BUCKETHEAD — Pike 15 (review)

Album · 2013 · Metal Related

3/5 · 2016-06-23
siLLy puPPy

Originally PIKE 15 was only known as such with no secondary title attached amidst the rest of the PIKES that mostly carried a title but in the murky origins of the PIKE series this one got left out of the name game and was left to be known as PIKE 15 with only a hand drawn cover and untitled tracks. It was originally released on 8 June, 2013 but finally on 31 March, 2016 a new name was finally given and is now known as PIKE 15 - VIEW MASTER with a new dark cover of a barn door or something in a sea of brown and green and all 12 tracks have now been given proper song track titles. The album clocks in at 30:05 and while BH plays it all, Dan Monti and Albert produce this one

“Puzzle Box” (1:29) is a nice clean guitar arpeggiated number with no percussion but there is a second guitar. It’s a mellow instrumental intro basically

“Ran” (2:16) builds on the same melody as “Puzzle Box” and amplifies the guitars and adds bass and drums but remains simmering with a slow tempo and then turns into a raging alternative metal riff cruncher with thrashy overtones that becomes more thrashy and then lets a majorly melodic sizzling guitar solo rip. Very classic 80s metal sounding at the end

“Pullout Drawer” (1:56) is another slow unaccompanied clean guitar instrumental with a slow tempo and an intermittent echoed percussive beat alongside a regular light percussive beat

“Early Coin” (2:08) is another acoustic guitar number with two guitars joining in together to create a rather folky feel. The percussion joins in and it’s a very mellow track that’s mellow enough to be on a Crosby Stills and Nash album

“View Master” (3:17) begins with an echoed clean guitar effect and somewhat dissonant chords and an ambient noise slowly building strength. The avant-ambience slowly gets a slight percussive beat in the form of a second guitar keeping a marching rhythm while the other starts making weird ethereal squeals. Intensity picks up a little but the whole thing still comes off as something that could have been on Pink Floyd’s “Ummagumma” or some other 60s psychedelic freak folk bash

“First Day Of Autumn” (1:02) is yet another acoustic guitar number but this one is a happy uplifting melodic guitar track that becomes accompanied by a slow drum beat

“Find” (5:33) reverts back to the mellow space rock realms. It begins slowly but then a somewhat mid-tempo synth riff is accompanied by a slower tempo clean guitar lead. As it continues it has short bursts of silence, echoed guitar parts and electronic ambience to create a spaced out atmosphere. When it picks up again it has a bluesy Floydian guitar solo for a bit

“Dragon Shield” (2:23) is yet another acoustic guitar track with a stranger melody, stranger time sig delivery and feel. It picks up steam and tempo but remains an acoustic space rock track

“Big Little Book” (1:42) is another acoustic guitar with spacey ambient backings

“Stock” (1:41) is slightly more energetic and starts off with a strong drum beat and mid-tempo beat with clean guitar guitars and a laid back spacey melodic development

“Toys Of Jupiter” (1:03) is yet another mellow clean guitar track only this one is very dream pop in its approach and almost qualifies as a lullaby. It’s basically simply a guitar and ambient background

“Learn Circle” (5:31) is yet another spacey mellow acoustic guitar track with more emphasis on the ambient spaciness. The percussion is echoed and the tempo is slow. The melody seems a bit dissonant but followable. It does build up a bit to become a mellow rocker but the melody remains the same and this is one of those “Colma” type tracks

Basically a non-metal chill album with the exception of “Ran” which has some metal. This one is decently performed and there’s nothing bad on here but this PIKE doesn’t blow me away either. It’s simply a middle of the road type of BUCKETHEAD experience