BUCKETHEAD — Pike 27 - Halls Of Dimension (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 27 - Halls Of Dimension album cover

Album · 2013 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2016-07-11
siLLy puPPy

PIKE 27 - HALLS OF DIMENSION is the 17th album released by the prolific BUCKETHEAD in the year 2013 when he went for broke and started releasing albums like a hen lays eggs. This one hatched out at the 32:03 mark contains 8 tracks and takes us into the experimental rock realms where BH performs the instruments and his buds Dan Monti and Albert handle the production. This is his 57th solo studio album overall and has one of my favorite album cover designs of the whole PIKE series. BUCKETHEAD is at his best in the land of weird, wild and the unexpected. This PIKE is a nice sampling of his eclectic style and a nice break from the previous (mostly) mediocrity. Some tracks blend into each other and it can be hard to distinguish them

"McDougal Street" (7:39) begins with progressively timed clean guitar riffs and then breaks into a blues guitar riff with a nice bass and drum accompaniment. This one is somewhat funky and unleashes a stellar blues track like the old timers only with some nice wah-wah to spice it up. The track is well paced with just enough zest by changing up the subtleties to make this a very hapnin’ cool cat. I’m diggin’ this one more than the bone in the backyard

"Halls of Dimension Part One - Hall 1" (3:37) starting the “Hall” countdown we get a metal riffy electronic percussion thang going on. The bass is really cool as it has a cool timbre. There are interesting guitar fills and the electronic embellishments playing with the guitar, bass and drums is quite interesting. The basic melodic development is very bluesy but the delivery is outstanding. There are classical guitar fills, alternative metal riffs that trade off with sizzling solos and more. I love this 1!

"Hall 2" (3:18) jumps into a sound like an power line buzz with heavy breathing joined in by a bluesy guitar riff / lead. This is a strange collage of sounds going on that mix but then suddenly all music ceases a church bell chimes with some dialogue and then back to a strange electronic drum beat with strange guitar and other effects. It becomes more metal for a while but becomes a drone electronic hum for a while. This one is pretty cool actually. Totally unpredictable and constantly changing it up. This one even has some chicken clucking in the mix!!!

"Hall 3" (3:23) this one kind of blends in with the previous track and slightly changes gear into a metal riff that has an atmospheric background and nice heavy groove. It basically trades off electronica with heavy grungy metal with an overall bluesy feel but there are lots of other little surprises along the way

"Hall 4" (2:07) starts out ambient and then gets joined by a drumbeat and then a dreadful doomy guitar and keeps a mid-tempo pace for a while then breaks into a heavy lead guitar and metal riffage

"Hall 5" (3:42) also starts out ambient but then breaks into a funky flamenco type of guitar style that is also very classical at the same time. Very cool and very well performed as BH is at full speed strutting his guitar playing stuff but as expected it stops and becomes a dissonant electronica thing before breaking into a scorching heavy metal guitar solo thing and then a ultra-low bass thang. It basically just keeps changing things up. Very cool track

"Part Two - Falling Through the Vacuum" (5:51) blends with the previous track and pretty much follows the same formula. Electronic ambience suddenly bursts into heavy metal lead guitar with a doom bass accompaniment. On this one bluesy guitar leads sing in harmony with strange electronica and weird background modified vocalizations. This one is particularly energetic in the guitar solo department

"Sun Set" (2:26) is an energetic metal riff monster from the beginning. Thrashy and in-yer-face with lots of sliding action. It becomes more of a stop and go affair in the alternative metal department but picks up with Metallica type thrash metal. It’s a short but sweet number

This is a fairly satisfying PIKE. There is more than enough variation and energy to make this a very cool album indeed. Although it tends to attempt to create continuity on certain tracks, it nonetheless entertains with startling surprises and is quite the amusing parade of musical ideas that are the specialty of BUCKETHEAD and his ever expanding musical output into the stratosphere