siLLy puPPy
And for the 22nd release of BUCKETHEAD in the year 2022, the chicken lover throws another curve ball and revisits an old friend only in all instrumental form. ENTER THE CHICKEN INSTRUMENTALS has been released outside of the PIKE series and is sort of the companion album for the original ENTER THE CHICKEN album which was released all the way back in 2005. Unlike the original album which was released on Serj Tankian’s Serjical Strike label, this one is only available on BH’s Bandcamp age as a lossless digital recording.
Honestly i don’t see the point in instrumental versions of albums that feature lyrics. I’ve never been a fan and i almost always ignore such releases as they are nothing more than cash in on the diehards endeavors. Having said that even though i wasn’t keen on listening to this, i have to admit that these tracks do indeed make decent instrumentals even if not as awesome as were with the myriad vocalists that appeared on the original ENTER THE CHICKEN. The original is one of my favorite older BUCKETHEAD releases and the fact he teamed up with so much talent was a major plus, something sorely lacking in the PIKE series.
This one doesn’t feature twelve tracks like the original ENTER THE CHICKEN but rather only seven. This one is missing the “Intro,” “We Are One,” “Three Fingers,” “The Hand” and a short “Interlude.” It does feature the track “Shen Chi” which was only featured as a bonus track on later editions of ENTER THE CHICKEN. Actually there are a few vocals featured on this but only on the spoken word sample starting “Botnus,” one of BH’s most popular live tunes and for great reason, this one showcases BH’s guitar shredding abilities as well as a serious riffing machine.
This release is sort of cheating in the fact that both “Nottingham Lace” and “Shen Chi” were already instrumentals on the original ENTER THE CHICKEN so really there are only five stripped down vocalless selections. It seems odd to find an all-instrumental pick of tracks of a 17-year old album but considering BH just lost a bunch of expensive guitars perhaps he’s cashing in to replace them. While i was expecting to hate this instrumental album i was pleasantly surprised that it works somewhat although i still much prefer the original. Another glaring reality is that the material here makes many of the more recent PIKEs sound like generic crap. Luckily there aren’t a lot of vocal-filled BH albums so i doubt this will be a trend.