BUCKETHEAD — Giant Robot (review)

Album · 1994 · Alternative Metal

4/5 · 2015-04-27
siLLy puPPy

We start off with a short intro that explains the origin of BUCKETHEAD. A kid simply asks “Who is BUCKETHEAD?” The father (i presume) explains that he is a guy who was raised in a chicken coop and that without the BUCKET on his head he is totally helpless. Welcome to another chapter of the strange world of BUCKETHEAD and on the second solo album GIANT ROBOT we get one of his better early releases. After the short intro we get a frenetic “Welcome To Bucketheadland” sizzling guitar solo which leads into a hard rocker remnant of an 80s metal throwback that sounds like it would fit nicely on an Ozzy Osbourne album. Randy Rhoads has been cited as a major influence.

On “I Come In Peace” we get a sampling intro followed by an AOR sounding bit before it changes into exciting power chord metal with a narration about a 50 ft man with a chicken bucket on his head who is attacking Tokyo with an enormous guitar that purportedly when a note is played, the sonic waves topple entire buildings. The chorus is a reassuring response “I Come In Peace.” This is an awesome track that exemplifies the fantasy amusement park world that BUCKETHEAD has built up over the years. The bit about his liberating all the enslaved chickens and leading them to Mt. Fuji is hilarious!

As with many BUCKETHEAD releases we get lots of guest musicians on board. Bootsy Collins from his Praxis days is here but there are no less than 15 guest musicians including Iggy Pop, Sly Dunbar (of Sly & Robbie), Jerome Brailey (Parliament, Funkadelic) and actor Bill Moseley. There are as many styles on board here as there are guests. The heavy metal element is only one style making its way into the mix. There is a strong emphasis on funk, jazz fusion, progressive rock, ambient and just plain weird experimental elements. There is first and foremost an emphasis on humor and of course chickens! “Want Some Slaw” is a avant-metal piece that dishes out some serious proggy time sigs and a constant narrative teasing that emphatically declares “BUCKETHEAD’s a psycho.”

There are plenty of short little ditties as well as fully developed constructed songs. They mix and mingle creating a collage effect of different and seemingly unrelated styles and ideas with his virtuosic guitar playing being used fairly sparingly in unexpected places. “Warweb” is a strange guitarless symphonic string track with a kid semi-singing like Laurie Anderson where he rants on about being lost with BUCKETHEAD. Other notable tracks include: “Buckethead’s Chamber Of Horrors” which is a bombastic industrial metal vs symphonic classical piece where the styles alternate, the strange electronically altered vocal track “Chicken,” the tender acoustic “I Love My Parents” (a style that would find whole albums like “Electric Tears” and “Colma”), the super funky “Robot Transmission,” which displays his unique robot funk guitar soloing, the electronic reworking of “Pirate’s Life For Me” from the Disneyland ride and the metal version of the “Star Wars” theme!

This album is one of BUCKETHEAD’s more eclectic releases and it is simultaneously accessible and plain weird for most of this wild ride. There are just too many things going on to mention. While the creativity is turned up to 11 on this one and is clearly a major step up from “Bucketheadland” there are still some parts that wear out their welcome and perhaps a few tracks could have either been trimmed down a bit or nixed altogether and some of the dialogue is a little lame at times, however this is a solid BUCKETHEAD release that anybody even remotely interested in him at his most untamed should check out. There is plenty of really, really cool and strange music to be had on GIANT ROBOT, making it a very solid and weeeiiirrrd release.

more than 2 years ago
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siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

There's a lot to choose from! Every album is completely different. Some are much better than others. Start out with Monsters & Robots. It's one of his best