BUCKETHEAD — Pike 259 - Undersea Dead City (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 259 - Undersea Dead City album cover

Album · 2017 · Alternative Metal

4/5 · 2017-04-02
siLLy puPPy

BUCKETHEAD (as Bucketheadland) / Pike 259 - Undersea Dead City / 16th release of 2017 / All instrumental / Contains 6 tracks / Clocks in at 28minutes 23seconds / everything played by Buck-buck-buckethead

“Undersea Dead City” (4:09) sounds as ominous as the title with heavily distorted grungy down-tuned guitar and bass with deep growly riffs churning about like an angry ocean reclaiming land from intruding civilizations. Between the heavy riffing blurt out guitar squeals and little solos from time to time and half way through the riffs drop out to expose a deep burly bass while a solo jumps around like a freely released chicken in the wind. Decently done track

“Region Of The Unreal” (6:04) begins slow and melancholy with clean echoey guitar with bass and slight cymbal percussion but then abruptly breaks into the heavier down-tuned grungy alternative metal riff session that utilizes some off-kilter time sigs and lets little leads erupt in strange intermissions. Riffing is progressive as well with different riff styles changing it up. The different parts are recurring but unfolds in complex patterns with unique sections appearing such as the totally left field slow down towards the end that takes a guitar lick and backs it up by some sort of ska type background. Cool track

“Mangled” (4:15) begins with a funky strut but also quite distorted and the bass is so fuzzy it will surely blow up some subwoofers. The guitar begins as a lick but also becomes quite distorted when it’s in the bass zone and frenetically fast when it ratchets up to the treble range. A cool solo that has strange intervals and time signatures in some sort of alternate tuplet mode adds a freakish dimension to the already tense compositional structure. Lovin’ the deep bass parts as they feel unstable like they’re ripping the atoms out of matter

“Odor Of Book” (5:05) begins frenetically with a jittery lick / riff assault also down-tuned and heavily distorted. The riff is a bit more catchy than previous tracks but quickly breaks down into different riffing styles focused on deep bass grunge with solos added in every so often. Nice pick scrapes and changing up the mid zone riffs. This one has a nice compositional style as it changes things up just enough to make it interesting

“Moonlit Decay” (5:21) starts a bit different than the rest. This begins with a steady bass and drumbeat and a sort of funky guitar riff that is clean and restrained but then it all slows down and changes into a softer subdued sound. As expected from the “Moonlit” in the title, this remains soft and sensual with clean guitar and no distortion whatsoever but it does have more of a mid tempo speed that keeps it from getting too dreamy. Tones and timbres aside, this one is much less adventurous than the rest and is one of those by-the-numbers type of tracks but decently done. Doesn’t detract from the mood and when BH sticks to one of these tracks instead of a whole album it works much better

“Visitor From Tomb” (3:29) jumps back into the down-tuned alternative grunge attack with more jittery time sigs and heavy churning riffs. It goes down the same path as the majority of tracks on this one with the riffs alternating with licks and leads however there is a lot of time dedicated to reverb dynamics which is pretty cool.

This PIKE is pretty cool. Just “alternative” enough in all the right ways. Heavy, catchy and creative and decently accessible for those who don’t like to get too wild. A nice balance of accessible and experimental and if you love raw and filthy dirty sounding down-tuned guitar and bass action, then this PIKE is for you