Music

Prog Rockers Bigelf Return With Ex-Dream Theater Drummer Mike Portnoy

Published

11 years ago

April 4, 2013

Prog rock band Bigelf has returned after several years of silence! The group has signed with Inside Out Music and will be releasing a new album later this year. The album will feature Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater) on drums and Duffy Snowhill on bass guitar.

Frontman Damon Fox has written a lengthy explanation detailing the past few years of the band, which you can read below. We also had the pleasure of chatting with Fox back in 2010. You can read the interview here.

“Finally! Bigelf lands on a planet whose atmosphere is synonymous with progressive rock and heavy metal. One of my all-time favourite quotes is, ‘Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid…’
I’m ecstatic that InsideOut/Century Media and Mike Portnoy have joined ‘forces’ with Bigelf.

First, I want to elaborate on what has been happening ‘inside’ the band since 2010, there have been numerous rumours on the internet that I fired everyone in Bigelf, this is completely untrue.

After the juggernaut of ‘Cheat The Gallows’ came to a halt, the business and personal infrastructure of Bigelf imploded and an unexpected hiatus occurred leaving the band in complete disarray. A myriad of personal, financial and domestic matters had enveloped myself as well as certain members of the group. There also comes a time when deep down inside it just doesn’t feel right anymore, and one has to face the music that the end is near. Transparency no longer exists and with that, clarity and perspective are lost. I’m speaking for myself now but clearly this was a mutual feeling and I believe it was obvious amongst the band. Subsequently, Ace Mark decided to move on and left Bigelf in the summer of 2011, and a request by the remaining members for a dissolution of business followed. To put it simply, we went our separate ways without malice.

I had been keeping in close touch with Mike Portnoy after his very public and difficult departure from Dream Theater. At this time, my musical future seemed quite bleak and I was very vocal to Mike about not being able to sustain the band any longer on my own. He implored me to carry on and to not let Bigelf slip away, his encouragement and enthusiasm meant the world to me. Recognizing that I needed some new allies, I asked him if he would help fight the good fight and lend his extraordinary drum majesty to the new Bigelf record and he readily agreed. Also…sharing a passion for all things rock & roll, my good friend Duffy Snowhill climbed aboard the Viking ship for another round of thundering bass guitar and for that too I am grateful.

I also want to acknowledge our amazing and dedicated fans that send emails all the time saying how they feel about Bigelf. These emails inspire me greatly and they’re the reason that I continue to play this kind of music, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can’t wait for everyone to hear the new wondrous landscapes we’ve been sculpting, there are lots of surprises around the corner, stay tuned.”

Got any thoughts/questions/concerns for Jonathan Barkan? Shoot him a message on Twitter or on Bloody-Disgusting!

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…