BUCKETHEAD — Pike 217 - Pike Doors (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 217 - Pike Doors album cover Album · 2015 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
PIKE 217 - PIKE DOORS is the 116th album released by BUCKETHEAD in 2015 which is another all instrumental album exclusively played by BUCKETHEAD. The album dons one of my favorite PIKE album covers with a creepy BUCKETHEAD passing through a hall of doors. Ooooo. Scary! This one clocks in at 30:28 and has three tracks called “Door.”

“Door One” (17:40) shows this album as one of those slow and ambient releases. It has a dominant ambient synthesizer utilizing some thick atmosphere while a guitar gently plucks and strums and echoes and caresses treble notes. This one has a melodic development although it’s slow in its unraveling. This track alone is about 2/3 of the album so it has plenty of time to take its time. Approaching the four minute mark the mood suddenly changes with a highly melodic guitar lick taking the stage and steering the musical development accompanied by tribal drumming percussion. The melody is pretty catchy, one of the most so i’ve heard of these PIKEs and has a very Pink Floydian type of space rock delivery. If i didn’t know any better i’d swear Roger Waters was joining in! I have to admit that most of the time these slow jams just don’t do it for me but so catchy this one is with its perfect balance of space rock guitar, background ambience and hand drums that i’m totally hypnotized by its beauty. There is life after the Halloween countdown! Why’d it take so friggin’ long?!!!

“Door Two” (10:03) starts out a little rougher with power chords strutting alternating with silence and then joined in by a lead guitar. All is mid-tempo at first but picks up the pace a little bit with more distortion in the rhythm guitars, slightly faster lead guitar and a regular rock bass and drum combo. While this track is much more rockin’ it still maintains the space rock vibe of the first track only this clearly crosses over into space metal territory with its intensity. The solos can get blistering and quite fast. The solos go on for many minutes to the end but unlike many of the past ones i actually find this one works for some reason.

“Door Three” (2:45) starts out somewhere in between the pace of the other two tracks. Not as slow as the first and not as fast as the second. It has an echoey guitar that gets joined by a bass and drums and eventually lead guitar lick. Once again the melody is addictive with tastiness afoot, cool guitar riffs, excellent shredding skills and a melodic development that puts the most recent PIKEs to shame. This is one that ends too soon and i actually want more! That hasn’t happened in a while!

This is a great return to form. The melodies on this one make this a special one that actually deserves 4 stars. I just wish more of them were like this. When BUCKETHEAD misses, he misses badly but when he hits the target there is nothing better. Bullseye with this little gem.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed