Bigwig – Reclamation

It’s been a long wait, almost four years in fact, but New Jersey’s finest are back with their fourth album Reclamation; and while I’m not sure what Bigwig was up to during that break other than relentless touring, but whatever they did it all accumulated to this: their reclamation of the street-punk thrown.

Bigwig haven’t done anything on here that you haven’t heard before. It’s quick, fast, simple, angry street punk topped off with gritty vocals being spat at you at high speeds. The entire album is a lot more technical, as they test out quicker riffs and bigger breakdowns. This is most evident with the spectacular introduction to the album-titled track – which brings up visions of Protest The Hero‘s guitar work.

The album itself is not incredibly catchy, but more of an agitated onslaught in vein of the now defunct Closet Monster. Similarly once again to their brothers to the north, Bigwig have taken a much more political spin to the album than their previous works. Almost every song is about war and death (Now put em in a body bag and ship em to their wives – Outer Rings). They sing songs of revolutions like A War Inside which shouts out “For so long we slave under the gun/ and this war inside is never won/ I have always sworn that I won’t conform/ I refuse to suffer anymore“. They do vary it up a bit with songs about partying till the sun rises up again (Last Song, Last Call) and not conforming to society’s needs and expectations in No Thought, No Spine, but politics and war still seems to be the main theme throughout 90% of the album.

While this little political change sounds good and comes through with sincerity, it’s slightly harder to appreciate at times simply due to the fact that, for me anyway, Bigwig will always be the band that complains about an old lady smashing their car, their friends being jerks, and the masterminds behind one of my all time favorite songs about a girl in a green jacket. Nevertheless, if you put that little ideal behind you, you’re sure to find great amusement in Reclamation. And I, for one, can’t wait to see them reclaim the stage in March on this year’s Frostbite Tour to see them spit these songs out live for us to devour.