BUCKETHEAD — Pike 298 - Robes of Citrine (review)

BUCKETHEAD — Pike 298 - Robes of Citrine album cover

Album · 2021 · Non-Metal

3/5 · 2021-11-12
siLLy puPPy

Hello, kiddies! Are you ready for another wild adventure in BUCKETHEAD’s FunHouse located smack dab in the middle of BUCKETHEADLAND? Well, hold on to your seat felts, ladies and gents, because we are going for another ride on the PIKE machine! Oh yeah, this is the 298th installment in the PIKE universe in a perpetual musical time loop that never seems to end. Are we lucky or are we cursed? Like everything in the real world, the answer lies somewhere in between!

First of all you may be wondering what the friggy wiggy does the title of PIKE 298 - ROBES OF CITRINE mean? Well, CITRINE is a color most commonly used in the identification of quartz. O guess ROBES look good in this color? Did BH join a secret society? Oh the things i ponder~! Why the cover art shows a pre-school painting of deformed eggplant is beyond my ability to guess, but this is BUCKETHEADLAND where nothing is as it seems and only the unexpected should be expected! On to our main attraction.

This PIKE is somewhat short at only 26 minutes and 32 seconds. There are two parts to the title track but as you already can surmise, it’s one big friggin track in disguise. TITLE TRACK PART ONE is the longest. It starts out sounding like some sort of techno music! For those in the know, the kind you would hear at the Burning Man festival with lots of cool production sheet and a danceable beat however the track morphs into a slow burning atmospheric generator with cyclical guitar riffing that remains subdued with only occasional outbursts. Is the song justified for its over 16-minute length? Nah, not really. It’s ok and makes great background music as do many BH PIKEs but by no means the cream of the coop. This one is more about the ambience and atmospheric swirli-rama than BH guitar wankery. While i find many slower BH material boring, this one has enough subtle elements to warrant a DECENT tag.

TITLE TRACK PART TWO pretty much continues the chill pill feel of PART ONE although i was hoping for a scorching thrash metal amp exploder!!! BH has mellowed out this year and all those PIKEs of the past where multiple genres coincide happily don’t seem to apply in 2021. This is another mellow ambient sleepwalker sorta like the soundtrack for getting up in the middle of the night and taking a piss! You know, we really needed that, hehe. This one is not only shorter at just over ten minutes but also is more mellow. This one is more like the countless similar examples in the PIKE universe and although the swirling background ambience makes it more interesting than previous efforts, this is still fairly well documented in the PIKE universe. Remember that bathroom breaks are needed in BUCKETHEADLAND and this very well may be the proper time to let your excretions out!

Overall this is a pleasant PIKE. These chill pill PIKEs are my least favorite overall and i really can’t explain why some work and some don’t. This one does to some degree but there’s nothing here that will rock your friggin socks off either. This is just a well produced mellow PIKE that eschews metal, rock and even percussion for the sake of a nice ambient trip that incorporates guitars. Not nearly as cool as the Halloween countdown of 2015 but nevertheless not bad either. Probably not one i will return to anytime soon (if ever) but certainly not one that made me feel like i wasted 26 minutes and 32 seconds of my life.

Although this PIKE doesn’t exactly make me want to join the secret society of the PIKE masters, nevertheless may YOUR ROBES be CITRINE!!!