Bigelf - "Cheat the Gallows"

Bigelf
"Cheat the Gallows"
Custard Records
Released 2008

In continuing to recap Dream Theater's excellent Progressive Nation concert I saw on Saturday, here is my latest musical discovery from the show.

Bigelf is a schizophrenic, psychedelic, stoner rock band from LA - blending doom metal sludge with classic prog and Beatle-esque pop - in addition to nods to at least a half dozen bands from the early '70s.

Singer Damon Fox looks like Ian Anderson, sporting a footlong beard, top hat and cape while playing twin organs - the only thing missing was the flute and his voice is reminiscent of eccentric British rocker Roy Wood.

Indeed, much of the album is a game of "name that musical allusion," it's entirely possible there isn't an original musical idea on "Cheat the Gallows," (even the Beatles-meets-metal concept was done 20 years ago by King's X) yet it all sounds fresh when mixed together by these stoner-rock upstarts.

"Cheat the Gallows" is one of the most fun albums I've heard in quite a while, from the stomping "Blackball," which builds on a driving mellotron riff that harks back to King Crimson's first album, to "The Evils of Rock and Roll," which somehow musically marries "Black Sabbath" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" before building to a Keith Emerson-esque organ solo. "The Game" sounds like a lost T-Rex track while "Superstar" wouldn't sound out of place on a KISS album.

What's makes it all work is that Bigelf takes music that took itself too seriously in 1970 and makes it fun without making it funny. This isn't metal to bang your head, or prog to ponder the complexity of the time signatures, it's over-the-top rock and roll that is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.