Bigelf
Into the Maelstrom

Take a tour into the maelstrom, but first you will have to use the incredible time machine in order to get there in the right time. This is an album that shows Bigelf return from a few years in hypersleep. And it is the first album by the band to feature drummer Mike Portnoy, so the stars are aligning quite well at first glance. The cover art is rather cool and science fictiony, definitely something that looks the part. But does the fourth album by Bigelf also play the part?

Well, I think that we can say that it sounds a whole lot like british progressive rock music. With a touch of psychedelia, doom and some metallic touches as well. The singer sounds like a fairly typical singer of a progressive rock band, the production is excellent as is to be expected from a high profile band of the genre. And the album has a very good variation as well, which means that it will last long for those who listen and like. I would describe it as a high quality album with some interesting sci-fi themes and so on. It feels a bit like the thematics are borrowed from a certain dutch gentleman who like to write spacey stories and make music out of them, even some instrumental stylings are. Chunky riffs is another thing that I take notice of while I listen and I can safely say that it is an interesting production, Portnoy’s drumming is also significantly different from most of which we tended to hear from him in Dream Theater.

And it is a good album, strong in its music and powerful chunky riffs is a recipe for good stuff. I like it, it has depth, it has great stories even though it is not conceptual in that regard but the sci-fi, temporal stuff is definitely appealing. Everything about the album is appealing, strong songs and all. Maybe that I don’t quite agree with the vocals but I think they are really great in Alien Frequency but maybe not so great in the rest of the album, but it is not bad either. Other than that I have no real niggles with this album, it is a strong showing.

The best showing can be heard in the second track Hypersleep and the fourth track Alien Frequency. I enjoy this album, it has a lot going for it and I think that no matter what kind of music you like it will probably appeal to you in some sense of the way. This of course mean that I can recommend this album to all of our readers. So, do you dare to enter the maelstrom?

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