BUCKETHEAD — Pike 155 - Ancient Lens (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 155 - Ancient Lens album cover

Album · 2015 · Alternative Metal

3.5/5 · 2015-11-28
siLLy puPPy

PIKE 155 - ANCIENT LENS is the 54th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015. As is all too familiar by now all of the following are in fact true: the chicken lover plays all the instruments, this release is in accord with the PIKE series and hovers near the half hour mark at 28:31 and this is an all instrumental album that contains three tracks.

The title track begins the whole thing and at 13:59 is the longest of the three pretty much engulfing half the entire running time. This track starts out with a spacey ambient sound effect and then kicks in a spacey echoey guitar, bass line and drums. All is played really slow and the emphasis is on the spacey effect on the guitar that has a mutant sort of wah-wah going on. Sounds pretty cool actually. It slowly builds up into a more mid-tempo rocker but that strange and pleasant space sound sticks around. Musically this is basically another one of those long jams but when there are weird sounds involved i’m much more interested than generic metal that has been done to death! The spacey sonicity seems to also have sort of a talk box effect mixed in. Very strange distortion on guitar. I’m thinking i might like this slunk! I even like how the rocking parts work together. The drums sound real even if they may not be. The syncopation at times is pleasing. Yeah, definitely diggin’ this one.  “Fossilized Dunce Cap” at 9:13 is perhaps one of the coolest titles for a song ever! But how is the music that matters? Let me tell ya! Starts out as a heavy metal rocker but the guitars have a strange distortion and it sounds like the bass and guitar are in a very alternative tuning of some sort. Tuned way down that is. Not exactly doom metal but doomy in an alternative kinda way! Heavy riffing and nice drum beat although i think it’s a drum machine. The guitar chugs are very metallic sounding. Some new effect that sounds pretty cool. Wow. I think i’m liking two tracks in a row. Somebody slap me and make sure i’m awake! Some electronica riffing eventually works its way in or at least a new effect that might be a synthesized guitar. The synthesized sounds alternate with the more grungy metal riffs and occasional solos that are interesting as well. I find this one pleases me a bunch.

“2 x 6” at 5:19 is perhaps the only track i can recall that utilizes a mathematical equation but i’m sure there must be others that i have heard. This starts pretty much like the last one with some guitar effect riff that has a synthesized edge on it. This one is more of an alternative bluesy rocker in a way but is basically sounding like the last track for the most part which i’m finding to be to much redundancy. Luckily it’s the shortest track and it still sounds pretty good but still would prefer something different. Also the drum machine is more noticeable as this one is cheesy. Not liking this one really. Does have some decent parts here and there.

2 out 3 ain’t bad and they’re even the long ones! Something about the quirkiness on this one really works for me. The time sigs are jittery and spastic, the tones and effects are really cool and nothing sounds like i’ve heard it a million times already even though the basic metal jamming focus is pretty much in the same vein of all the PIKES which only goes to show how just a little frosting on a stale cake can go a long way ;)