Stigma |
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There’s something simple about this EP that quickly perks up my ears. That something is that it feels like years since I last listened to a struggling hard rock band that didn’t sound purely like a dreadful imitation of everything before it. So when these songs kick in, it really grabs my attention. You see, I always liked the big riffs when they were done well, but I feel like I’ve been scared away from the genre by too many bad gigs, and gradually these sounds have been lost from my aural diet.
So credit to Stigma because their second EP Bronx Cheer is a well constructed wrecking ball of music that is at its best when charging forth with guitars roaring, as in ‘Even Dead Cats Bounce’ and ‘Season of the Bitch’. Admittedly the thundering riffs have already led an exotic life over the past 30 years of rock, but the execution and structures presented here gives them an easy passing grade.
Where Stigma do fall down is that lyrically the songs often find themselves walking along a more clichéd path then necessary. Be it accidental or deliberate, when the feel of a song is stoner-rock, as is ‘You’re a Sinner Now, Babe’, then the words generally fall into the trap of traditional stoner-rock content. It’s a shame because it makes it tougher to grapple a real emotional connection from the EP. However, when judging Stigma purely for the sounds, then there is plenty of ability and potential present.
Steven McCarron
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