CLOSER TO DOOM (6 TRACK VERSION)

Bigelf

Heavy Prog

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Greger
PROG REVIEWER

This is a band that deserves to make it big. BIGELF are a group of four guys from Los Angeles who plays on old keyboards, like Mellotron, Hammond B3 and a set of green Vista-lite drums, Gibson Les Pauls, SG, Flying V's and a Rickenbacker bass. This is a perfect rock album with mostly 70's influenced rock, but with elements from both the 60's and the 90's. It touches Pop, Hard rock, Glam, Psychedelic and Progressive Rock. They have a very unique sound, which is there own, but also a mixture between BEATLES, BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, DEEP PURPLE and KING CRIMSON. Damon Fox is a very good singer who sounds a bit like David Bowie, Brian Wilson or Syd Barrett. The music consists of heavy, fat, guitar pop riffs, harmonies and aggressive experimental passages that could have been arranged by Lennon/McCartney. Sylvia Massy, known for his work with RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS and Skunk Anansie have produced the album, and it sounds very fresh, but with a 70's sound. The best track in my opinion is the Beatles inspired track "In The Void", but every track is a little masterpiece in itself. Highly recommended!

Report this review (#27604)
Posted Sunday, February 1, 2004 | Review Permalink

The Owl
PROG REVIEWER

A FUN album to crank up to 11 in a Sabbath-meets-Crimson and The Beatles kind of way! You gotta love aband that gets its hands on every piece of vintage gear it can, and then just lets loose with great crunchy Sabbath-like riffing, sppoky keyboards and catchy tunes that stuick in your head for days! Fans of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep will also dig this. Who says retro isn't cool, I ask ya?

Report this review (#27605)
Posted Sunday, March 14, 2004 | Review Permalink

TCat
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

This was the first official recording for Bigelf and it is only a taste of what they are to become. This particular title is a 6-track EP and it is only 25 minutes long. But it is full of truly enjoyable retro prog related music. Both heavy on organ and guitar, the band relies on old 70s equipment for instrumentation and they create fresh music for those people who continually lament that "there just isn't any good new music out there anymore". Guess what? There is still good music being made out there! Here it is, a band called Bigelf. But the music doesn't fall into the trap of feeling dated, it's new and original and based on the sound of bands from the 70's. Fans of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep will like this and everyone else would probably find it very enjoyable. Shades of The Beatles' harmonies exist punctuated by hard rock guitar of the highest caliber.

Since this is Bigelf's first, released back in 1998, it doesn't sound quite as polished and well produced as their later full albums would be, but it is still very well done. Hard rock with very good vocals, a lot of variety, great quality in the songwriting, it doesn't sound like a copy of other bands, it sounds like a band that would have co-existed right along with those bands producing prog related hard rock in the 70s except with updated production and mixing tools. What more could you want? I would suggest looking into their albums first, pick one, they are all good. Then get this one once you find out how big of a fan you are and you can't get enough of their music.

This one is good but not essential. It's great, but not quite to the level of excellent yet. Come back to this one though. But you must check them out. There is no reason why this band should not be a supergroup. 3 stars......but please check them out and stop complaining about there not being any great music anymore. (By the way, there so much great music out there still being made it will make your head spin if you only knew how much.)

Report this review (#1313571)
Posted Friday, November 21, 2014 | Review Permalink

BIGELF Closer to Doom (6 track version) ratings only

chronological order | showing rating only

progrules (Henk van der Hoff) PROG REVIEWER
Anster (Anton Ermakov)
lord777lord7 (Kuehne, Axel)
The Rock (Alain Mallette)
Hazy7868
Yrgal (Jan Oscar)
bufoalvariusamen (Ray)
HannesHolmqvist (Hannes Holmqvist)
Guran7004 (Lars-G�ran Ros�n)
crimsogenes
Gongo
freewheeler (Sergei Komarov)
ddx1 (dmitry)
captainjest (Joe Peterson)
jacobaeus (Alberto Nucci)
freewheeleer1962 (Sergei Komarov)
Monju
Jihnik1958 (Evgeniy)
HarryAngel746 (Maciej) COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
Muskrat (colin)
svartpelz (Stian Rosvoll)

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