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BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 44

3rd album out of 60 in 2014 and 74th overall

All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental

This one has 13 tracks that clock in at 29:44

"You Can't Triple Stamp a Double Stamp" (2:27) begins with a church organ and then breaks into extreme heavy metal with frantic distorted guitar and bass and pummeling drum action. Caustic and unhinged to the max. As the metal drops out it has a strange hyperly plucked guitar with less energetic drums. Wow. This is excellent!

"Avalanche" (2:03) is another brilliantly super friggin’ fast metal behemoth with guitar strings being plucked at a million meters per second and the chord and melodic progression being slightly alternative in a progressive sludge metal type of way. Another cool track

"Cripes" (1:46) begins with heavy guitars fading in and out quickly and then jumps into heavy spastic metal. It has a progressive time sig approach with a thrash metal delivery system on speed. It also has the cool dynamic range that ups and downs the volume of the distortion at various moments. Quick and to the point. Excellent

"Silent City" (2:30) alternates weird jangly clean dissonant chords with super heavy dissonant sludgy adrenaline fueled guitar riffing. The drums are just as energetic as the bass and guitar. Lovein’ this one as whell. Nice weird progressive ending. It’s all proggy and headbangin!

"Treedotted Hillside" (1:44) starts out as a volume control exercise of taking a chord and playing with its ups and downs and then erupts into a extremely heavy riff based metal behemoth

"Wormfarm" (1:50) i love worms and have always wanted to start a worm farm. What am i waiting for? Worms rule! This is a very strange piece that has an angular rhythmic approach with lead guitar and after establishing itself bursts out into frenetic heavy metal

"Prominent Ghosts" (3:18) is yet another super fast and heavy metal rocker. Nice thrash riffage, nice stop and go staccato features which incorporate all the drums, bass and guitar. When it mellows for a moment it is very dissonant in a hyper type of progressive atmospheric sludge post metal way. It picks up again in full fury. I love it!!!! Ghosts are as cool as worms

"Flickering Lights" (2:03) has a very strange time sig presentation. This displays BH’s full-on regalia in the progressive realm as well as the heaviest headbangin’ metal he has to offer. There is also a nice atmospheric keyboard part at times to smooth out the madness. Another winner

"Extra Gloves" (2:18) slows things down but still offers a strange somewhat dissonant jazzy semi-distorted groove while a heavy metal riff joins and then overtakes. The metal riff becomes a jangle chord and then jumps into extreme heaviness again. Possibly the most extreme and fast track on the album. Merciless and brutal and heavy as a lead-lined brick collection on the Titanic

"Portrait Gallery" (2:31) pretty much follows suit with jangly arpeggios and an extremely brutal metal guitar delivery with time sigs bursting out of their holding cells just bouncing back and forth like insane asylum escapees. Freaking cool outro

"Tea and Strumpets" (2:10) slows things down a bit with a more expected alternative metal type of riff but doesn’t stay that way too long and jumps into a thrash metal extravaganza that reminds me of the later heavier parts of “One” by Metallica. It then jumps into strange guitar jangly licks that are dissonant and jazzy. It then goes back to extreme thrashy mode

"By The Moon" (1:58) is the mellowest track at least in intro when BH combines echoey effects with extreme thrashy aggression and then slows things down to simply an echo guitar part and then back to thrashy however this isn’t breakneck speed thrash. This is more like the standard alternative metal affair on many releases. The slow parts display full dissonant chord structures in action

"Snow Owl" (3:06) continues on the slower side. It does pick up but would be more suited on the alternative metal albums, well, until it starts picking up steam and turns into a thrash metal number that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Megadeth album. OK, not bad but not terribly original either

This is a really good BUCKETHEAD PIKE if you like both hardcore intensity and experimental features. This is satisfying on an intensity level as well as a creative one. This album is a prime example of why i sift through this PIKE series despite countless duds. I have to work for the cream of the crop but when i get there i am so very happy to have finally found a treasure in the slunk stack. If you like avant-garde extreme metal that isn’t too far removed from reality then you will love this PIKE. Not perfect but very close