The Importance of Bigwig

In keeping with the bands-I've-discovered theme I suddenly remembered after my last post that I had discovered another hardcore band earlier this year and neglected to write about it. We can't have that – you could all be missing out on something here.

Bigwig are/were (depending on their current activities) a hardcore band from Noo Joisey and again were brought to my attention by Google Play Music. This time it was a “people who like this also like this” kind of affair after listening to Madball.

There are four albums of melodic hardcore brilliance to whet your music palette.

First is Un-Merry Melodies which in all fairness isn't amazing, but it's the kind of thing anyone who likes punk or hardcore could listen to and not be offended by. The cover of the Cheers theme and The Girl in the Green Jacket are exceptional songs though and the two things that made me move on through their discography.

Stay Asleep followed and represented a much-improved Bigwig. There were claims by some fans that the drumming on Un-Merry Melodies was shit (I don't necessarily disagree with this, but I've heard a lot worse), but no such claims can be made here. The band sound much tighter and it makes me wonder whether their debut album was a bit of a rushed job. This, however, is full of memorable hardcore bro-down singalong anthems like Freegan, Smile, Sellout and the fantastic Friends which is as close to a hardcore ballad as you'll ever get.

And then came Invitation to Tragedy. Closer to a perfect album you'll not come, not just within hardcore but any genre. From the off it's pedal to the metal and it has everything: great riffs, powerful breakdowns, melody, shouting, speed and great musicianship. It would be hard to pick a winner from the 13 songs on offer and I would recommend a listen to the whole damn thing. It's only just over half an hour, so it's not like I'm robbing you of much time. Black Train Jack probably listen to this record and wish that they'd made it, but their songs weren't quite as good, sadly.

The last release was 2006's Reclamation. Thanks to them reaching near-perfection with their previous effort this is always going to be the silver medallist. That doesn't mean it's not bloody good though, because it is. From belting opener, A War Inside, through the aggression of Cross and Burn, the harmonic guitars of Follow the Leader, the heaviness of Timebomb (with a chunky riff that reminds of Owner of a Lonely Heart for some reason) and ending with singalong-worthy No Thought, No Spine, it's a tour de force of what modern hardcore should be like. It's no disappointment that they sound a little like Rise Against in places either.

There's one more track of theirs I've unearthed and it's from a compilation album called Punk Goes Metal. It's a cover of Slayer's War Ensemble and it's quite simply brilliant. Enjoy.