prog bands, but far from just another cheap copy. This band could have co-existed right along with these bands and received all of the accolades that their influences would have received at the time. This is excellent heavy prog with music dripping with mellotron, heavy guitar solos, lots of prog elements, everything about rock music that is good is evident in this band.

That being said, this album is excellent, but falls a little short of what would be their next album "Cheat the Gallows", but don't get me wrong, there is plenty in this album that is simply awesome and amazing. The crazy synth solo is "Falling Bombs", the heaviness of "Madhatter", the heavy mellotron in the beautiful "Disappear", the dark mysteriousness of the organ and bass in "Black Moth" and so much more, this band creates music that never lacks in sound that lovers of 70s prog rock love and say they miss so much. The band is also not afraid to admit to their reliance on the sounds of bands like Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. But the music they create is excellent and not a cheap copy. This is not a band of wannabes. These guys are the real deal. The guitar hooks work so well to draw you into the music which is ever changing, sometimes straightforward and other times totally psychedelic and off the wall, but always consistently top quality. Bigelf is probably the most similar to what Galactic Cowboys wanted to be. Even though GC is great at times, they are not consistently great. Bigelf, on the other hand, is so much better and consistently so. And GC sometimes had that element of cheesiness that could be annoying at times. Bigelf, even though there is an undercurrent of sarcasm in the music, are so much more professional and authentic.

I said it on my review of "Cheat the Gallows" and I say it again, I don't understand why more proggers aren't listening to this excellent band. You need to get a hold of their music, preferably "Cheat the Gallows" but most of the music on "Hex" will also do just fine. Because there is a little bit lacking on the production of this album which got remedied in the following album, it ends up with a 4 star rating because it is still great, just not as great. I'll say it again....Try Some Today! You won't be sorry.